Royal Mail puts its stamp on St Andrew’s Day
From Fife to Philadelphia, from Dumfries to Dunedin, St Andrew’s Day is celebrated by proud Scots and their friends around the globe. On a new set of stamps launched on St Andrew’s day 2006, the Saint features for the first time ever on a Royal Mail stamp as part of a special set which celebrates promoting Scotland, its patron saint and its day of national celebration.
The centrepiece of this special edition is the stamp depicting St Andrew himself. It is an unusual landscape-style format, featuring a specially commissioned image of Scotland's patron saint by renowned, Dumfriesshire-based artist and illustrator, Clare Melinsky.
Clare, who works mainly in linocut prints, was the perfect choice for the St Andrew stamp, having previously depicted one of Scotland's other major saints, St Columba as part of a Royal Mail stamp edition in 1997. Clare also created an image of King James VI of Scotland alongside his King James Bible for the 1999 Christmas stamps. Her linocut images, which follow the style of traditional woodcuts, create a sense of antiquity and historical gravity, lending themselves perfectly to depictions of saints and historical figures.
Although St Andrew is reputed in Christian tradition to have been the first disciple of Jesus, there is actually very little that has been passed down about his life. Most artistic depictions of St Andrew have focused on his death by crucifixion on an X-shaped cross. Clare, however, felt this was not the most appropriate image to adorn the stamp and instead she chose St Andrew's life as a fisherman in Galilee as the inspiration for her design.
She explained: "I was delighted to be commissioned to design the stamp. As I researched the subject I found that we don't know much about St Andrew's life. But the obvious thing to go on was his life as a fisherman and his link to the miraculous draught of fishes on the Sea of Galilee. That has strong connections to Scotland with its fishing industry and its communities which have been built upon fishing and the sea.
"I particularly liked the image of the nets, because basically 2000 years on from St Andrew fishing on the Sea of Galilee nets are still being used by fishermen in Scotland to make their living from the sea. The image of the net is enduring and unchanged."
Clare's next step was to decide how to portray St Andrew, given the fact there is no historical record of what he actually looked like. Central to Clare's design was a desire to reflect the traditions of religious decorative art in her design.
She said: "I wanted to give the impression of the image being like a stained glass window as that is how people are used to seeing Saints portrayed in churches. I visited the Burrell Collection in Glasgow which has the second largest collection of stained glass in Europe, and that is where I developed the idea for the image of St Andrew that appears on the stamp."
As well as drawing on religious tradition for her image, Clare also took inspiration from Scotland's contemporary fishing community by studying pictures of fishermen and attempting to capture the weathered and interesting features she found in their faces.
Clare creates images by carving into a piece of linoleum and taking a print from the inked surface. By using successive cut outs and colours she builds the final picture. And in an interesting coincidence, the linoleum Clare uses for her work is sourced in Kirkcaldy, the traditional home of linoleum manufacture, which is just a few miles down the Fife coast from St Andrews where legend has it the Saint's relics arrived in Scotland. The first floor cloth factory in Scotland was built by Michael Nairn in 1847-48 in Kirkcaldy. Floor cloth grew very quickly to rival linen as the town's staple manufacturer and it wasn't long before Kirkcaldy soon became the largest producer of the new floor covering in the world. By 1874, as well as Nairn's award-winning company, there were five other floor cloth manufacturers in Kirkcaldy.
Although not a native Scot, Clare has lived and worked in Scotland for many years, making the St Andrew stamp commission a particularly special one. She said: "It is very rewarding to work on a project such as this. I have lived in Scotland for 30 years and I really saw this as doing something important for my own country. People are very proud to be Scottish and proud of St Andrew, and I hope the stamp helps celebrate that."
This special edition of stamps also celebrates Scotland's capital city, and what better image to capture the essence of Edinburgh's rich history and dramatic cityscape than its castle. Particularly in the evening, when the castle is lit up against the night sky, it is an iconic image of the capital.
The third stamp in the series is Scotland's national flag, the Saltire. Appropriately this connects to St Andrew, mirroring the cross on which he was martyred. A Saltire stamp already exists as one of the Scottish definitive stamps, which have been produced since 1999 to mark Scottish devolution, but it has been reworked for this special edition.
The last stamp in the set is one of the most popular and iconic Scottish stamps, the Lion Rampant – the same, classic First Class stamp which appears as part of the Scottish definitive set.
The St Andrew's Day stamps are only available as a Miniature Sheet set of four. As well as the stamps, the presentation pack contains an illustrated pictorial examination of Scotland and what it is to be Scottish.
Miniature Sheets and presentation packs can be ordered from Royal Mail's online shop at www.royalmail.com/standrew or by calling Royal Mail's philatelic bureau on 0044 131 316 7483. Customers can also write to Royal Mail, Tallents House, 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PE.
Competition
The Royal Mail have kindly given a number of presentation packs for our St Andrew's Day competition.
Please click here to enter the competition.
