Howard Brown designs Dickens stamps for Royal Mail

Independent stamp designer Howard Brown has designed a set of stamps commemorating the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth year using illustrations by Joseph Clayton Clarke.

2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist
2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist

The set of six stamps, released tomorrow, captures characters from novels including Oliver Twist and The Pickwick papers.

2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist
£1.90, Mr Micawber from David Copperfield

Jospeh Clayton Clarke, also known as Kyd, who worked predominantly in the nineteenth century, was an illustrator, designer of cigarette cards and postcards.

2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist
£1.28, Captain Cuttle from Dombey and Son

Illustrations used for the stamps are taken from his study Character Sketches from Charles Dickens (1890).

2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist
87p, Mrs Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewitt

A miniature sheet of four stamps based on original illustrations by artist Hablot Knight Browne, also known as Phiz, will be released simultaneously.

2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist
1st Class, Mr Pickwick, from The Pickwick Papers

Browne was an illustrator of books by Dickens, and for the sheet of four, his work from Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House, Little Dorrit and a Tale of Two Cities has been used.

2nd Class, Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist
77p, The Marchioness, from The Old Curiosity Shop

Consultancy Interabang has designed a presentation pack for the sheet of four and a first day cover pack for the set of six.

Miniature sheet of four 1st class stamps
Miniature sheet of four 1st class stamps

The first day cover pack shows an ‘illustrated biography’ based around copy commissioned by the consultancy to Dickens’ great great great granddaughter and novelist Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, and new illustrations by Caroline Crunch, according to Interabang co-founder Adam Giles.

Element from Interabang presentation pack design
First day cover presentation pack by Interabang

A tie-up between The Royal Mail and The Royal Mint has led to a third presentation pack, also designed by Interabang, which brings together a Dickens two pound coin and the set of six stamps.

First day cover pack designed by Interabang based on design of serialised Dickens publications
First day cover pack designed by Interabang based on design of serialised Dickens publications
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  • Annabel November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    The illustrations by Joseph Clayton Clarke were licensed through the Bridgeman Art Library for the stamps. I did a feature on the background story behind the characters in Dec 2012. Read on our website here http://bit.ly/MIHHoQ

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