I tend to stay away from posting realms of pictures, but today I couldn’t help myself. RavenStamps is a collection of the most amazing postcards, envelope’s and stamps, all seemingly centred in and around Ireland and the British Isles.

The first letter above, posted in 1862, is just one of countless examples, all carefully scanned and detailed. Beautifully preserved.

I love the dirt on the edges, the cursive, the stamps. The detail, “Via Airplane, from Galway to London.” There was such pride in they way each one looked, and obviously time was taken to inform both the recipient, and the post man, where the letter had been and where it was heading for.

Who posted these, what were they saying? Who stamped them, loaded them into the mail bag? Who posted them, perhaps through an old iron letterbox, or better still handed them to a butler/servant?

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