A rare prototype bas-relief plaster portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, made in 1966 as part of the process of designing the iconic image of the monarch on postage stamps, is expected to sell for £3,000-5,000 in the Stamps, Postcards and Postal History Sale at Tennants Auctioneers on 6th March.
The portrait was created by Arnold Machin, artist, sculptor and coin and postage stamp designer. It is an early variation that was subsequently amended to become the accepted ‘dressed’ head version, in which the Queen wears a different tiara and a pearl necklace. The present earlier portrait is a more naturalistic rendering of the Queen, without pearls and wearing the Queen Mary’s Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara, similar to the portrait featured on the decimal coinage that was designed by Machin two years earlier.
The plaster model was removed with permission from the Postmaster General’s office by the vendor’s father, ahead of building works in the General Post Office’s headquarters around 1970. Only one other plaster model of this portrait is thought to exist, which is held in the collection of the National Postal Museum.
Tennants’ Stamp Consultant Joseph Addison says of the portrait: “This is a remarkable piece of British postage stamp history and tells the story of the evolution of the iconic image of Queen Elizabeth II that was to adorn stamps across the world for decades, becoming what is thought to be the most reproduced artwork ever made.”
Arnold Machin (1911-1999) was born in Stoke-on-Trent and began his working life aged just 14 as an apprentice china painter at the Minton Pottery. A talented artist, he went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London, later returning to teach at the illustrious institution and being welcomed as a Royal Academician following a stint in prison during the Second World War as a conscientious objector.
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