Sepia Saturday 55 - Christmas and the Empire, c.1898

My blog entry for the Christmas Sepia Saturday is causing my normally ordered mind some internal grief ... it's not Saturday, my posting is not sepia, it's not festive and although it's not a postcard I'm putting it on my vintage postcard blog. The reason for breaking all 4 unwritten rules is that I was inspired by the word 'Empire' in Alan's post. I can't have looked through my childhood stamp collection for years, but the vivid memory I had of this stamp was overwhelming. It took a while to find it but I had at least remembered it came from Canada, which narrowed it down a bit.

Actually, since starting this write-up I realised that I have in fact, albeit accidentally, not broken one of the rules. Something I had never noticed before until I scanned the stamp was that it infact is a Christmas stamp, from 1898. The 'empire' link was obviously more memorable to me with the wording 'We Hold A Vaster Empire Than Has Been'. This is not meant to be a jingoistic post, but more a reflection on our history, and the importance placed on 'empire' by many nations at the time. Perhaps I should do a follow-up in the New Year called 'The Empire Strikes Back', to reflect the decline of the Empire and the quest for independence from it.

1898 Christmas stamp from Canada, 'We Hold a Vaster Empire Than Has Been'