http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk APRIL 2016^75the famous Droeshout portrait of
1623, which was reversed so that the
playwright faced towards the familiar
depiction of the queen.
The set features four stamps by
David Gentleman featuring the
Shakespeare plays A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Twelfth Night, Romeo & Juliet
and Henry V, plus a design by Robin &
Christopher Ironside showing a scene
from Hamlet alongside a portrait of the
Queen (see page 41 for more on the
1964 stamps). David Gentleman went
on to create 24 memorable covers for
the 1967 ‘New Penguin Shakespeare’
editions of Shakespeare plays.
The year 1964 also saw the issue of
a Midsummer Night’s Dream stamp by
Czechoslovakia, featuring scenes from
the play in a cartoon style, a Cyprus
stamp featuring a scene from Othello,
and a Shakespeare portrait stamp from
the USA which also featured the skull
from Hamlet.
Just over twenty years later, in
1988, Britain and Australia celebrated
their shared cultural links with an
Australian settlement bi-centenary
stamp which paired William
Shakespeare and John Lennon withSydney Opera House and Sydney
Harbour Bridge. Melbourne designer
Garry Emery saw off competition
from both UK and Australian
designers to have his design featured
on the 34p stamp.
Shakespeare was selected as a top
ten Briton in 2006, as the National
Portrait Gallery marked 150 years.
This time, a portrait attributed to
John Taylor, which is displayed in
the Gallery, was chosen as one of the
1st class stamps. Although Taylor’s
portrait is a world-famous painting
of Shakespeare, there are no existing
portraits of the playwright painted
during his lifetime. The so-called
Droeshout engraving (featured on
the 1964 GB stamp), produced
in 1623 for the first folio of
Shakespeare’s plays, is believed to be
a reliable likeness as it was approved
by Shakespeare’s fellow playwright
Ben Johnson, who worked with him
in London.
Two significant Shakespeare
anniversaries (of his birth and death)
have occurred within the last two
years giving collectors of this theme
plenty of scope. The 450th anniversary
of Shakespeare’s baptism occurred
on 23 April, 2014 and was marked
by a celebratory four-stamp set and
miniature sheet from Gibraltar,
featuring quotes and the bard’s
portrait. Fifty years earlier, Gibraltar
also marked the 400th birth year
anniversary with a stamp showing the
town of Stratford on Avon, a portrait
of Shakespeare and a portrait ofSHAKESPEARE 400
the Queen.
The island of Jersey took a dramatic
approach to the 450th anniversary
with six stamps featuring different
Shakespeare plays, including a chess
piece in a pool of blood (Macbeth), a
skull (Othello) and a dagger piercing a
heart (Romeo & Juliet).
Other countries which issued
Shakespeare 450 stamps include
Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Peru and
Vatican City, each of whom released
stamps featuring a Shakespeare
portrait, whilst Hungary featured a
scene from Hamlet in its Youth 2014
issue. Dramatic scenes from Hamlet
have proved a popular theme on
stamps over the years, with Royal Mail
featuring the play in its 1982 British
Theatre set, following on from a USSR
10k stamp of 1966 which featured
a scene from the 1964 Russian film
Hamlet, directed by Grigori Kozintesv.Shakespeare’s legacy
The world famous Royal Shakespeare
Company (RSC) celebrated its fiftieth
anniversary in 2011, an event marked
by Royal Mail with striking stamps
featuring six RSC plays from its five-
decade history, as well as a four-stamp
miniature sheet featuring the Company’s
Stratford on Avon theatres. The six
stamps carried photos of well-known
actors, including David Tennant as
Hamlet (the Scottish actor also appeared
on the Dr Who stamps in 2013), along
with memorable quotes from the plays,
presented in an informal style designed
to look like handwriting.p74 Theme.indd 75 01/03/2016 11:40