As a boy, Rob Hallifax lived in various African countries and became fascinated by stamps. As well as picking them up from places he visited, he also enjoyed collecting them from all over the world.
His father was also a philatelist and, more serious about his hobby, he only collected George VI stamps from Commonwealth countries. Together, father and son spent many hours together discussing the exact colour of stamps, or counting the number of perforations – an attribute which can have great bearing on the value of a particular stamp.
This childhood fascination persuaded Rob that the criteria by which one collects stamps are often arbitrary. Traditionally, stamps are collected by country, era, or perhaps by the types of images depicted on them. Rob’s method of gathering stamps for this piece was based on their provenance and colour, as well as how they would come together to form a geography of Britain. The stamps of Britain become Britain of Stamps.
Britain of Stamps is rendered in beautiful, detailed colour following a painstaking process of digitising the original artwork, then retouching each stamp individually.
The result is a convincing reproduction of the original – everyone who has seen it in our studio has reached out to touch what they believed were actual stamps! Furthermore, the pigment inks used in printing and the 100% cotton, archival Hahnemühle substrate means that the colours will stay bright.
Each print is individually numbered by hand, in pencil at the lower right in the form #/100 and comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. Unframed prints from this edition are shipped flat in bend-proof packaging.
Framed prints (see image at the top of this page) use archival materials and, like their unframed counterparts, can be shipped internationally.