Issue date: 29 May, 2009
Stained Glass Windows, as other artwork, have enabled iconographic documentation and made us aware of relevant historic, social, political and religious events throughout the history of mankind. The small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures. The design of a window may be non-figurative or figurative; may incorporate narratives drawn from the Bible, history, or literature; may represent saints or patrons, or use symbolic motifs, in particular armorial. Windows within a building may be thematic, for example: within a church - episodes from the life of Christ; within a parliament building - shields of the constituencies; within a college hall - figures representing the arts and sciences; or within a home - flora, fauna, or landscape. This is the case of the window depicted in this issue which stands in the main stairways of the paper factory in Burgos, an institution belonging to the Spanish National Mint and which refers to the paper making process.
The invention of papermaking has traditionally been attributed to China where it began to be made using silk, rice paste and hem waste. The use of paper spread to the Arabs and from thereon to Spain and the rest of Europe. It is made by making a dilute suspension of the raw material in water and allowing this suspension to drain through a screen so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibers is laid down. Water is removed from this sheet of fibers by pressing and drying in the sun or in warehouses to obtain paper. With time, the process of papermaking developed and became machine manufactured. The papermaking industry has always been on the move and paper, originally only used for handwriting purposes, has now a large number of uses. The window depicted in the souvenir sheet, features the manipulation of the paper paste, the draining and sieving and the process of laying it out in molds and piling up the sheets of paper, which is what is depicted in the actual stamp.
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