Slate is a daily magazine on the web. Founded in 1996, we are a general-interest publication offering analysis and commentary about politics, news, business, technology, and culture. The Eye is Slate's Design Blog, and a recent article, included below, shows us some gorgeous stamps issued to honor writer English crime writer Agatha Christie.
Britain Releases Postage Stamps Embedded With Hidden Clues to Honor Agatha Christie
“Poirot and Hastings investigate the crime scene,” Sutherland said, “forming the skull, as the murderer used poison. The whole stamp is then reproduced in miniature on the poison bottle.”
It’s been 100 years since Agatha Christie wrote her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (published in 1920), giving life to Hercule Poirot. To mark the occasion, the U.K.’s Royal Mail has released a set of innovative stamps dedicated to six of her most famous works.
Designed by London-based Studio Sutherland in collaboration with British illustrator Neil Webb, the stamps are dedicated to key scenes and principal characters from Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Body in the Library, And Then There Were None, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and A Murder Is Announced.
“The killer with his knife is the shadow of the lead character,” Sutherland said. “His lover's suicide note he reads was the cause of his death, and this is reprinted in full in micro text. Point looks on from the flames.”
“The island is the profile of the unknown killer and host,” Sutherland said. “The poem, key to the plot, is the moon’s reflection. The mysterious U.N. Owen appears at the lit window.”
“The killer bursts in at a preannounced time (6:30) to shoot at the hostess,” Sutherland said. “She holds the newspaper where he announced his plans. UV ink reveals the clock face. Miss Marple appears on the scene.”
Mystery lovers can use UV light, body heat, or a magnifying glass to search for clues from each book that are embedded into the stamps using microtext and heat-sensitive and UV inks.
“Trying to sum up complex plots in one frame is tricky but very rewarding,” designer Jim Sutherland said in an email, “without giving anything away, other than the clues to the murderers.”
“Miss Marple investigates a body found in the library,” Sutherland said. “Her previous books appear on the shelves behind.”
“The red kimono character is a red herring, distracting the viewer from the killer hidden behind a heat sensitive ink curtain (you simply put your finger on the and curtain disappears),” Sutherland said. “The suspects are all printed in micro text along the train rail. I loved the idea that you need magnifying glass to read some of the clues—asstamp collectors use them as well as sleuths.”
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