27 July 2016
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Beatrix Potter
This year is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter, one of the world’s best-loved children’s authors, whose work is celebrated on six new stamps featuring her animal characters.
This year is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter, one of the world’s best-loved children’s authors, whose work is celebrated on six new stamps featuring her animal characters.
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world’s best-selling children’s authors and her books have been enjoyed by millions of readers around the world. Her global appeal continues some 150 years after her birth, with thousands of visitors taking a trip to Beatrix’s former home Hill Top Farm at Ambleside in the Lake District each year, to see the house which inspired some of her best works.
THE STAMPS
The six new special issue stamps featuring original illustrations of some of Beatrix’s most popular characters: Peter Rabbit, Mrs Tiggy Winkle, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddle Duck, Tom Kitten and Benjamin Bunny.
Unlike previous GB Beatrix Potter stamps, this time Royal Mail has gone for simplicity, with designers from Charlie Smith Design opting for allowing the characters to take centre stage, presenting each animal against a plain white background.
Beatrix had a deep and lifelong love of the countryside and was a skilled scientific illustrator. She created the illustrations for all of her books, including her first – The Tale of Peter Rabbit, published by Frederick Warne in 1902.
Within a few years of the publication of her first book, Beatrix had moved from London to the Lake District, settling in Hill Top Farm, a setting which would influence several of her books, including The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck – whose main character appears on the £1.33 stamp, and The Tale of Tom Kitten (£1.52) in which Tom Kitten and his sisters run riot around the farmhouse and its garden.
Stamp details
Beatrix Potter
Issue date: 28 July, 2016
Design: Charlie Smith Design
Format: Over-square portrait
Size: 35mm (w) x 37mm (h)
Printer: International Security Printers
Print process: Lithography
Perforations: 14 x 14.5
Phosphor: Bars as appropriate
Gum: PVA
1st: Peter Rabbit
1st: Mrs Tiggy Winkle
£1.33 Squirrel Nutkin
£1.33 Jemima Puddle Duck
£1.52 Tom Kitten
£1.52 Benjamin Bunny
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