Stamp Advisory Committee
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The Stamp Advisory Committee (SAC) is a committee to advise on the design of British
postage stamps A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the ...
.


History

The committee was originally established as an offshoot of the
Council of Industrial Design The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom charity incorporated by royal charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better". It was instrumental in the pro ...
in 1946. On 21 February 1968 a new
Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
appointed committee was set up and today the SAC advises the United Kingdom's
Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...
on their stamp issuing policy.


Work of the committee

Royal Mail select the subject of upcoming stamp issues and appoint designers to draw up a variety of different possible design for each issue. The committee then review the possible design and advise Royal Mail which they think is the best. The committee's recommendations are not binding on Royal Mail, nor does it select new subjects for stamp issues. The committee is drawn from all walks of life but includes particularly designers, Royal Mail representatives and a British Government representative. No guidelines for stamp issues are provided to either the SAC or Royal Mail. The records of the SAC have been archived at the British
National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...
along with other records of Royal Mail and its predecessors and are available for the public to view as the 30 year embargo elapses.


Controversies

The subjects chosen for British stamps have often been controversial. In 1996 for instance, questions were asked in the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
about the choice of a stamp showing the British children's television character
Muffin the Mule Muffin the Mule is an animated puppet animal character in a British 1946 to 1955 television show for children. The puppet was made in 1933 for Ann Hogarth. The original TV shows featuring the animal character himself were presented by Annette ...
over one showing the designer
William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...
and a government minister was forced to explain that such choices were not part of the work of the SAC. The choice of subjects for a set honouring ''20th Century Women of Achievement'' was equally controversial. And in 1965,
Sir Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissa ...
resigned as chairman of the committee in protest at the increasing commercialism of the Post Office's stamp issuing policy, saying "There had been a change of outlook in the production of stamps with which I was not in sympathy. .... I was afraid that the admission of pictorial stamps would lead to complete banality"


References

{{Reflist


External links


Royal Mail description of stamp design and selection process
Philatelic organisations based in the United Kingdom Philately of the United Kingdom