Well, I thought I would be struggling a little this month, as there have been so few postcards that I have ever seen showing Finland's national dog. I did manage to locate one unusual postcard however of a painting of a young boy with his dog on the edge of the forest. It carries a signature, which I am unable to read and is postally used in September 1941 and carries the postmark of the Finnish Military field post, 'Kentta-Posti', which is no surprise, in view of the date. Now I know this, I find the painting carries a poignantly patriotic message of the dog and the boy looking apprehensively and suspiciously into the forest, with nothing more than a stick to defend themselves with.

I know that my final section is usually limited to picture postcards, but I am going to bend the rules a little this month and include three really charming greetings cards. l just love the Christmas card showing the horse and Finnish Spitz, which I suppose is quite appropriate considering Finland's connection to Lapland. The Artist is Anders Olsson, who in fact moved around Europe quite a lot at the beginning of this century. He exhibited in the UK between 1906 and 1913, including four times at the Royal Academy and six times at the Royal Scottish Academy. He lived jointly in Bruges, Belgium and London between 1905-1908, then moved to Kristianstad Sweden before finally settling in Malmo. This card was published in Sweden by Scandecor. The large size greetings card headed Otavan Syksy, was issued by the book publishers Otava on their 90th anniversary and I understand was available on a complimentary basis at some book shops, there is no doubt as to the breed represented.

Finally, I am illustrating a modem greetings card by the well known British Artist, Julie Brennan. Julie is probably best known for painting the Crufts BIS winner each year. She also accepts a limited number of private commissions from which comes the charming study of the dog on a snow covered hillside with a snow capped peak in the background. Julie did a short run of limited editions from this painting which are still available from the artist, no doubt fellow breed enthusiasts can point you in the right direction of you are interested.