Designs from Beijing’s Palace Museum on May 18 UNPA issue

By David Hartwig

Ten stamps on a pane issued May 18 by the United Nations Postal Administration commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Palace Museum in Beijing, as well as International Museum Day.

The stamps are for use from the UNPA post office at the U.N. headquarters in New York City, and the $1.65 denomination pays the United States Postal Service rate for international mail.

International Museum Day takes place annually on or around May 18 after the International Council of Museums started observing the day in 1977. Since 1992 the event has adopted an annual theme, which is “The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities” for 2025.

The Palace Museum, founded in 1925, was built on the site of the Ming and Qing imperial palaces in Beijing’s Forbidden City, which was listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1987. The museum complex covers 180 acres and is home to 1.86 million pieces of art, including paintings, ceramics and rare books.

The pane of 10 stamps “highlights the cultural and historical value of the Palace Museum as a World Cultural Heritage site and conveys the unique charm of Chinese traditional culture to the world,” the UNPA says.

Each of the stamps shows a floral design from one of 10 artifacts in the museum’s collection.

From top to bottom on the left side of the pane is a piece of artwork by Yu Zhi depicting crabapple blossoms, a black lacquer bed with mother-of-pearl inlay of flower and bird patterns, a jewel-inlaid gold cup, a treasure bonsai in a gold pot, and a painted enamel plate with pedestal known as a stem plate.

All of the artifacts on the above stamps are dated from the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), except for the black lacquer bed, which is from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

Starting from top to bottom on the right side, the first stamp shows a green satin costume with embroidered floral patterns, and the second shows a enamel painted yellow-glazed bowl with orchid and rock design. Both of these artifacts are from the Qing dynasty.

The red lacquer dish with Narcissus daffodil flowers on the next stamp down is from the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), and the design of the fourth stamp down is found on a birchwood box with multi-gem inlays from the Ming dynasty.

The stamp at the bottom of the right row shows glazed tiles from the screen wall inside a gate at the Hall of Mental Cultivation, built during the Ming dynasty and reconstructed during the Qing dynasty.

At the left of each stamp is a se-tenant (side-by-side) label with the U.N. logo. Although the UNPA calls this pane a “special event sheet,” customers can personalize the labels with a photograph replacing the U.N. logo by visiting the U.N. headquarters or by uploading their photographs to the UNPA website.

The stamps were printed by Cartor Security Printing in a quantity of 16,800 sheets of 10. Each stamp measures 40.6 millimeters by 29.8mm, the tabs measure 26.6mm by 29.8mm, and each pane of 10 is 279.4mm by 215.9mm.

For ordering information for these stamps and related products, visit the UNPA website; email unpanyinquiries@un.org; telephone 212-963-7684 or 800-234-8672; or write to UNPA, Box 5900, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-5900.

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