Making our stamp collection more accessible

We care for a unique and precious collection of stamps and philatelic material which includes registration sheets, essays (trial stamps) and proofs of all stages of British stamp production from 1840 to the present day, and all artwork, adopted and unadopted, for all issued and some un-issued British stamps from 1924. Material is constantly added to the collections as we receive around 500 pieces of stamp artwork from Royal Mail every year.

A lot of this material has already been available online, through our website, online catalogue and the project to digitise the R M Phillips Collection, but we are always looking for new ways to make our collections accessible.

Would you like our stamps on your mobile device? Fill in the survey and give us your views.

Recently a group of students from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts have been working with us on a research project to look at new ways to make our philatelic collections more accessible. The students have put together a short online survey to determine interest among stamp enthusiasts in a mobile or tablet app displaying our collection. If you have any interest in stamps, either as a collector, a philatelist, or a postal or design enthusiast, then we would like to hear your views on this project. Click here to complete the survey.

Postal posters exhibition in Swindon

From Tuesday 19th March to Thursday 27th June 2013 selected posters from The BPMA’s Designs on Delivery exhibition will be on display at Great Western Hospital, Swindon.

Design played a crucial role in promoting social progress and technological change across Britain between 1930 and 1960. The commercial poster reached cultural maturity during this period and became the most eloquent of the mass media.

Please pack parcels very carefully, 1957. Designer: Tom Eckersley. (POST 110/2592)

From the 1930s onwards the Post Office became a leader in the field of poster design, commissioning some of Britain’s most recognized artists and designers. This success owes much to the appointment of Stephen Tallents as the Post Office’s first public relations officer in 1933. Under his guidance a Poster Advisory Group composed of key figures in the arts and business led the commissioning process.

Buy stamps in books, 1959. Designer: Pieter Huveneers. (POST 110/2536)

Some of the posters commissioned were commercially driven. Others were intended simply as self-publicity or for creating goodwill among its publics. The Post Office’s rich store of material could also, wrote Tallents in 1935, make a contribution to the ‘picture of Britain’.

Post your letters before noon, 1941. Designers: Jan Lewitt and George Him. (POST 110/3184)

GPO posters included work by those associated with both fine art and graphic design, demonstrating the blurring of the boundaries between high art and popular culture that poster design encouraged. This exhibition showcases the best of these posters.

The exhibiting of Designs on Delivery has been made possible through a partnership with Paintings in Hospitals. Paintings in Hospitals is a registered charity that uses visual art to create environments that improve health, wellbeing and the healthcare experience for service users, their families and staff.

The Post Office handles 23,000,000 letters a day, 1947. Designer: G R Morris (POST 109/195)

Designs on Delivery will be exhibited in the Temporary Exhibition Space (Main Entrance – Ground Floor) at the Great Western Hospital. The exhibition is open daily. Entry is free of charge and open to all. For opening hours, please see the Hospital’s website www.gwh.nhs.uk or for more information on the exhibition please see our website.

If you would like to share your feedback on the exhibition, please contact the BPMA Exhibitions Officer on dominique.gardner@postalheritage.org.uk.

Dominique Gardner – Exhibitions Officer

Delving into the Unknown

BPMA volunteer Don Staddon looks at philatelic material within the British Postal Museum & Archive.

I have been recently working on a project to bring together artwork, essays, and issued stamps for the period from 1985 to 1991. It has revealed many unadopted designs and essays, some of which may be of interest.

Insects

On March 12, 1985 a set was issued depicting Insects: a number of artists had been asked to submit designs. Watercolours by wildlife artist and broadcaster Gordon Beningfield were used for the issued stamps, featuring the Buff Tailed Bumble Bee, Seven Spotted Ladybird, Wart Biter Bush Cricket, Stag Beetle and Emperor Dragonfly.

Insects stamp designs by Gordon Beningfield.

However, also approached were Brian Hargreaves who also used watercolours, one of his designs showing the Two-spot Ladybird, while John Norris Wood adopted woodcuts, his designs including a Queen Hornet and Cat Flea.

Brian Hargreaves’ Two-spot Ladybird design.

John Norris Wood’s Queen Hornet design.

John Norris Wood’s Cat Flea design.

Gordon Beningfield had previously designed the set depicting Butterflies issued in 1981, while Brian Hargreaves was a well-known butterfly artist responsible for the Collins guide to the butterflies of Britain and Europe, as well as designing butterfly stamps for several other countries. John Norris Wood was a renowned wildlife artist. There were also designs submitted by Cherry Denman featuring household bugs.

Cherry Denman’s household bugs designs.

European Music Year

In the same year a set was issued on May 14 to mark European Music Year featuring the works of various composers: again several artists had been approached to submit ideas. The designer chosen was the Scottish illustrator and artist Wilson McLean who illustrated famous works by the composers Handel, Holst, Delius and Elgar.

Wilson McLean’s European Museum Year stamp designs.

Among the designs not selected was a portrait of Thomas Tallis by Martin Baker, of Edward Elgar by Glynn Boyd Harte, and a set representing four composers created by David Driver.

Thomas Tallis by Martin Baker.

Edward Elgar by Glynn Boyd Harte.

David Driver’s designs.

Glynn Boyd Harte was a leading watercolour and lithographic artist as well as a part time musician. Note that while the unadopted designs were all based on portraits, they each used different backgrounds embracing musical symbols, score or instruments.

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force set that was issued on September 16, 1986 depicts five senior Officers.

The issued Royal Air Force stamps.

However, about two years previously trial essays, dated December 18, 1984, had been produced showing aircraft, including the Lightning Fighter and the Red Arrows.

Trial essays of the Royal Air Force stamps, showing the Lightning Fighter and the Red Arrows.

As we know, these designs were not developed into issued stamps, but I think they look impressive: sadly no designer is credited, although they appear to have been adapted from photographs.

The issue marked the 50th anniversary of the RAF being organised into various functional and operational commands, and I suspect this is the reason that Commanders were more prominent in the designs rather than the aircraft. The chosen designs were by Brian Sanders.

Thomas Hardy

It is well known that what was intended to be a set of four stamps to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Hardy, ended up as being just a single stamp. It was issued on July 10, 1990, and was the work of John Gibbs. The reason given for the reduction in the number of stamps in the set was not to overburden the collector, following the decision to release stamps to mark the 90th birthday of The Queen Mother on August 2.

However, it is widely known that when the essays reached Buckingham Palace, the designs were not approved. I am illustrating essays that were sent for Royal approval: it is not possible to divulge the reaction from the Palace to the essays but I have always understood it was felt the designs were not an appropriate representation of the characters they sought to portray.

Essays for the Thomas Hardy issue.

A total of artists had produced submissions for this set. They included: Ian Pollack, whose work was not favoured when seen at Buckingham Palace; John Gibbs who designed the issued stamp; Eileen Hogan, who featured scenes from Hardy’s works; Keith Bowen and Chloe Cheese, who both chose to depict characters from his novels.

This article originally appeared in Cross Post, the journal of the Friends of the BPMA. Visit our website to find out how you can Volunteer for the BPMA.

MacDonald Gill (1884-1947)

Decorative mapmaker, mural painter, architect, letterer and graphic artist, MacDonald (‘Max’) Gill was born in Brighton on 6 Oct 1884, where the University’s Design Archives are still paying tribute to him and other pioneers of graphic design in their research. His colourful maps played a significant role in British poster design and colour lithography as a form of dramatic visual communication, and provided a unique combination of information, design and decoration. He redesigned the iconic logo of the General Post Office (GPO) in 1934 and created elaborately decorative maps of mail services.

Map of Mail Steamship Routes (POST 118/833 holds a photographic print)

The 1920s and 30s saw the development of modern poster design and visual advertising for large companies and organisations such as London Transport, Shell Oil and various railway companies. MacDonald Gill produced map posters for the London Underground (most notably the “London Wonderground Map of London Town” in 1914) and was commissioned by the Empire Marketing Board to create eight map designs (best known is his “Highways of Empire” map, 1927) plus some accompanying letterpress posters and the Board’s distinctive logo.

Sir Stephen Tallent, Secretary of the EMB, transferred to the GPO as their first Public Relations Officer when the Board closed in 1933. One of his first tasks was to produce a GPO logo – an early example of branding. Even before he had joined the GPO, Tallents had suggested the use of a Post Office badge and commissioned Macdonald Gill to produce the design. The first approved version had two concentric circles but this was soon reduced to one. This was then used on all items of publicity and advertising.

Sketch / artwork for the redesign of the GPO logo by MacDonald Gill in 1934 (POST 122/8391). The first approved version had two concentric circles but this was soon reduced to one. The annotations also mentions the typeface used as “Gill Sans” which had been created by MacDonald Gills’ brother Eric.

As part of the GPO’s poster campaign to advertise their services and activities to the public, Gill then created a map of international Radio Telephone Services in 1935 (held by BT Archives, Finding No TCB319_PRD0143), and of Mail Steamship Routes in 1937 (pictured above). These elaborately decorative map diagrams were complex and included a wealth of cartographic information and typography. In fact, Gill used his own hand-drawn version of a classic Roman font for the poster title. (He shared this typographic skill with his brother Eric Gill, creator of the widely known typeface Gills Sans. Eric also designed the background of the first George VI definitive stamp series for the Post Office in 1937.) Below the title, the map of the globe, complete with trading routes, is combined with a series of sketches depicting the developments in shipping over ten centuries. It even includes ships that were never involved in the movement of mail such as a Viking craft (AD 908).

Detail of Mail Steamship Routes – a Viking craft

Detail of Mail Steamship Routes – S.S. Mauretania & RMS Queen Mary

One of the mail ships shown on the map is the RMS (‘Royal Mail Ship’) Queen Mary. MacDonald Gill had also created one of his perhaps most beautiful painted maps for this celebrated liner which made its maiden voyage in 1936: a large-scale decorative North Atlantic Map for the first class dining room.

A beautiful reproduction of the MacDonald Gill’s Map of Mail Steamship Routes, 1937 is now available in our Online Shop. The sheet map (approx. 62cm x 76cm) is folded in a wallet and comes with an introduction by BPMA Curator Julian Stray.

An interview with Pieter Huveneers

Netherland born Pieter Huveneers is a designer popular amongst GPO poster enthusiasts for, amongst other things, his designs for airmail and telephones. In Europe he designed for a number of large companies including BOAC, British Railways, Schweppes, ICI, Pepsi Cola and Philips.

For some decades he has lived and worked in Australia. Before his retirement Mr Huveneers designed nearly 70 names and logos for Australian corporations and employed a dozen staff. His Australian work included logos for Australia Post, Telecom Australia, and the Westpac bank.

Now 87 and retired, he continues to make paintings, including some innovative silver metal designs, and wonderful portraits.

We are indebted to Pieter’s partner Tanis for her assistance with this interview.

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How did you become a poster artist/graphic designer?

I completed a design course at the Academy in Arnhem, Holland, during and after the war. I chose this particular course because of its wide application. You can make a design, it can be repeated in multiple applications and provide to the designer exposure to the public.

How and why did you begin designing for the Post Office? What other companies (whether commercial companies or advertising agencies) were you working for at the time?

Road Safety, BOAC, British Railways, Schweppes, Mullard, British Titan, General Electric Company, ICI, British Aluminium Company, Babcock, Pepsi Cola.

When designing a poster, did you have a clear idea of the image you wanted to create?

The image you want to create should be in line with the service offered.

Did the Post Office give you much freedom in your designs?

Yes.

How many drafts would you make before the final poster was produced?

You don’t make drafts so much – I made doodles.

You were very young when you were commissioned by the Post Office. Did you feel under a lot of pressure?

No.

What is your favourite design you produced for the Post Office?

The Post Office Guide.

The 'Post Office Guide' supplies all the answers, designed by Pieter Huveneers, July 1955 (POST 110/3226, PRD 0786)

You produced designs for various Post Office campaigns, including ‘Post Early’, ‘Buy stamps in books’, the ‘Post Office Guide’, and ‘Speak clearly’. Did you have a favourite campaign?

No.

What prompted your move to Australia in the 1960s?

I worked at Philips Head Office in Eindhoven as International Creative Director in the mid 1960s. I had made many designs. It was really an opportunity to go to a country with new horizons.

Did you find freedom and opportunity for creativity in British graphic design declined in the 1960s?

No.

Buy stamps in books, designed by Pieter Huveneers, c. 1950 (POST 110/4331, PH896)

Our archivist Anna’s favourite posters of yours are the ‘A pleasing tone always’ and ‘Speak clearly’ posters. Who, or what, was your inspiration for these posters?

I chose to portray the telephonist as young and alert.

You went on to work for Australia Post. Was there something that particularly appealed to you, or inspired you, about the postal service?

Not really.

Which was your favourite organisation to work for?

The organisations which provided a well paid salary were attractive!

What would you say the differences are between poster design in the 1950s and now?

The graphic solution to the reproduction has reduced and relies more on photography now rather than design by hand. The personal and more painterly touch is missing.

Telegrams are urgent messages, designed by Pieter Huveneers, April 1952 (POST 110/1611, IRP 056)

Would you say the development of technology has made graphic designers more or less creative?

Less creative!

Design: GPO Posters

Design: GPO Posters, a new book by Dr Paul Rennie, has just been published. Dr Rennie is Head of Context in Graphic Design at Central St Martins College of Art, and a past contributor to the BPMA podcast.

Design: GPO Posters

Featuring over 100 posters commissioned by the General Post Office (GPO) from 1930-1970, the book showcases the work of artists such as Edward McKnight Kauffer and Tom Eckersley.

The book is part of the award winning Design series produced by the Antique Collector’s Club and designed by Brian Webb, another past contributor to the BPMA podcast, and also a noted stamp designer. Other books in the Design series include Design: David Gentleman.

Design: GPO Posters and Design: David Gentleman are both available from the BPMA online shop for £12.50.

Edward McKnight Kauffer – Outposts of Britain

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890 – 1954) was one of the most significant designers of the 20^th century, noted for a unique style which embraced a number of different influences and techniques: his work drew on impressionism, cubism and vorticism amongst a number of other movements and ideas. Kauffer was one of the leading exponents of what became known as graphic design, combining typography, abstraction and photographic elements, and utilising techniques like photomontage and airbrushing in his designs.

Born in Great Falls, Montana, USA, he moved to San Francisco where he studied at art school in the evenings. Eventually his paintings caught the attention of Joseph McKnight, a professor at Utah University, who offered to sponsor him – Kauffer took the middle name of ‘McKnight’ as a mark of gratitude. He studied at the Academie Moderne in Paris before moving to London at the start of the First World War where he produced successful posters for, amongst others, the GPO (General Post Office), London Transport, and Shell, and in 1924 wrote a book, The Art of the Poster. He was also one of 20 artists invited to submit designs for the 1940 stamp centenary issue, but declined, due to the pressure of other obligations. Moving to New York at the onset of the Second World War, he was commissioned by MOMA and American Airlines as well as several institutional clients; and continued to work up until his death in 1954.

Amongst the posters he produced for the GPO, the 1937 series of educational posters entitled ‘Outposts of Britain’ are probably the most well-known, each poster focussing on a different region of Britain to demonstrate how the postal service could traverse distance to deliver the mail. The posters combine black and white photographs with bright painted elements – a first in GPO poster design – and also include typography as a key component of the overall image. They were created as part of a free posters for schools scheme, which also included designs by Harold Sandys Williamson, John Armstrong, and John Vickery, and their issue was publicised in the Post Office Circular of October 1937.

Ever popular, all four posters in the ‘Outposts of Britain’ series are now available to purchase as prints on our poster website.

Illustrating Britain and Stamp Design

Designer and illustrator Ronald Maddox has worked extensively for the Post Office and Royal Mail, designing stamps, stamp book covers, first day covers, presentation packs, posters and charts. On 27th May Ronald Maddox will speak at the BPMA about the design process, and many of the designs and artworks he has completed over the years.

After studying at London College of Printing and Graphic Art, and Regents Street Polytechnic School of Art, Ronald Maddox joined the RAF for National Service as a Designer/Artist in the Air Ministry Design Unit. Since then he has been working as a freelance artist, designer, consultant and illustrator. Maddox is President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and a specialist in this medium, and has exhibited regularly in London and provincial exhibitions, including at the Royal Academy and the Mall Galleries, and has had several one-man shows.

Ronald Maddox’s stamps and posters typically feature British architecture, rural life and countryside. A 1964 Post Office recruitment poster designed by Maddox shows Post Office vans driving through a rural village and a modern city centre.

A 1964 Post Office recruitment poster designed by Ronald Maddox

Two years later Maddox illustrated a poster on the importance of correct addressing with a painting of Capel Curig, in rural North Wales.

Poster advising on correct addressing designed by Ronald Maddox

In 1971 both Maddox and Nicholas Jenkins were asked to submit designs for a stamp issue on Modern University Buildings. While Jenkins was the successful designer for these stamps, the Post Office was impressed with the quality of Maddox’s drawings and his meticulous research, and he was invited to design the 1972 stamp issue Village Churches, as well as the poster and first day cover for Modern University Buildings.

A poster designed by Ronald Maddox advertising the Modern University Buildings stamp issue

For the Village Churches issue, Maddox originally presented more than 20 designs of rural churches, ensuring a wide range of architectural styles were represented. Eventually, five churches were selected for the set. Stuart Rose, Post Office Design Advisor at the time noted that “to condense six or seven hundred years of ecclesiastical architecture into five little stamps is no mean feat and Ronald Maddox has good reason to be proud of his achievement”. The Village Churches stamps became the first ever prints to receive a Design Council Award.

Village Churches stamp issue, 1972

Other stamp issues designed by Ronald Maddox include British Architecture (1978), Urban Renewal (1984) and Industrial Archaeology (1989).

Further information and booking details for Illustrating Britain and Stamp Design can be found on our website.

The Design is in the Post – Artists and the GPO

Artists and writers Brian Webb and Peyton Skipwith, who have penned a series of books exploring the work of notable British designers of the 20th Century, will speak at the BPMA on 20th May. The focus of their talk will be the many artists who have worked for the GPO, and how those artists helped to shape the GPO’s image.

The ‘pre-war’ artists Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious, Barnett Freedman and Eric Gill will be covered in some length, along with well known stamp designers such as Edmund Dulac and Bertram Mackennal. Present day artists who worked on the Millennium stamps, David Hockney, Peter Blake, Craigie Aicheson, David Gentleman, Claire Melinsky and John Lawrence, will also be examined.

Brian Webb has kindly sent us some of the images he will show in the talk:

Magazine cover by Edward Bawden

Eric Ravilious’ un-adopted design for the Adhesive Stamp Centenary, 1940

One of David Gentleman’s illustrations from The Swiss Family Robinson, 1963

Millenium stamps: Freddie Mercury, 2000, designed by Peter Blake

Further information and booking details for The Design is in the Post – Artists and the GPO can be found on our website.

David Gentleman Design by Brian Webb and Peyton Skipwith is available from the BPMA Shop.

Empire Mail: George V and the GPO

by Jennifer Flippance, 2010 Exhibitions & Project Manager

Empire Mail: George V and the GPO, hosted by Guildhall Art Gallery, in the heart of the City of London, is the BPMA’s flagship exhibition for the London 2010: Festival of Stamps, produced in conjunction with the Royal Philatelic Collection.

King George V riding his horse, Anzac, a gift from the Australian government. This photograph was later used as the basis for the Australian Silver Jubilee stamps, issued in 1935.

The exhibition explores the reign of King George V (1910 – 1936), an era of conflict, change and innovation. Investigate the passions of the ‘philatelist king’, alongside the extraordinary period of design and creativity in the General Post Office during the period.

Displays include some of the rarest and most valuable stamps in the world alongside vehicles, pillar boxes, posters and pioneering works from the GPO Film Unit. Empire Mail: George V and The GPO will explore themes from the King’s reign such as innovations in mail transportation, the first Atlantic air crossing, the rise of graphic design in the 1920s and 1930s, and the impact of conflict.

The items on display are sourced from the unique and complementary collections of the BPMA and the Royal Philatelic Collection. These include a sheet of unused Edward VII Tyrian Plum stamps plus the only one known to have been used – sent on an envelope to George V on 5 May 1910 when he was Prince of Wales and arriving the day he became King following the death of his father.

'Post Office' Mauritius: The most famous stamps in the world?

There are many gems from King George V’s own collection, including two examples of the famous Post Office Mauritius stamp, among them an unused 2d, bought by the King when Prince of Wales in 1904 for the then record sum of £1,450.

Other highlights include: items and original film footage from the 1911 Coronation Aerial Post; original stamp artwork for the first ever UK commemorative stamp produced for the 1924/5 Wembley Empire Exhibition; the only Victoria Cross won by the Post Office Rifles during the First World War; mail carried on pioneering (successful and unsuccessful) transatlantic air crossings; and objects and images from the Post Office Underground Railway.

The BPMA’s fully restored blue airmail pillar box will be seen in public for the first time, alongside other pillar boxes of the period and vehicles, including a 1945 Morris “Red Van” in George V livery and a 1933 BSA motorcycle.

As an added attraction, between 8–15 May, there will be regular demonstrations by staff from the security printers Enschedé, who will be printing reproductions of the 1929 PUC £1 on an intaglio press.

A series of free lunchtime talks will also take during the exhibition’s run.

• Wednesday 12th May, 1.00-1.45pm – Meet the Curator, with BPMA Curator of Philately Douglas Muir.
• Wednesday 19th May, 1.00-1.45pm – Gems of the Royal Philatelic Collection, with Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection Michael Sefi.
• Wednesday 26th May, 1.00-1.45pm – Air mail boxes of King George V, with BPMA Assistant Curator Julian Stray.
• Wednesday 16th June, 1.00-1.45pm – The combination pillar boxes of 1931, with BPMA Assistant Curator Julian Stray.
• Wednesday 21st June, 1.00-1.45pm – Construction and rise of the Post Office (London) Underground Railway, with BPMA Curator Chris Taft
• Wednesday 30 June, 1.00-1.45pm – Meet the Curator, the BPMA Curator of Philately Douglas Muir.

For further information on Empire Mail: George V and the GPO please see the BPMA website. An online taster of the exhibition has also been produced.