Portraits

My latest delivery of stamps has just arrived and it is the portrait selection from 2006 (SG 2640-2649). They were released to mark the 150th anniversary of the National Portrait Gallery.  Check out the slideshow below:

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Paintings of some of the most influential people in the world are featured. I have managed to acquire the first day of issue 10 stamp set and it was well worth the effort. The detail is extraordinary.

The portraits are:

‘Sir Winston Churchill’ by Walter Sickert

‘Sir Joshua Reynolds’ (self-portrait)

‘T.S. Eliot’ by Patrick Heron

‘Emmeline Pankhurst’ by Georgina Agnes Brackenbury

Virginia Woolf (photo) by George Charles Beresford

Bust of Sir Walter Scott by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantry

‘Mary Seacole’ by Albert Charles Challen

‘William Shakespeare’ attributed to John Taylor

‘Dame Cicely Saunders’ by Catherine Goodman

‘Charles Darwin’ by John Collier

150th Anniversary of National Portrait Gallery (SG 2640-2649)

If you like portraits and you like stamps…well, this will be the thing for you.

 

Music makers making stamps

Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of the great British composers was celebrated with his own stamp in 1972, marking 100 years since his birth.

Ralph Vaughan Williams and Score, Anniversaries 1972 (SG 903)

This is a used stamp that I acquired in a mixed pack about six months ago. It is part of a three stamp 1972 anniversaries series which includes Tutankamun and the coastguards. Yes…all a little random I know. They all mark special anniversaries for each subject. In the case of Tutankamun, 1972 marked 50 years since the discovery and it was 150 years since HM Coastguard was founded.

Statuette of Tutankhamun (SG 901)

19th-century Coastguard (SG 902)

I highlight Vaughan Williams because, other than being a huge fan of his works, he is one of few British composers to make it on to a stamp. Benjamin Britten achieved the feat in 2013 (SG 3459) as part of a Great Britons series which also featured Bill Shankly and Richard Dimbleby.

However, since starting this post, I have stumbled across this First Day Cover in my collection from 1985.

1985 FDC, European Music Year, British Composers (SG 1282-1285)

Edward Elgar, Fredrick Delius, Gustav Holst and George Fredric Handel all feature here. A closer look reveals some clever illustrations depicting some of the composers’ most famous works.

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I am on the lookout for more stamps with composers. Anyone know of any other stamps featuring musical maestros?  If so, get in touch.

King George VI

Let me begin with some of my favourite stamps. King George VI…

King George VI 1937-47 (SG 462-475) & King George VI Queen Elizabeth Coronation (SG 461)

I have always been a fan of the King George VI stamps. Perhaps more so than any other British stamps. The clarity of the stamps always impress me and the colour scheme from green to scarlet, plum and brown is simple and warm. The most striking for me is the 7d green (SG 471). Compared to the others, the brightness is evident.

7d green (SG 471)

I have included the coronation stamp in this collection. Following the abdication of Edward VIII on 11 December 1936, the Post Office faced a race against time to get the King George VI coronation stamps ready. They had a deadline of just five months. Designs were submitted by Eric Gill and Edmund Dulac, with the king preferring the latter’s effort (although there were some alterations).

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Coronation (SG 461)

Interestingly, Dulac also designed the set issued to commemorate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II but he died before their release.