Fortieth and Fiftieth Anniversary Prestige Book Panes
PREVIOUS DESIGN: Definitive British stamps went through a transition, beginning in 1952. New definitive postage stamps were designed for Queen Elizabeth II that were very simple, yet elegant and beautiful. These issues are referred to by philatelists as the "Wilding Issues". The stamps reproduced a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II taken during a photographic session on 26 February 1952 by Dorothy Wilding, a photographer who had been working at the Royal Court since 1937. The Wildings, in use between 1952 and 1971, were the first and only British stamps to feature graphite lines on the back, and the first to feature phosphor bands on the face – both aids to automation.
WILDINGS - Continued: The same effigy had appeared on commemorative stamps too. However, the Wilding design did not please some artists. The replacement of the Wildings was initiated by Michael Goaman a British graphic designer who designed stamps for more than 40 countries including Britain and Faith Jacques a designer of a number of British commemorative stamps but primarily know as an illustrator for publications and books, including the first UK edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In a letter sent to the Post Office in April 1961, Goaman and Jacques argued that the Wilder design represented the Queen, but not the monarchy. They complained it embarrassed the commemorative stamps designers because the photograph took up one third of the stamp's area and it imposed a perspective on a two-dimensional design. They further expressed the fact that the Queen was half turned to the viewer was also felt to be unsatisfactory. They proposed an image that would represent the monarchy more than the person of the queen. In 1963, comparing the Wilding portrait with Jacques' proposed design, the Stamp Advisory Committee acknowledged the need for a replacement.
Beginning in late 1961 the Wilder design began showing up cropped, apparently to help alleviate the artistic problems until a new design could be selected. During the mid-1960s, a strong Labor Government was anxious to modernize British society. Then-Postmaster General Tony Benn lobbied for changes within the Post Office to reflect a new society. He wanted to have the monarch's head removed from British postage stamps, and worked with a like-minded designer named David Gentleman to create a series of new definitive stamp designs with the name of the country “Great Britain or U.K.”. This would of course have removed the uniqueness of the United Kingdom in being one of the only producers of postage stamps not to have its country name on its stamps. However, any changes to the designs of a Royal Mail stamp must be approved personally by the Queen; unsurprisingly, she vetoed the changes.
The first use of a David Gentleman silhouette head in a Great Britain stamp design, May 2, 1966
Scott #454
DAVID GENTLEMAN: Between 1962 and 2000 Gentleman designed 103 stamps for the Post Office, making him the most prolific stamp designer in Britain at that time. During the 1965 competition, Gentleman’s definitive stamp designs included an album of experimental photo designs to show how stamps could dispense with the large photograph of the Queen, then mandatory, or alternatively replace it with a smaller profile silhouette, derived initially from Mary Gillick’s coinage head design which had been in use since 1953. After the Queen’s veto of the earlier Benn/Gentleman stamp design changes, a compromise was reached where a Gentleman designed cameo relief would be used on commemorative stamps beginning in 1966. To this day, the wider range of subjects, the profile and the simpler designs that it made possible remain a feature of all British special stamps.
THE COMPETITION: The first essays of the 1965 competition were submitted by Andrew Restall and Arnold Machin with Harrison and Sons printers' assistance. They worked from photographs by Anthony Buckley, then from ones by Lord Snowdon, the Queen's brother-in-law. Machin had just finished work on the new coin's effigy based on Lord Snowdon’s pictures and adapted it for use on the new stamp design. The competition began with more artists officially invited during the summer 1965, but at a meeting on 26 January 1966, the Stamp Advisory Committee (SAC) members decided to let only Gentleman and Machin continue work on the design.
In March 1966, the SAC decided to make new photographs of the Queen available to Gentleman and Machin. They were taken by John Hedgecoe on the following 22nd of June. Elizabeth II selected the pictures to be given to the artists. While Gentleman continued work on the "photographic alternative" Machin continued work on his sculpture. During the second period of 1966, Machin replaced the sculptures coinage head tiara with the George IV State Diadem. Machin's design would eventually have only the Queen's profile and the value of the stamp. The printing essays were then done by Harrisons & Sons from photographs of the sculpture. By late October Harrisons had printed new stamp essays — closely overseen this time by Machin himself, at his own insistence. These essays were without a value and became known as “first Diadem heads”. At the request of the SAC, Machin completed yet another sculpture adding a corsage. This final cast became known as the 'Dressed Head'. During December and January 1967 Machin continued to supervise the printing of new stamp essays until 30 options were ready to present to The Queen. In August 1967 The Queen approved 13 new definitives, stating that she was "glad to give her approval to these stamps which she considers admirable".
ARNOLD MACHIN: Arnold Machin's method was to sculpt a bas-relief in clay and molds based on his previous coin effigy design, which he reworked and corrected depending on what the SAC required. From the philatelic point of view, the "Machins" are far more complex than the simple design might at first suggest, with estimates of over five thousand varieties of color, value, gum, phosphor banding, iridescent overprints, perforations, printing methods and other variations known. Since the first stamps were issued pre-decimalization, they exist in both old and new currencies. As postal rates changed, new denominations became necessary; the design has been adjusted periodically, for instance to use a gradated shade in the background; perforations have been changed; and so forth. In addition, for the regional or "Country" stamps of 1971, the regions symbols designed by Jeffery Matthew were added to the basic design. Initially the stamps were produced by Harrison & Sons using photogravure, with the high-value designs being larger and engraved (intaglio) by Bradbury-Wilkinson. Starting around 1980, The House of Questa and Waddingtons Security Print also took up Machin printing in order to keep up with demand, producing their versions via lithography.
The first Machin stamps were issued pre-decimalization and can be recognized by the "D" for pence, the " / " solidus for shilling and the for pound sterling.
Scott #MH1 - #MH17 shown above
1969 Pre-Decimal Scott #MH21
1972 Decimal Scott #MH168
1977 Decimal Scott #MH169
Apart from the many values of normal-sized stamps, there have been two different formats used for "high-value" definitives. In 1969 a larger and more square format was used to issue stamps of 2/6, 5/-, 10/- and £1 face value, and was used again in 1970 for the decimal currency values of 10p, 20p and 50p. (The £1 stamp had the lettering re-designed in 1972 and was re-issued. This version is usually seen as a 'decimal' edition as opposed to the 'pre-decimal' stamp.) In 1977 a taller portrait format was used for the large £1, £2, and £5 stamps, and also at various times between 1983 and 1987 for the odd values of £1.30, £1.33, £1.41, £1.50 and £1.60. These values were withdrawn after the introduction of the "Castles" high-value stamps of 1988.
Definitive size Machins come in most denomination from 1/2P to 5 and an even greater varitey of colors.
Non-Denominated Machin stamps with non-value indicators (NVI) of 1st and 2nd to indicate the mail classes were introduced August 22, 1989. This was a workaround to deal with the fast-changing postal rates of the times. In 1993 a new style of perforations was introduced, the "Syncopated" perf. which consists of elliptical cutouts on each side of the stamp.
The 1990s brought several major changes to the Machin stamps. Shortly after the introduction of the previously noted 1st and 2nd class non-denominated stamps, Great Britain celebrated the 150th anniversary of the first postage stamp, the Penny Black, and issued a double head Machin which also has the Queen Victoria image used on the Penny Black.
The 1999 "E" NVI stamp was intended for the basic European air mail rate.
Available in both 20 gram and 40 gram rate weights, the stamps designated "Europe" and "Worldwide" were intended to pay postage on mail to Europe or to foreign destinations out Europe. A postcard rate stamp for the same purpose was also issued.
Isle of Man
Wales & Monmouthshire
Northern Ireland
Scotland
British Regional Machin Issues - 1971 - 2000
Isle of Man: In 1971 Great Britain issued four denomination of Machin stamps for the semi-autonomous nation located in the Irish Sea of the Northwest coast of England. These were the only Machins issued for Isle of Man.
Northern Ireland: Regional Machin issues were produced from 1971 to the year 2000 in 77 major varieties according to a Scott catalogue listing.
Scotland: Also produced from 1971 to the year 2000 in 77 major varieties.
Wales & Monmouthshire: Produced from 1971 to the year 2000 in 72 major varieties.
Ways to collect Machins are limited only by imagination
Machin was born in 1911 in Trent Vale to a family of potters. His career began in the pottery industry as a figure painter on china at Mintons, Stoke-on-Trent. A 1929 - 1930 slump in the pottery industry led him to try his luck at the Crown Derby Porcelain Works. He was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Art where his main course of study was sculpture, working mainly in terracotta under Professor Richard Garbe.
In 1940, Machin won a Silver Medal from the Royal College, in the same year Machin's terracotta Mother and Child was accepted for the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, and he began what was to be an important association with Josiah Wedgwood & Sons. During his association with Wedgwood's which continued throughout the 1940s, Machin created more than 20 figures, and a variety of other models, including animals, a chess set and designs for jasper ware. Outstanding are his two bulls, Ferdinand and Taurus. With increasing experimentation and technical mastery Machin built larger pieces, culminating in Spring, a life-size full-length figure which was exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1947, the year he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. He become a full Academician in 1956 and also taught from 1951 to 1958 at the Royal College of Art. Machin became Master of Sculpture at the Royal Academy School, a position he held until 1967. During this period he received his prestigious commissions for coinage and stamp designs and he went on to design the commemorative crown coins for the Royal Silver Wedding in 1972 and Silver Jubilee in 1977.
