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Philatelic production is perhaps not the most obvious subject for a movie
blockbuster, but the immediate and lasting popularity of stamp collecting has
made this one of the most watched films of all time.
The film was commissioned as part of George V's Silver Jubilee celebrations
in 1935. The Jubilee sparked a massive, rather unexpected, outburst of popular
celebration that perhaps prefigured the national unity evident during the Second
World War. Focusing on the commissioning and production of the Silver Jubilee
stamp (the first common colonial stamp designed for a reigning monarch's
jubilee), the film is an odd mix of popular sentiment, social democratic
conviction and imperial propaganda.
The first section shows Barnett Freedman - despite his middle-aged
appearance, a rising commercial artist still in his mid-thirties - sketching
designs at his London home and then working freehand, chiseling a greasy pencil
into a chunk of limestone, to produce a lithostone. In the second third, the
social informality and professional sophistication with which Freedman's designs
become modern stamps are contrasted with staid Victorian attitudes. While Jewish
Eastender Freedman is politely helped with his coat by a senior GPO official, in
this 'period' section Rowland Hill's 19th century attempts to democratise the
postal service by introducing the penny post are resisted as 'unEnglish'.
Eventually, Hill's idea is adopted, but the public still struggle with the
idea of stamps. The queuing hordes worried that the stamps might be poisoned or
fail to work. The film's ridicule of Victorian England - as a land of prejudice,
absurd social snobbery and illiteracy - might surprise contemporary viewers, but
is entirely consistent with the rise of 'managerialism' and other influential
strands of middle-class reformism during the interwar years.
The final section details the rise of stamp collecting. In less than a
century, a hobby that began with young women decorating their bedrooms and was
picked up by enthusiastic young boys, bounded up the social and economic ladder.
The climax is provided by stills from King George V's stamp collection. The
King's interest in, and promotion of, stamp collecting was an important part of
his public appeal. Indeed, it did not escape the King's notice - and apparently
contributed to his good humour - that his Silver Jubilee fell on the 6th May,
exactly 95 years after the issue of the Penny Black. The shots from his
328-album stamp collection have made the film of lasting philatelic
interest.
Scott Anthony *This film is included in the BFI DVD compilation 'Addressing The Nation: The GPO Film Unit Collection Volume 1'.
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1. The design process (2:24)
