Australia Post immortalises Black Caviar on her own Postage Stamp - 10May 2013

It is Friday 10 May.  I'm up early to catch a plane to Melbourne for the weekend.  I've been waiting weeks to be able to post these images, which further immortalize the great champion, the Famous Pony, Black Caviar.  Australia Post today release a Black Caviar Postage Stamp.  The stamp features an image I took of Black Caviar during her 2012 autumn campaign.
Australia Post's 2013 Black Caviar Stamp.  It is being released today, Friday 10 May and will be officially launched on Saturday 11 May at the World Stamp Expo in Melbourne.  Stamp image by Bronwen Healy.

The stamp goes on sale today.  It will also be on display at the World Stamp Expo 2013.  The Expo is being held in Melbourne, on Friday 10 to 15th May, at the Royal Exhibition Centre on Nicholson Street.

Black Caviar is the epitome of an Affair of The Heart. Affairs such as these are rarely logical. And they frequently don't make sense. They revolve around what your heart wants to do. Not what you know you logically and sensibly ought to do. About knowing that you know better. But doing it anyway.  She makes me smile at the very funny video someone posted about the illogical business of buying a racehorse.

As I wait at Canberra airport, for the now familiar flight to Melbourne and my cup of tea, I look dubiously at the handle on my old camera bag. It is half off. Having lost a screw recently and it wobbles. I wonder if it will last another trip and make a mental note to order the new one, because I only just got the handle to agree to come up again, and it's too heavy to carry.

The stamp is different to the 2012 Australia Post Black Caviar Sheetlet Pack, because Black Caviar was not actually on a stamp itself with that release, so this item is completely new and unique, and is a great honour to the unbeaten world champion.  She joins turf legends Phar Lap, Carbine, Peter Pan, Bernborough, Tulloch, Sunline, Saintly and Might and Power as the only racehorses to be immortalised on a postage stamp.  The Black Caviar stamp goes on sale in Post Office outlets today, Friday 10 May 2013.  The Black Caviar stamp follows Saintly as my 2nd image to be used on an Australia Post stamp.

The Black Caviar Stamp will be officially launched at the Stamp Expo on Saturday 11 May at a special event at 10.45am.  I have been invited to the launch, and have also been asked to attend a signing session for collectors the following day.

The World Stamp Expo will feature:

Black Caviar – The Perfect Run exhibition

For the very first time, all of the trophies won by champion mare, Black Caviar will be on show to the public at the World Stamp Expo, along with racing silks and the saddle used by her jockey, Luke Nolen. 
The exhibit includes The Perpetual Trophy won at Royal Ascot in June 2012 when Black Caviar burst forward to win a race that had a nation holding its breath. 
The exhibit will be housed in the Australia Post purpose built stand and will offer visitors to the show a glimpse into the fascinating world of a horse that was born to win and the people who believed she could. 
Part of the World Stamp Expo celebrations will be the announcement of a special stamp issue release.
On Sunday 12 May, I will again be at the World Stamp Expo, between 11am and 1.00pm, in the Australia Post Designer Gallery, with the Designer of the Stamp, David Cain, for a signing session.  There will also be some special versions of the stamp being digitally printed at the show.  I believe these special items will have a white border, and are only avilable at the show, and are quite special to philatelists.  

So if you are in Melbourne and want to get copies of the Black Caviar stamp, it is sounding like a fun event.  It never occurred to me that anyone would want a copy of their stamp signed by the photographer who took the image, but there you go, Australia Post have asked me to do it, and I'm happy to do so.  It makes me wonder whether I will see faces in the crowd that I know, and who will come.  Perhaps not because they ought to, or ought not to. But because they wanted to.

I'll fly home on a 3.30pm flight, back to my awaiting children who come home that night, and what will be left of Mother's Day.  There will be further items being released soon, which I will announce here when able to.

I don't like to assume who will buy it.  I like to hope that anyone who held this great horse even slightly dear to their heart will make a trip to the post office and buy one.  It would be nice to hope that friends and family of mine will also feel it is special enough to buy one.  It is something that I feel immensely proud of, although not sharing it through the whole development and negotiation stage has continued to be difficult. 

Australia Post's 2013 Black Caviar Stamp.  It is being released today, Friday 10 May and will be officially launched on Saturday 11 May at the World Stamp Expo in Melbourne.  Stamp image by Bronwen Healy.

Australia Post's 2013 Black Caviar Stamp.  It is being released today, Friday 10 May and will be officially launched on Saturday 11 May at the World Stamp Expo in Melbourne.  Stamp image by Bronwen Healy.

Comments

  1. DelreneMay 10, 2013 at 10:57 AM

    She is just beautiful and you deserve all the success in the world. Enjoy your time at the celebration. She is an amazing horse. We love her in the U.S.A. (Just as much as Zenyatta and Rachel, and Hot Dixie Chick and all the wonderful mares. Thank you for this tribute to Black Caviar

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Image Is EverythingJune 5, 2013 at 6:34 PM

    Hello Delrene. I like that Nelly has a worldwide following, and that she's got her own Zenyatta like appeal. I'm glad you liked this piece. Bron.

    ReplyDelete

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