Camilo Castelo Branco inspires CTT stamp collection

CTT - Correios de Portugal is launching a collection of Republic stamps dedicated to Camilo Castelo Branco. The official launch will take place on Sunday 16 March, the bicentenary of the novelist's birth (1825-2025). The ceremony will begin at 11.30am at the Camilo House-Museum, located in the parish of Seide São Miguel, in Vila Nova de Famalicão.

The issue consists of four stamps and a philatelic block, which can be purchased for 3.51 euros. The booklet, illustrated by André Carrilho, one of Portugal's most important caricaturists, shows the novelist in the House of São Miguel de Seide, in whose office he installed his Anvil of Letters after 1863 and transformed it into one of the greatest altars of Portuguese literature. The scarf in a continuous leaf alludes to his literary output of 137 titles, corresponding to 180 volumes. The vine, symbolising life, ‘metaphorises the vitality and topicality of his texts’.

The other stamps depict four of the writer's works: ‘Queda de um Anjo’, by illustrator Teresa Lima; “Memórias do Cárcere”, by artist Luis Duran, Head of Design emeritus at CTT; “Amor de Perdição”, whose stamp design was the responsibility of illustrator Nuno Palhas, also known as Third; and “Maria Moisés”, a stamp inspired by an urban art mural in the centre of the city of Famalicense, by the creative project Ruído, by Frederico Draw and Rodrigo Gonçalves.

First day obliterations (the stamp that gives the stamp its value) can be made at CTT Stores in Restauradores and Chiado (Lisbon), Palácio dos Correios (Porto), Zarco (Funchal), Antero de Quental (Ponta Delgada) and Vila Nova de Famalicão.

As well as the stamp collection, CTT will also be publishing the book ‘Places of Life and Fiction in Camilo Castelo Branco’, by José Manuel de Oliveira.