Product Description
26 February 2004 - 50th Anniversary of publication of 'The Lord of the Rings' by J R R Tolkien
Royal Mail commemorated the 50th anniversary of the publication of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers in 1954 with a block of 10 x 1st class stamps depicting drawings illustrating locations in the books. All the illustrations are by the author except for the map which is by his son Christopher:
Map of Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings (drawn by Christopher Tolkien); The Forest of Lothlorien (in spring); dust-jacket of The Fellowship of the Ring; Rivendell; The Hall at Bag-End (residence of Bilbo Baggins); Orthanc; Doors of Durin; Barad-Dûr; Minas Tirith; Fangorn Forest.
We produced two pairs of FDCs for this set of 10. In each case one cover has stamps depicting 'evil' and one has the 'good' stamps. One pair is in pencil/charcoal by Mates Laurentiu showing with a goblin marauder on one cover and a dwarven warrior on the other.
The other pair by Lori Snowden is a drawing in pastel shades (similar to the stamps) of a smoking pipe with a figure appearing in the smoke.
In each pair of Norvic FDCs one is postmarked Sarehole Mill and Ringwould.
