Odd stamps : 06 i Stamps on cotton / silk

For my next item, we go to Taiwan.
Officially, Taiwan is a province of the People's Republic of China.
Many Taiwanese people consider themselves however as being citizens of the 'independent' island of Taiwan, or the so called Republic of China.

Map of PR China, Taiwan (R.O.C. in red)

For any political interpretation, you'll have to search elsewhere, here I'm only talking about the beauty of the stamps, issued by this country.

And this truly is a beautiful stamp/sheet!

Most stamps/sheets printed on silk are already an example of exquisit printing.
Here, the stamp is superb.

silk sheet / stamp of Taiwan

If we look in detail, we see a beautiful bird, printed in embossed silk, with gold overprint.
To see the embossed printing, a picture of the back side shows us more :

back side of the sheet, bird and chinese characters are embossed

On the border of the sheet, we see some fibers hanging loosly.

loose fibers

If we zoom in into the stamp, we'll discover the fine design and embossed printing, together with the gold print on the back ofhte bird.

stamp out of the sheet

detail of the stamp

This sheet is truly a piece of art and as far as I'm concerned, to be nominated for the most beautiful stamp of the year.

If any Taiwanese reader of my blog, is willing to send me a postally used copy of this sheet, I'd be very happy.