Seen in the archives: a royal postman!

Here's a find that will delight Tintin fans. A little-known drawing has just resurfaced in the archives of the Hergé Foundation. And, for once, Tintin appears as a Danish postman.

Drawing found in the Fondation Hergé archives

This sketch shows the young reporter in a red and black uniform, the colours of the Danish postal administration.

Adorned with a black leather satchel full of letters and a hard cap flanked by the local royal coat of arms, he begins his rounds with Snowy, his faithful companion, trotting alongside with a smile and a letter in his mouth.

So, after having been a cowboy, an astronaut, a knight, a Bedouin and even an improvised detective, the young reporter becomes - for the time of a drawing - the messenger of stories to come, news to be transmitted and secrets to be passed from hand to hand.

And if he slipped into this costume - like a letter in the post - it was because ‘it was necessary (to) show him in the different uniforms of the world's postmen’, explained Hergé in an interview given to Swiss television in the 1960’s.

Asked by the journalist about his documentation, the artist recounts an amusing anecdote about this project: ‘We wrote to the PTT in Bern, asking them if they could send us a photographic Swiss postman's uniform. We got a very kind, courteous and nice letter back, but... it was a rejection. It said: ‘Listen, we're very sorry, but as a matter of principle, we don't give away postman's uniforms...’.