Shock Machin head replacements

In late 1981 the Post Office - through its then Design Adviser, Barry Robinson - decided to undertake work on a potential successor to the Machin design, and thus approached the experienced stamp designer Jeffery Matthews. Matthews recalled: 'I felt that the whole exercise was being driven from some of the hierarchy at The Post Office, from philatelists, and the public. There seemed to be a striving for change, because of the impression that the Machin portrait was looking outdated'. Only in early 2002 did this 'alternative design' work come to light.

Even before Matthews was briefed, The Post Office had decided that new photographic studies of The Queen would be needed, to be taken by Lord Snowdon. The Queen sat for a private photo shoot in March 1982 which was either at Lord Snowdon's London studio or in Buckingham Palace, and around 200 portraits were produced. Snowdon's views were sought on the first essays and, as only two of the photographs from the private shoot are in the Heritage Royal Mail archives, it's presumed that the rest remain in the possession of Lord Snowdon.

Artistic interpretation

Matthews prepared some preliminary ideas in order to brief Lord Snowdon in advance of the photographic session with The Queen in March 1982. In particular it was explained that the portrait would appear against a plain coloured background. It was agreed to explore two basic approaches. The photographic portrait was not disregarded, so Terry Boxall, a retoucher favoured by Lord Snowdon, was asked to work on one of the photographs. The other option was the drawn portrait, based on the same photograph, requiring a capable portraitist who would come to terms with the strict limitations imposed by a stamp design. It was agreed that Jeffery Matthews' own son Rory, a freelance illustrator with skills as both a portraitist and graphic artist, should undertake the task.

By the mid-June 1982 Rory Matthews had completed the portrait, which was copied photographically, so that his father could prepare artwork, offering several options. These included either a light or medium tone background, white gutters, 50% tint gutters, or bleed designs. The value was taken as 151/2p, since this was one of the more difficult to accommodate successfully within the design.

Matthews explained: 'From the artwork, essays were prepared by stamp printers, Harrison and Sons. They were asked to use three styles of the portrait - the original unretouched photograph by Snowdon, the retouched photograph by Tony Boxall, and the drawn portrait by Rory Matthews. Thus a fair evaluation of the three approaches could be made. The essays confirmed our supposition that a drawn portrait was likely to give a more satisfactory result than a photographic portrait'.

Hint of a smile

Various minor improvements were undertaken by the printers, rather than irrevocably altering Rory Matthew's drawn portrait. Further essays were produced, but neither Jeffrey Matthews nor Barry Robinson felt these achieved the improvements hoped for. Nevertheless, they were discussed with Lord Snowdon, Lord Reilly, a member of the Stamp Advisory Committee, John Mackay, Assistant Director of Postal Marketing, and Ron Dearing, Post Office Chairman. Lord Reilly expressed a preference for the retouched photographic approach, while Ron Dearing felt that, before any work was shown to the Queen, a further selection of portraits should be essayed.

Rory Matthews was asked to undertake a few alterations to his drawn portrait as Jeffery Matthews stated: 'Barry (Robinson) and I felt it had now an even stronger likeness to the subject'. Photographs were again produced for Jeffrey Matthews to prepare further artwork - this time adopting either a medium or dark toned background. Essays from this artwork were requested from Harrisons, so that, at the end of November 1982, The Queen, through her personal secretary, Sir William Heseltine, could be informed of the background thinking and progress to date. In December 1982 Heseltine expressed the views of The Queen that the timeless quality of a drawn portrait as opposed to a photograph was desirable, and that a hint of a smile might be appropriate.

Artists approached

With the general principle agreed, both Barry Robinson and Jeffrey Matthews felt further portraits of The Queen should be commissioned. Rory Matthews was asked to prepare another portrait, bearing in mind the comments made by The Queen. The other artists approached were Timothy Whidborne, a portraitist who had already received Royal patronage, John Sargeant, an illustrator in the commercial field, and Brian Sanders, a stamp designer. All were given the same photographs from which to work, and the same brief, but weren't informed with whom they were in competition, so that each would approach the task in a fresh way. To further make things an even playing field all of the artists were paid the same for their commissions. Czeslaw Slania, the world-renowned engraver from Poland, was also asked to produce an experimental engraved portrait for possible use for high values. Slania's design was translated at some point into the redesign of the British postal order.

By March 1983 the four new portraits had been received - photographs were produced and new artwork prepared by Jeffrey Matthews, this time using a denomination of £3.00. For each portrait the artwork was prepared to the same size, and had the same background colour, so that a fair evaluation could ensue. This time the essays by Harrisons were produced on the Jumelle press, and were of a vastly superior quality. For each portrait, the essays were produced with two different tonal strengths of background.

Work continued, including further refined essays, some further work on the portraits by Rory Matthews and Timothy Whidborne, while a retouched photograph submitted by Slania was also essayed. Come April 1984, however, the design work ground to a halt. About a year later some thoughts were given to using the essays based on Rory Matthews' portrait for a market research exercise, but even this was not pursued.

Looking back

So, looking back, how does Jeffery Matthews view this exercise? 'It was very interesting and challenging, and I enjoyed being involved with it, and working with various portraitists. However, I had always felt that the Machin portrait was a recognised and accepted icon that represented The Queen, even if it was not exactly an accurate likeness. If we were going for a portrait which was a more accurate likeness at the time, we would then be committed to reviewing the situation every few years, and bringing the portrait up to date. But that in no way dampened my enthusiasm for the task'.