Stamp issue 2 March 2005

On 2 March 2005, Post Denmark will issue four stamps to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen (the stamps shown here are only sketches):


DKK 4.50 - Portrait of Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was fascinated by photography and photographic techniques. He was a regular visitor to photography studios in Copenhagen until his death in 1875. Some 160 photographs of Hans Christian Andersen are known to survive. The portrait photo on which the stamp is based was taken by his landlady, Thora Hallager, in the late 1860s.





DKK 5.50 - Hans Christian Andersen the Artist
Hans Christian Andersen was a hugely productive artist. His output includes drawings, paper cuttings, children's picture books and collages. Andersen's urge to cut and paste was as great as his urge to travel and write, and he never went anywhere without scissors and a pen.

The stamp features his own scissors and a paper cutting.





DKK 6.50 - Hans Christian Andersen the Writer
Hans Christian Andersen published 156 fairy tales during his lifetime. A further 18 turned up later on. He also wrote 14 novels and novellas, approximately 50 dramatic stories, a dozen travel diaries, around 800 poems and a profusion of autobiographic works, e.g. letters and diaries.

The stamp features the ugly duckling (drawn by Louis Moe), Hans Christian Andersen's pen and inkwell and an excerpt from the first page of the manuscript for his autobiography "The Story of My Life".





DKK 7.50 - Hans Christian Andersen the Traveller
Hans Christian Andersen was a well travelled man. He made 29 trips abroad, and actually spent approximately nine years of his life outside Denmark. He was interested in modern transport and became one of the first to travel by steam locomotive.

The stamp features Hans Christian Andersen's Moroccan travelling boots and part of his drawing of Villa Borghese in Rome, where he spent Christmas 1833.





The stamps have been designed by the graphic artists Mette and Eric Mourier.

The portrait stamp is printed in intaglio, the other three in a combination of intaglio and offset. The engravings for the intaglio parts are by Lars Sjööblom.