Guernsey Post announces that it has produced an exhibition miniature sheet to celebrate Valentineâs Day, for release at Spring Stampex 2018 (14-17 February 2018).
The stamps, which will be issued on Valentineâs Day, feature âThe View from the Loverâs Chairâ, which is the work of Paul Jacob Naftel, Guernseyâs most famous and successful artist during the 19th century.
Born in 1817, Naftel was a self-taught artist who specialised in watercolour landscapes, painting many of the Islandâs beautiful bays and landmarks as well as teaching drawing at Guernseyâs Elizabeth College. Many of his early Island scenes were reproduced as lithographs and sold to tourists.
His first wife, Elizabeth Robilliard, was from nearby Alderney, home also to the Sister Rocks, two large rocks off the Islandâs South coast and the natural seat, known as The Loverâs Chair, which is the scene for Naftelâs painting âThe View from the Loverâs Chairâ, depicted across the two stamps.
This secluded seat first bore the name La Chaise de LâEmauve but later became known as The Loverâs Chair when it is said that Alderney girl Jacquine Le Mesurier fell in love with a squire far lower than herself in rank and they used this rocky bower for their clandestine meetings.
The text on the stamps âForever in my heartâ and âFrom me to youâ is written both in English and in Aurignais (ĂĄ jomais dĂ ns mân tchoeur and de mĂ© Ă tĂ©) - the Alderney French Patois which Naftelâs wife would have been familiar with. The ancient local Norman dialect became extinct when the last known native speaker died in around 1960, although some traces of the language still exist in the Islandâs place names.