Add nostalgic flair to your holiday letters with these vintage unused Traditional Christmas "Angel Altarpiece" postage stamps! This nostalgic holiday design is perfect for adding a touch of class to your holiday cards and letters or winter save-the-dates and weddings. In pristine mint condition and valid for current postage use, each stamp holds a face value of 10-cents. These USPS postage stamps are suitable for current mailing when used with the total required postage based on the weight of your correspondence. Embrace the charm of winter with this enchanting postage stamp!

Purchase includes a total of TWENTY (20) mint condition postage stamps shown in the product listing photos.

STAMP INFORMATION:

• Name: Angel Altarpiece
• Series: Traditional Christmas
• Year Issued: 1974
• Face Value: 10-cents (USD) per stamp
• Topic(s): Christmas, Holidays, Religious, Altar, Angel, Angel Wings, The Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, New York
• Color(s): Red, Gold
• Printing Method: Photogravure
• Scott Number: 1550
• Adhesion Type: Gummed
• Condition: Genuine Unused USPS Postage Stamps, Ready to Use for USPS Mailings, Mint Condition

GENUINE USPS POSTAGE: These unused vintage postage stamps are perfectly valid for use as current postage for mailing with USPS as long as you use the adequate amount of postage to achieve standard postage rates according to the weight of your mailing. Check current postage rates on the USPS website.

STAMP HISTORY: The 1974 10¢ “Angel Altarpiece” postage stamp was issued by the U.S. Postal Service on October 23, 1974, in Washington, D.C., as part of its Traditional Christmas series. This elegant and reverent stamp features a detail from a Renaissance masterpiece by the Italian painter Melozzo da Forlì (1438–1494) and is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful U.S. Christmas stamps of the 1970s. The design reproduces Melozzo da Forlì’s “Angel with Trumpet,” a fresco fragment originally painted around 1480 as part of a larger composition, The Ascension of Christ, for the Church of Santi Apostoli in Rome. Melozzo was celebrated for his pioneering use of perspective and for the grace and serenity of his angelic figures, which appeared to float effortlessly in heavenly space. The fresco was removed from the church in the 18th century, and surviving sections—including this angel—are now preserved in the Vatican Pinacoteca and the Quirinal Palace in Rome.

For the U.S. stamp, designer Bradbury Thompson adapted Melozzo’s angel for modern printing, using warm, luminous tones of gold, red, and blue to retain the fresco’s Renaissance glow while fitting it within a rectangular frame bordered by perforations.

Today, the “Angel Altarpiece” is remembered as one of the most timeless and artful entries in the U.S. Christmas stamp series. It stands as both a tribute to Renaissance sacred art and a reflection of the Postal Service’s mid-20th-century commitment to transforming fine art into accessible, democratic forms—delivering beauty, faith, and inspiration through the mail to millions of homes each Christmas.

STAMP MEANING & SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE: The “Angel Altarpiece” postage stamp embodies the themes of divine message, heavenly harmony, and the eternal light of faith. It carries the profound resonance of its source material—Melozzo da Forlì’s 15th-century fresco of an angel heralding the Ascension of Christ—and transforms it into a universal symbol of peace, hope, and transcendence.

The angel, central to both the artwork and the stamp, is a messenger between heaven and earth, a bridge between the divine and the human. In Christian tradition, angels are bearers of revelation and comfort, guiding souls toward light and truth. On this stamp, the angel’s gentle expression and downward gaze invite the viewer into a state of contemplation and serenity.

The color palette—glowing golds, deep reds, and celestial blues—reinforces that message. Gold symbolizes the divine light of heaven; red represents love and sacrifice; blue, the infinite and eternal. Together, they form a visual hymn, reminding us that divinity manifests in beauty, order, and the harmony of creation.

The “Angel Altarpiece” stamp serves as a spiritual icon in miniature. It reminds us that beauty itself is a form of prayer, that every message sent in love participates in the divine act of communication, and that even within the ordinary rhythms of the world—like a letter passing through the mail—there can dwell the quiet presence of the sacred.

GUMMED STAMPS: These postage stamps have a traditional moisture-activated gum on the back. These stamps require licking or wetting to adhere to envelopes or other surfaces. To ensure good adhesion, apply vintage gummed stamps to your mailings with a glue stick (we recommend using Elmer's "Re-Stick" glue sticks).

QUESTIONS? We love hearing from our customers and replies to inquires are usually answered the same day. Need more of this stamp? Looking for a particular stamp not found on our website? Want a curated postage set for your special event? Contact us with questions about vintage postage stamps and our services…

TELL YOUR STORY IN STAMPS: We’ve worked with hundreds of couples and their stationers to custom design highly stylized personalized postage sets based on our customer’s life stories. We can help you curate personalized vintage postage sets to commemorate your save-the-date, wedding, shower, announcement, and other special occasions in a truly unique fashion. Drawing on our encyclopedic knowledge of every stamp ever issued by the USPS, and sourcing from our extensive inventory of collectable unused vintage stamps, we’ll help you tell your unique story in stamps!

ABOUT HERITAGE POST HOUSE: Jennifer Kramer is the founder of Heritage Post House, a boutique vintage postage house located in Northern California. Jennifer sources the most beautiful unused vintage postage stamps ever issued by USPS and artfully arranges them into curated postage sets that are sure to add a special touch to your invitations, announcements, and special mailings. In addition to creating pre-arranged postage sets, Jennifer also works with couples (and their stationers) to create one-of-a-kind custom postage arrangements for wedding invitations, save the dates, and other special occasions.


Product Specifications

Length: 0.98 in.
Height: 0.01 in.
Width: 1.57 in.
Weight: 0.01 lbs.