To mark the 150th anniversary of the famous design company Morris & Co, Royal Mail issued a set of six stamps on May 5.
They feature examples of the company’s beautiful hand-crafted designs, fashioned in wood, fabric, wallpaper, ceramics and stained glass by six different artists.
The original company of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co was founded in 1861, and established a reputation for interior design, fine furniture and decorations.
The Kings & Queens series of stamp issues which started in 2008 concludes with the House of Windsor & Saxe-Coburg-Gotha set on February 2, bringing the story of the British monarchy up the present day.
The five most recent monarchs are illustrated through contemporary portrait paintings, as in previous sets, with Queen Elizabeth II taking pride of place on the top value in her Diamond Jubilee year.
Following the style of the earlier issue in this series, a miniature sheet of four stamps highlights landmark events that have taken place during the dynasty.
Royal Mail is celebrating some of the world’s most beautiful artefacts in a spectacular collection of eight stamps featuring the Crown Jewels, the regalia of the British monarchy.
Issued on August 23, the stamps feature some of the most important and iconic pieces from the priceless collection.
This year marks the 350th anniversary of the making of many of the items shown, for the coronation of King Charles II in 1661 shortly after the Restoration of the monarchy.
Royal Mail’s largest stamp commission since the Millennium series will be completed on July 27 with the issue of the third and final set of Olympic & Paralympic Games stamps illustrating the whole gamut of Olympic sports.
The release of the 10-stamp set has been timed to take place exactly one year before the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Games.
Studio David Hillman was commissioned to direct the whole 30-stamp series, each of which has been designed by a different artist.
The popular children’s book and television character Thomas the Tank Engine features on a set of stamps issued to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of his creator, the Reverend W Awdry.
The issue, on 14 June, includes six long-format stamps showing images from the television series Thomas & Friends, and a miniature sheet of four reproducing original illustrations from the books.
Wilbert Awdry (1911-97) had a passion for railways which had been instilled in him by his father.
The Classic Locomotives of England miniature sheet, to be issued on February 1, is the first of a series of four highlighting the contribution made by steam engines to British industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Across the public railway network, and also in industrial locations such as factories, quarries and docks, locomotives of all shapes and sizes were the workhorses of the national economy until as recently as the 1960s, cared for by a vast army of drivers and firemen, engineers and mechanics.
Philip Parker of Royal Mail Stamps said: ‘For many people, the age of steam meant bright-liveried passenger locomotives, but in the background a huge number of other less glamorous steam machines were playing a massive role.
Royal Mail will issue a miniature sheet of four stamps to celebrate the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton.
It will be released on the Queen’s birthday, April 21, eight days before the wedding in Westminster Abbey on April 29.
The sheet features two different official engagement photographs of the couple by Princess Diana’s favourite photographer, Mario Testino, who is Peruvian.
The Great British Fashion issue on May 15 brings together the best post-war design from the fashion houses which put Britain at the forefront of world couture.
Printed in litho by Cartor, in se-tenant strips of five, the stamps were created by Johnson Banks, who commissioned fashion photographer Sølve Sundsbø to shoot the outfits.
Live models were used to achieve dynamic postures and a sense of movement, but they do not appear on the final designs.
The Great British Film issue, to be released on May 13, celebrates a selection of the most significant and successful British movies produced since World War II.
Royal Mail consulted the British Film Institute, cinema experts and polls of popular films to arrive at its choice of six to feature on the sheet stamps.
An accompanying miniature sheet focuses on the work of the GPO Film Unit, which produced ground-breaking documentaries for the Post Office in the 1930s, including the much-loved Night Mail.
Royal Mail is issuing a set of ten 1st class stamps on April 16 celebrating some of Britain’s most remarkable individuals, on the 100th or 150th anniversary of their birth.
The Great Britons honoured include an actor and actress, a national and a local politician, a football manager, a composer, a photographer, a writer, a broadcaster and an archaeologist.
Only two have featured previously on British stamps, Vivien Leigh in the 1985 British Film Year and 1996 Centenary of Cinema sets, and Peter Cushing in the 2008 Carry On & Hammer Films set.
The 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London will be commemorated by an issue of six stamps on September 2.
The fire broke out in bakery of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane in the early hours of Sunday September 2, 1666.
For three days it spread through the city, helped by the close-packed wooden houses, thatched roofs, stored materials such as pitch and tar, and a strong westerly wind.
