Postal stationery: the Cecil Thomas portrait

During the first 15 years of The Queen's reign, definitive stamps were printed by the photogravure method. As the name suggests, photogravure works best when a photograph is the source for printing. 

Postal stationery (envelopes, registered envelopes, postcards and lettercards) was not printed in the same way. For envelopes and registered envelopes printing was by embossing; for postcards and lettercards it was by letterpress or surface-printing. Both of these required different types of designs to suit the process.

With embossing there were great similarities with designs for coins and medals. A design by Cecil Thomas, approved for use on colonial coinage and certain medals, was sent from the Royal Mint as a starting point for postal stationery. It showed an effigy of The Queen crowned and facing right.

On 6 May 1953 Thomas was commissioned to create a design for an embossed stamp on envelopes. He created a Tudor rose with the head now facing to the left (as required for stamps), and this was shown to The Queen in September. She liked it but her comment was “too many roses” and suggested that the inner rose design surrounding her head should be made into a black circle.

Thomas did as she asked and returned the new design - plus a variant - to the Post Office with the note:

“I enclose photographs of the stamp design amended in accordance with Her Majesty’s suggestions. May I say I think the design much improved thereby.”

The Queen actually chose the variant design, with a thin white circle replacing the inner rose, rather than black. Most unusually, she initialled a bromide print to show her approval. The Cecil Thomas design finally appeared on a registered envelope on 29 November 1954.