Christmas Stamps

The new stamps this year are small, beautiful and, for the first time in a long time, of a religious nature. No robins, snowflakes or jolly Father Xmas! However there has been a suggestion that, in order not to offend the non-religious in the community, the stamps are not being promoted as much as they have been in the past. Rumour has it that they are being kept “under the counter”! So when you buy your stamps please be brave and ask the staff for Christmas stamps.



The Angels stamps feature illustrations by Italian illustrator Marco Ventura. He works in a style similar to those of Renaissance fresco painters drawing in pencil on gesso coated paper and then hand colouring the image.
Marco Ventura grew up with angels, son of a book illustrator, a Roman Catholic in Italy where angels flutter across the walls of every church. “Since I was a child I’ve been surrounded by images of Saints, Madonnas and flying angels with banners,” he said. He began as a teenager like any medieval apprentice, hand colouring his father’s pen and ink illustrations. His own work is traditional in technique, beginning with drawings in very hard pencil on paper prepared with a thin coat of gesso plaster. Angels bearing their messages of peace on earth spelled out in rippling banners are a common motif in Italian art from the Renaissance on. There were about 100 preparatory sketches, and originally a whole orchestra of angels - “angels playing music was I thought a nice combination and very appropriate for the Christmas theme” - before the final versions were selected. The horizon is at the same level in each so that the angels line up in the same landscape across the four stamps.

“When painting the Angels I liked the idea of them as neither female nor male, also I wanted them to be on the earth - not flying in the sky – as nice protective figures that please everyone with their music.”


The two Madonna & Child stamps feature two classic paintings of the image.


2nd class - William Dyce, c. 1827. In pearly light, the sweet faced young Madonna cradling her child before a limpid landscape, clearly shows the influence of Renaissance art, particularly of the young Raphael. Dyce led the way and in turn became a supporter of the radical group of young English painters, the Pre-Raphaelites.

1st Class - The Madonna of Humility, Lippo di Dalmasio, c. 1390-1400. Extensive damage and centuries of repairs have dimmed but not eclipsed the grace of The Madonna, crowned with 12 stars, against a disc of golden light, recalling Saint John’s vision of the Woman of the Apocalypse, “clothed with the sun”, in the Book of Revelation.