Charles Dickens – One Fifty

2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the death of renowned Victorian writer Charles Dickens. Regarded by many as the greatest writer of his era, we are proud to commemorate his finest works in this wonderful collection of six stamps.

This six stamp collection sees a collaboration with The Charles Dickens Museum and brings together a series of authentic period artworks coupled with a backstory based around Dickens and his best-known novel, A Christmas Carol. The accompanying text written by Geoffrey Sanderson tells the story of Dickens’ most famous novel via original period engravings which have been digitally coloured by our designers. 

Of the set, five stamps feature the colourised original hand-tinted engravings by illustrator John Leech, A Christmas Carol. The stamps chronologically progress through the storyline of the well-loved tale, leading up to our sixth stamp of Dickens in a colourised portrait format.

The sixth image differs from the style of the previous five examples. Featured is a portrait painted by Margaret Gillies, at the time during which the author wrote A Christmas Carol.  This artwork is referred to as the Lost Portrait, as the piece was missing for over 130 years before its recent rediscovery in South Africa.  The portrait is now housed in the Charles Dickens Museum.