Front:
Greetings uSA
25
HESTPORT
ОСТ
19
1989
Greetings USA95
06880
haly
Back:
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONAL
First Day of Issue: October 19, 1989
First Issue Location: Washington, D.C.
No figures in the Christmas story are more enchanting
than the choirs of angels. They burst upon the simple
shepherds with a joy that proclaims the glory of God,
while also speaking of his care for humanity. During the
first four Christian centuries, angels were shown only as
described in Scripture — handsome, beardless, ordinarily
attired, and standing or moving human-like upon the
ground. As Christian beliefs about angels began to merge
with those in the surrounding world, wings appeared. In
the Middle Ages, angels turned severe-looking. With the
Renaissance, the facial features softened and angels
became joyous boys with curling hair — in time turning
feminine in appearance. In his cachet artwork for this
Maximum Card, which bears America's 1989 Christmas
Traditional stamp in sheet and booklet versions, artist
Tom McNeely captures angels at the height of western
tradition-glowing with gold and light, and proclaiming
with their celestial music the message of “Peace on earth,
good will to men."
No. 89-32
©1989 The Maximum Card Collection
A Division of Unicover Corporation Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007
Original painting by Tom McNeely
