Beautiful Netherlands stamp sheetlet celebrates historic Dutch country houses
30 January 2012 at 15:15 CET - The Hague – Today PostNL is presenting two stamp sheetlets featuring historic Dutch country houses. 2012 is the Year of the Historic Country House, charming cultural heritage sites that are being celebrated by PostNL with the issue of stamp sheetlets Beautiful Netherlands Mattemburgh and Amstenrade. These heritage residences, surrounded by gardens or parks, were built between the 17th and 19th century by wealthy city dwellers in nearby countryside locations.
Mattemburgh
The Mattemburgh Historic Country House stamp sheetlet is dominated by two large, square, evenly sized colour photos. The photo on the left shows the main building at Mattemburgh, the imposing neo-Classical manor, overlooked by a statue of David. The photo on the right is of the orangery, used to house potted plants during the winter.
Amstenrade
The Amstenrade Historic Country House stamp sheetlet is also dominated by two large, square, evenly sized colour photos. The photo on the left, showing the wing of the brick-built main building, was taken from the park at an angle that provides a good view of the corner tower. The photo on the right is of the Chinese bedroom, so called because it is decorated with wall covering depicting Chinese scenes.
Some 600 of these Dutch country houses are still standing today, a mere 10% of the more than 6,000 that used to exist. Issuing Beautiful Netherlands stamp sheetlets on the theme of country houses is an initiative of PostNL in close collaboration with the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency and the Country House Theme Year 2012 Foundation. The Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency aims to protect and preserve heritage, archaeological and cultural landscape sites of national or international significance.
The stamps feature a Chameleon-code. This code can be read by means of a smart phone with the Chameleon eXplorer app, well known from Golden Earring stamp. After reading the code, the smart phone will present more information about the historic country houses in question. The app can be downloaded at http://www.postnl.nl/voorthuis/klantenservice/app/.
The stamps are available while stocks last from the Collect Club in Groningen, online at www.postnl.nl/collectclub. The stamps are valid until further notice. The Amstenrade sheetlet is available from sales outlets in the Schinnen area and the Mattemburgh sheetlet in the Woensdrecht area.
In case of discrepancies between the Dutch and English versions of this press release, the Dutch version will prevail.
About PostNL
PostNL processes 8.7 billion addressed postal items (including 106 million parcels) each year and delivers to addresses in the Benelux, Germany, the UK and Italy. PostNL’s main business is mail, parcels and e-commerce. The company also provides services in the area of data and document management, direct marketing and fulfilment. PostNL employs some 65,500 people. In 2011 the company generated a turnover of nearly 4.3 billion euros.