A New Portrait

From 1952 the portrait of The Queen used on stamps was a three-quarter photograph by Dorothy Wilding. However, stamp designers found it difficult to fit this in with other images. A new profile portrait was required. At the same time it was also agreed by the Stamp Advisory Committee to have new definitive stamps. 

The original Stamp Advisory Committee (SAC) was an independent body under the auspices of the Council of Industrial Design. This Council had been first set up in 1944 to be a centre of information and advice for industry and government departments. Since 1945 part of this remit had been postage stamps.

From 1962 the SAC members had been: Sir Kenneth Clark (Chairman), Cecilia Lady Sempill, James Fitton, Sir John Wilson (Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection), Milner Gray, Abram Games, and Professor Richard Guyatt of the Royal College of Art.

In the midst of the arguments in 1965 about possible removal of The Queen’s head from stamps, Sir Kenneth Clark resigned as Chairman. He was replaced by James Fitton who supervised the creation of a new portrait for definitives. A new Post Office-appointed Stamp Advisory Committee replaced the original SAC in 1968.

January 1966 Suggested design by Reginald Brill	January 1966 Suggested design by Stuart Devlin	October 1965 Suggested design by David Gentleman

In November 1965 five artists were invited to submit 'renderings' of The Queen’s head and stamp designs. They were: Reginald Brill (a social realist painter); Stuart Devlin (Australian goldsmith and coin designer); David Gentleman (then working with Postmaster General Tony Benn on revolutionary stamp designs); Arnold Machin (who had designed the decimal coinage effigy); and John Ward (a portrait painter). 

In 1962 Lord Snowdon had taken photographs for the new decimal coinage. These were now used again as the basis for the new stamp portrait. Gentleman produced several designs based directly on the Snowdon photographs. Later he created a wood engraving of The Queen’s head and many designs using it. 

January 1966
Stamp design by Stuart Devlin based on his "rendering" and a Snowdon Photograph

Exclusive: this item features in the exhibition at the RCA

Brill worked in plasticine and Devlin created a plaster cast. Machin drew a large number of rather elaborate sketches based on the Penny Black, his work for coins and his drawings from life. Ward’s early drawings were not developed further.

January 1966
One of the sketches by Arnold Machin based on the Penny Black

At the same time Andrew Restall (Fellow of Minuscule Design at the Royal College of Art), quite separately produced a number of stamp designs which were also essayed.

February 1966
Essay of a design by Andrew Restall

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