The This is Belgium VI series focuses this time on Belgian music. The ten names - solo per-formers and ensembles - in this book represent every aspect of Belgium's musical wealth and diversity.
Karl Meersman, who designed this handsome postage stamp sheetlet, expressed his experience
of thè process as follows:
'My ambition was to make ten fascinating portraits in a sober yet intense environment. I had to have a unifying theme and I happened upon thè idea using thè circular form of a CD in the stamps.
It took a lot of puzzling over because thèestamps have to be strong and well balanced both on their own and together. This is the foundation, the spine. Each stamp also had to have a reference to
the genre (a choir for Herreweghe, a doublé bass for Vaya Con Dios).
The third challenge was the use of thè right colours for each personality: red for Queen Elisabeth, sepia tints for Jacques Brel,
dark green for dEUS.
Incidentally, is there anything as nice as receiving a handwritten letter with a beautiful stamp?
Maybe so: designing thè stamp yourself. A miniature that catches the eye.'
Philately has been considered as an "auxiliary science of history" because it is based on the general principles of other sciences, which in turn contribute to enrich it. It acquires knowledge of the sciences, of the arts, of languages and opens an immense road of social relations through all countries. This science broadens broad horizons of culture, discovers artistic temperaments and offers the interest of the new and the unknown, while performing a positive therapeutic wor.
