Royal Mail Announces Narnia Stamp Collection
Royal Mail have announced the release of a new Chronicles of Narnia Stamp Collection to celebrate the 75th anniversary of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
The collection comprises two sets: the first set containing 4 stamps based on the original book illustrations by Pauline Baynes (shown above) and the second set containing 8 brand new illustrations by the artist Keith Robinson (shown below).
Whilst this marks the first full set of Narnia stamps released by the Royal Mail, Narnia has featured on its stamps twice before, including two stamps released in 2011 as part of the ‘Magical Realms’ collection, and one stamp released in 1998 as part of the ‘Magical Worlds’ collection.
The new sets are available to pre-order through the Royal Mail website, and are due to go on sale on May 22nd.
Which of the designs is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.
These are very cool! Although the art is new, I like that it still has the feel of the book illustrations and isn’t very much tied to the movies.
Beautiful images. There was a podcast about which books had the best covers. These stamps would make pretty decent covers for the books (Though they have some spoilers).
Super cool! The graphics are great! I think Prince Caspian’s or The Last Battle’s is the best, but I agree, they do have spoilers, lol!
I’ve pre-ordered the Framed Collectors Sheet, which is a poster (with the Dawn Treader illustration at the bottom) featuring all of the stamps from both sets, the Pauline Baynes ones and the modern ones by Keith Robinson. Like others here, I really like his artwork, although I think the White Witch having armour under her dress looks a little strange! But yes, they would make excellent covers for the books, barring the spoilers. (Mind you, the spoiler in the Last Battle one — Puzzle’s head poking out of the lion’s skin — isn’t a *huge* giveaway, as Lewis himself tells us that plot twist in the very first chapter.) I’m really looking forward to receiving the poster and am already planning where to hang it in my home!
Those look awesome! The artwork looks generally very book-accurate. A great tribute!
Is it terrible that I’d rather have the Keith Robinson set than the Pauline Baynes one? I don’t think he’s a better artist than Baynes or anything. It’s just that it has images from every Narnia story whereas the Baynes one just has illustrations from the first book. (Yes, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first book. 😉 ) And, anyway, I have copies of the Narnia books with all the illustrations, so I’ve already seen those many times. Robinson’s work has the charm of novelty.
I noticed that the stamps are arranged in publication order. Was that done by the NarniaWeb team or were the stamps published that way? It would be cool if they were!
I like the HHB and VDT stamps the best, they look clean and wide open. My third favorite is probably MN.
@Noelle – You are correct! on all the official presentation sets that are available to purchase from the Royal Mail website, the stamps are all arranged in the original publication order.
I love the variety of the pictures, including The Last Battle! We don’t often see LB art 🙂
Perfect images! Thank you for the large format, we can see the fine details. Whatever Gretwig ends up creating, we’ll always have these stamps!
BTW, that link. Great interview with artist Keith Robinson. If I heard Gretwig’s people talking like that, I’d feel like Narnia was in good hands.
Yes, @Fireberry, I loved reading that interview too! It is awesome he was a big Narnia fan as a kid.
These are so cool! I look forward to actually using them! XD whohooo!!