Sheet of Chairman Mao artistamps
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
1997
This object is a sheet of 22 artist-designed stamps created by Michael Thompson in 1997. Originating in the United States, the sheet represents an example of mail art executed on paper through offset printing and offset lithography.
The design features repeated portraits depicting the Chinese politician Chairman Mao Zedong across a perforated grid. Two stamps have been excised from the original configuration, leaving twenty-two stamps arranged across rows. The margin of the sheet carries handwritten markings, including the artist's monogram 'MFT', the inscription 'H/P' or 'A/P' signifying an artist's proof, and the date 1997.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Historical context
Michael Thompson created stamp designs as part of mail art experiments. In this practice, Thompson attempted to send letters through the American postal system bearing his own stamp designs, including these depictions of Mao Zedong. Rather than being marked for rejection with a postage due stamp, the envelope franked with stamps from this sheet was treated by the postal service as legitimate postage and received a cancellation postmark in Chicago in 1997. Thompson collaborated from 1994 onward with Michael Hernandez de Luna, co-authoring 'The Stamp Art and Postal History of Michael Thompson and Michael Hernandez de Luna'.
Physical characteristics
- Material
- Offset lithography
Technical characteristics
- Maker recorded
- Michael Thompson
- Place recorded
- USA
Identification
- Source note
- Transcribed from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection record for this single object; how far it represents a wider collectible type has not been independently verified.
- Museum object name
- Stamp
- Museum object number
- E.80:1-2023
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.