Post vehicles Stagecoach - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2013

"Historic Post Cars" is the promising title of a new series, which is now being started in a particularly aesthetic way with this special stamp block. The attractive motif shows a painting from the first half of the 19th century (around 1830) with the name "Ferienreise mit Eilpost", signed lower right with "K. Schnorpfeil ". The brand image itself thematizes the coach (capacity four people, gauge 1100 mm), the elegantly dressed travelers, the postilion and the rear horse team. It is interesting that the painting - it was once published as a postcard by the Viennese publishing house "Postbeamten-Verein" - came from a series of very popular stagecoach motives. The Doyenne of posthistorics, the scientist Dr. Christine Kainz, in her book "From Austria's Postal History" dealt with the epitome of post office from earlier times, the stagecoach, in a very charming way. She wrote: "Much resplendent and popular motif of contemporary artists, awakens the stagecoach, 'mother' of the passenger transport service of the post, when viewing the mostly lovely contemplative representations of yesteryear almost always nostalgic romantic feelings. But even as funny as the Postillon blew, traveling with her was by no means - and certainly not comfortable. Surely, as spoiled children of technical progress, today we would hardly like to take our holiday trip with such a vehicle as the travelers of the post office 200, 300 years ago greatly appreciated as incredible progress. "After the stagecoach traffic in the first half of the With the onset of the triumphal march of the Austrian railways in 1837, he lost more and more importance in 1837 - only those routes that were not served by the railway remained the stagecoach, which in terms of cruising speed and comfort with the new means of transport could not compete in the least. The final stage for the stagecoach, whose task area still included the feeder services to the railway, trips off the rail network, to remote valleys or over mountain roads into the 20th century, of course, came when the automobile came on the scene. With its introduction in the Austrian postal service in 1907, the stagecoach time then finally came to an end.