Modern University Buildings

So, this was a splendid Christmas present from my mate Silvia: a set of 1971 postage stamps representing four brilliant modernist university buildings: Percy Thomas and Sons's international style Physical Sciences Building at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (3p); Basil Spence's Faraday Building at the University of Southampton – with shades of his hulking Home Office building (5p); that collision of half-solved Rubik's Snake, Cube and Pyramid – Stirling and Gowan's Engineering building for the University of Leicester (7½p); and the University of Essex's Hexagon Restaurant by those clever johnnies at Architects' Co-Partnership (9p).

The stamps themselves are beautifully illustrated by Nicholas Jenkins, and the accompanying booklet has contrasting, but still delightful, sketches by Ronald Maddox – The British Postal Museum blog has an interesting insight into how both artists pitched for the job and ended up splitting it.

Now I just need to find a way of framing them and the booklet – they're too beautiful to be hidden away in a drawer.