Sunday 28 April 2013

Wither the Weather

2001: The Weather
“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ”  John Ruskin

 As the seasons seem to be all mixed up at the moment here is a barometer view of the weather. I keep tapping my barometer and it seems to be in a rain to fair loop. This miniature sheet makes even the rain look cheery. There is another twist in that thermochromic ink has been used on the 27p stamp, the heat produced by rubbing with ones fingers changes the grey to sky blue.

The stamps and mini sheet were painted by Tony Meeuwissen whose varied portfolio can be seen here and they were designed by Howard Brown who says it is one of his favourite things to do.

The reason for the issue was the 150th anniversary of weather maps going on sale, I have been unable to find anything about that event however ten years later in 1861 the first public weather forecast was published in The Times newspaper.  The rest as they say is history.

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps

7 comments:

Bob Scotney said...

Lovely stamps, which is more than can be said for the weather again. I missed these.

agi said...

wow what a great mini-sheet, would love to have it in my collection! it must be fun to design stamps, and yet in some countries they do it so much noticeably better than the others...

viridian said...

This is a mini sheet I would keep! It is delightful to see all the details! Love the cats and dogs coming out of the sky. Great design.
Thank you so much for sharing.

Lisa B said...

I totally missed seeing this set, what a beautiful set! I didn't know GB had issued a heat sensitive stamp.

Maria said...

First word upon seeing this was, WOW!!!

This is a really nice souvenir sheet.

VioletSky said...

I almost posted a stamp on weather today, but yours is much more beautiful than mine!! I will have to be on the lookout for this one.

Scriptor Senex said...

Like Lisa I missed this set. Wonderful!