Sir.-I write in response to a reader's letter asking about the designs of the Royal Mail's Christmas stamps, particularly the second class stamp.

I have some details which were placed on the packs of stamps issued on the day these came out.

According to the pack, Dumfriesshire-based Andy Goldsworthy creates sculpture in the landscape using the materials of nature immediately to hand and the chance conditions of place, time, weather and season. He has exhibited and worked around the world - including the Northern Territories of Canada and the North Pole.

The sculptures on the stamps are:

Ice spiral on the second class stamp (Glen Marlin Falls, Dumfriesshire, 1995) - Reconstructed icicles around a tree catching the sunlight

Icicle star (Scaur Water, Dumfriesshire, 1987) - Icicles, thick ends dipped in snow then water and held until frozen together

Wall of frozen snow (Izumi-Mura, Japan, 1987) - Carved with a stick almost through to the other side

Ice ball (Scaur Water, Dumfriesshire, 1987) - Thin ice, welded with water from dripping ice, hollow inside

Ice hole (Capenoch, Dumfriesshire, 1996) - Filled in under the branch arch with snow made a hole that changed with the light

Snow pyramids (Grise Fiord, Ellesmere Island, North Pole, 1989) - Spires, moulded from snow.

It is a pity the post office does not seem to advertise this and explain more clearly the origin of new stamps.

-F Hughes, Clarke Estate, Basingstoke.