Christmas 2019 - Christmas tree with crystal - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2019 - 270 Euro Cent

A very special Christmas tree: A gleaming polished crystal adorns the top of this unusual typographically designed Christmas tree, giving your Christmas post that special festive touch. The outline of a Christmas tree is set against the green background of this stamp. The tree is only indicated through the iconic shape – we do not see a trunk, needles or branches, and yet we immediately know what it represents. What is especially unusual about this Christmas tree is that it is exclusively composed of white typographical ornaments, which appear as fine decorations on the tree's invisible branches, at the same time forming its outline in silhouette. The filigree elements are reminiscent of light and fluffy angel hair or powdery snow. Typographical curlicues, loops, stylised plant tendrils – the range of decorative forms is extremely varied. Ornaments and typography: Embellishing elements from the decorative arts are referred to as ornaments. They serve to decorate pictures, books, vases, building constructions or pieces of furniture and reflect the concept of beauty prevalent in the pertinent culture and age: from Greek Antiquity, for example, we have the meander, whilst the Jugendstil was known for its floral elements and sweeping lines. Books have been decorated since time immemorial, with the laboriously designed initial letters used in medieval manuscripts or with opulent covers, for example. Ornaments play an important part in typography, the design of a printed work including text which entails far more than simply selecting a font. In the printing profession those glyphs which bear an ornament rather than a letter are referred to as typographical or publishers’ ornaments. Typographical curlicues are added to the letters at the beginning or end of a word. Elements such as vignettes, fleurons (stylised flowers) or tailpieces usually indicate the end of a portion of text or the start of a new chapter, whilst artistic ornaments are used to decorate title pages and the endpaper. As part of the modern “renaissance of classic typography”, these ornaments are once again being included in modern digital writings.