Scott No: 1405-09
Serial number: T25
Values in set: 5
Date of issue: June 15, 1978
Denomination: 40 fen
Designer: Wu Jiankun
Size of stamps: 40*30mm
Perforation: 11*11.5
Sheet composition: 50(5*10)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

T25 "Chemical Fibers" special stamps were issued on June 15, 1978. The set consists of 5 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Wu Jiankun, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 40 mm × 30 mm, perforation gauge 11 × 11.5, 50 stamps per sheet (5 × 10), with a total face value of 0.40 yuan for the set and a circulation of 15 million copies for each stamp. The set is printed as a horizontal five-stamp se-tenant strip.

Theme of the Set

Chemical fibers are important textile raw materials, divided into artificial fibers and synthetic fibers. They can make up for the shortage of natural cotton, linen, silk, and wool raw materials, enrich textile products, and improve the people's clothing supply. In the 1970s, China's chemical fiber industry accelerated construction and went into production, gradually establishing a complete chemical fiber production chain. This set arranges its pictures according to the chemical fiber production process, from raw material preparation, spinning, weaving, and dyeing to finished garments, completely presenting the entire production process of the chemical fiber industry, recording the achievements of China's chemical fiber industry construction, and reflecting the era's goals of developing light industry and safeguarding the people's clothing supply.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Raw Materials

The main subject of the design is a chemical reaction kettle, with the chemical fiber plant area and towers, tanks, and pipelines in the background, and raw material carriers such as petroleum and wood drawn below. Basic raw materials such as petroleum and wood are polymerized through chemical processes to make chemical fiber spinning dope—the starting link of all chemical fiber production.

Spinning

The design presents the spinning process: the spinneret extrudes fine filaments, and the filaments gather and wind onto a bobbin. The spinning dope is extruded through the spinneret plate and, after coagulation and forming, becomes continuous chemical fiber filaments; this is the core process of chemical fiber forming.

Weaving

The design presents a weaving workshop, with neatly arranged looms weaving chemical fiber filaments into gray cloth; elements such as thread bobbins and looms are clear and intuitive. The chemical fiber filaments are processed into gray cloth, laying the foundation for subsequent printing and dyeing.

Printing and Dyeing

The design shows the printing and dyeing process, with color blocks of various dyes paired with gray cloth patterns, representing bleaching, dyeing, and printing processes that give plain gray cloth rich colors and patterns and enhance the beauty of textiles.

Finished Products

The design presents garments made from various chemical fiber fabrics; dresses, shirts, and other clothing are neatly displayed, representing chemical fiber fabrics finally reaching the consumer end and serving the daily life of the masses.

Artistic Design Features

The set uniformly adopts a horizontal stamp format, with the five stamps connected horizontally to form a continuous production scroll. It uses a concise, generalized industrial decorative painting style, with symbolic forms and bright color blocks, downplaying complicated mechanical details to make the chemical fiber production process easy to understand. The photogravure printing has clean, transparent colors, with a unified blue background setting off the industrial atmosphere. The five pictures are logically coherent and highly educational. There is no souvenir sheet for this set. It is a rare se-tenant set on the theme of light industry and chemicals in the JT period.