Current Issues
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Sets and Sheets
Date of Issue: 19th October 2007
The Isle of Man Post Office is pleased to present a special issue of stamps to celebrate Christmas 2007Epitomising the rousing joy of the festive season Hark the Herald Angels Sing has been chosen as our Christmas theme.
This highly decorative set has been produced entirely as a self-adhesive stamp issue (and in sheets of 20 stamps) in response to popular public demand. The stamps also ulitise silver litho and advanced varnish printing techniques. It is the first time that the IOM Post Office has produced a ‘self-adhesive-only’ issue, making the First Day Cover in particular highly collectable.Local artist Julia Ashby Smyth, who was commissioned to produce this year’s Christmas stamps, describes her working process: “Using the carol Hark the Herald Angels Sing as the theme, I wanted to create a serene gentle flowing quality and included the lute, harp and trumpet to give a musical lilt. Just as I was starting these illustrations, I went to see the falconry display at the Wildlife Park, where I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the hawks and falcons. I managed to get loads of photos of wings which were extremely useful.”Although this most familiar of Christmas carols has been a favourite since Victorian times the original words were written much earlier in 1739 by Charles Wesley (1707-1788), brother of John Wesley founder of the Methodist church. The hymn was radically developed in 1855 when English musician and singer William Hayman Cummings (1831-1915) was inspired to set Wesley’s words to his own interpretation of a cantata by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). Given that Mendelssohn’s composition was written to commemorate Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press and that the role of an angel is that of God’s messenger, it is entirely fitting that the hymn should find its current rousing and much-loved form...It is this fundamental sense of the celebration of the spiritual through music that is at the heart of Julia Ashby Smyth’s highly individual vision of angels which we present as our Christmas stamps for 2007.
This highly decorative set has been produced entirely as a self-adhesive stamp issue (and in sheets of 20 stamps) in response to popular public demand. The stamps also ulitise silver litho and advanced varnish printing techniques. It is the first time that the IOM Post Office has produced a ‘self-adhesive-only’ issue, making the First Day Cover in particular highly collectable.Local artist Julia Ashby Smyth, who was commissioned to produce this year’s Christmas stamps, describes her working process: “Using the carol Hark the Herald Angels Sing as the theme, I wanted to create a serene gentle flowing quality and included the lute, harp and trumpet to give a musical lilt. Just as I was starting these illustrations, I went to see the falconry display at the Wildlife Park, where I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the hawks and falcons. I managed to get loads of photos of wings which were extremely useful.”Although this most familiar of Christmas carols has been a favourite since Victorian times the original words were written much earlier in 1739 by Charles Wesley (1707-1788), brother of John Wesley founder of the Methodist church. The hymn was radically developed in 1855 when English musician and singer William Hayman Cummings (1831-1915) was inspired to set Wesley’s words to his own interpretation of a cantata by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). Given that Mendelssohn’s composition was written to commemorate Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press and that the role of an angel is that of God’s messenger, it is entirely fitting that the hymn should find its current rousing and much-loved form...It is this fundamental sense of the celebration of the spiritual through music that is at the heart of Julia Ashby Smyth’s highly individual vision of angels which we present as our Christmas stamps for 2007.
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