Sweden’s yearly program is an easy one to write up. Not only does the post office offer images properly sized and beautifully scanned (which cuts down on the amount of prep work), the artists are easy to research and their Frimärken stamp magazine provides some decent details. After a few years of writing about Sweden’s stamps, I now have a decent little archive of info.  I’ll let you in on a secret, I LOVE collecting stamp release magazines, almost as much as I do stamps. They are usually chock-a-block full of details; I get all excited when a new one passes my desk.  And it’s usually where I find the high-quality cancels I share.  

I settled in this morning for a bit of history and design from Sweden and nothing epitomised the country more that the January Svensk Tenn 100 years
Design Classics stamp set. One of the stamps featured founder Estrid Ericson’s 1930 Elefant print, the only print she created in her long career. 

Estrid Ericson loved elephants, and the exotic animal is seen in several of her early creations, such as pewter boxes and figurines. So, when she found a piece of African, elephant patterned fabric on a flea market in Paris, she was naturally inspired to create her own version. 
Elefant Print | Estrid Ericson – Svenskt Tenn Online

It’s just one of 8 designs picked to represent Svensk Tenn’s history. You can read a bit more below. 

This year’s program includes, in no particular order:

• EUROPA Life in the Baltic Sea
• Elsa Beskow’s Garden
• Water Towers
• Coffee
• ABBA – 50 years of Waterloo
• Bridal Mittens
• Queen Silvia 2024
• Svensk Tenn 100 years
• Spring Birds
• Christmas Mail 2024
• Winter

11 sets of stamps, FDCs, collector’s sheets, souvenir sheets and some pretty fine post marks to hunt down. Although it’s a small program, there are a lot of details to share about both the stamps themselves and Sweden’s amazing “stable” of designers and illustrators they use. One of my favourite Swedish designers is Carina Länk so it was nice to see her return for 2 more issues. Her Swedish Porcelain stamps were one of the best stamps of 2021. 

Enjoy your trip to Sweden.
Catpaw

January 

Spring Birds
series: fauna

10 stamps, FDC, souvenir sheet
offset

A separate set of gift postage bags was also designed by Handell. The last time bags were offered i 2021, they sold out quickly.

Designer: Anna Handell

My work often carry a cunning quirky kind of character that gives the design a more soulful expression. The idea is to move the viewer to an emotional reaction PORTFOLIO & SHOP – Anna Handell, active graphic designer, illustrator, designer and artist

Handell supplied the art for Sweden’s 2022 EUROPA: Stories & Myths set Midsummer Myths. Her little birds appeared on a set of stamps for Åland post the previous year 

Release date: January 11, 2024

Svensk Tenn 100 years
Design Classics 
series: design 

8 stamps, 5 stamps on strip, 2 stamps on souvenir sheet, collector’s sheet
offset

Interior design company Svenks Tenn was started in 1924 by Estrid Ericson, an art teacher and pewter artist. 

Designs picked for these stamps showcased different artists and designers who created some of Svensk Tenn’s classics:

• Elefant (Elephant) textile pattern by Estrid Ericson
• Teheran print by Josef Frank 
• Vänskapsknuten (Friendship Knot) candelabra by Josef Frank 
• Lejon (Lion) sculpture in pewter by Anna Petrus 
• Myrten (Myrtle) teapot in pewter by Signe Persson-Melin
• Dagg (Dew) vase by Carina Seth Andersson
• Hawai by Josef Frank 
• Gren (Branch) brooch by Estrid Ericson

Being the subject of a series of stamps is in itself an honour, and for me it has been a pleasure in this digital world, to strike a blow for analogue communication between people. Who doesn’t appreciate receiving a handwritten postcard or letter with a beautiful stamp on it
Tom Hedqvist.

Designer: Tom Hedqvist
Hedqvist is a designer for Svenskt Tenn, and this is his first set of stamps.
Photographers: Svenskt Tenn and Lennart Nilson (souvenir sheet)

Release date: January 11, 2024

Queen Silvia 2024
series: royalty

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, collector’s sheet

Designer: Daniel Bjugård
Photographer: Anna-Lena Ahlström
Bjugård and Ahlström have teamed up to create a number of Swedish royalty stamps, starting with the 2015 Gustav and Silvia definitives.

Release date: January 11, 2024 

Bridal Mittens
series: tradition | history |crafts

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, collector’s sheet
offset

Blekinge mittens by Lina Odell. This is the second time Odell’s needlework has appeared on a Swedish stamp. She used a traditional Swedish folk-art style based on a pair of mittens in Karlshamns Museum.

Designer: Norbert Tamas
Tamas has designed numerous stamps for Swedish Post. His first stamp was Swedish Football Association in 2004. 
Photographer: Per Myrehed
Myrehed’s photographs have been featured on 4 stamp sets, starting with the 2015 EUROPA: Old Toys stamp. Per also supplied photos or the April ABBA stamps.

Release date: January 11, 2024 

April

ABBA – 50 years of Waterloo
series: making me feel old

3 stamps, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel
offset with foil  

Designer: Eva Wilsson
Like so many of the best stamp designers, Wilsson began her career as a typographer and book designer. She started her own company Design Eva Wilsson in 2008. For typography fans, she opened A Typo Gallery at St. Eriksplan in Stockholm, a gallery devoted “typography and design with space for exhibitions, workshops and performances”.
Her first stamp designs appeared in 2009 Two Countries, One Future – Sweden and Finland.

Photographers: Bubi Heilemann, Per Myrehed, ABBA Voyage

Release date: April 6, 2024 

Elsa Beskow’s Garden
Book Illustrations
series: art | fantasy

11 stamps, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel, booklets
offset

Elsa Beskow was Swedish children’s author and illustrator. Elsa Beskow | Step into the fairytale world. All the illustrations in this set were by Elsa. 

Designer: Carina Länk
Länk has created about 10 stamp sets, including the now classic Swedish Porcelain in 2021.

You can see her stamp designs here Frimärke | carinalank. Don’t forget to check out her other designs. 

Release date: January 11, 2024 

Europa 2024: Underwater Fauna & Flora
Life in the Baltic Sea
series: EUROPA | seas

3 stamps, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel, collector’s sheet

• Harbour Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) Harbor Porpoise | NOAA Fisheries
• Chara tomentosa HELCOM Red List
• Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) ADW: Aurelia aurita: INFORMATION (animaldiversity.org)

This site, Baltic Sea (geomar.de), is a great read on the history of the Baltic.  “The Baltic Sea is a child of the most recent ice age, which ended about 12,000 years ago. In some places, however, the glaciers have exposed much older geological formations, such as the chalk cliffs on the island of Mon.”

Designer: Carina Länk
Illustrator: Lars Sjööblom
As of 2016 Sjööblom had illustrated over 500 stamps, and his portfolio has grown since. He has designed/illustrated and engraved stamps for Sweden, New Zealand, Latvia, Aland and Lithuania. His first stamp for Sweden was Europa (C.E.P.T.) 1982 – Historical Events. 
Photographers: Peter Verhoog /Buiten-beeld, Joakim Hansen/Azote Library, Juuso Haapaniemi

Release date: January 11, 2024 

August

Coffee Break
series: food | drink

5 stamps, strips of 10, FDC, cancel

Designer: Beata Boucht
Boucht’s illustrations have appeared on at least 2 previous stamp sets for Sweden starting with the 2013 Insects 5 stamp set.

 Release date: August 29, 2024

Water Towers of Sweden
series: architecture

5 stamps, strips of 10, FDC, cancel
offset

• Tullings
• Helsingborg
• Emådalen
• Sala
• Örebro

Release date: August 29, 2024

November

Christmas Mail 2024
series: Christmas | holidays

10 stamps, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel

Release date: November 7, 2024

Winter
series: seasons

5 stamps, sheets of 10, FDC, cancel
offset

Release date: November 7, 2024