gb wilding definitives call of the wildings · in that rhe wilding head is the only royalportrair...

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GB WILDING DEFINITIVES Call of theWildings Don't underestimate or overlook the originaI definitive series of the current reign. The WiLdrngs offer fantastic scope for a coL[ection of genuine depth, andreftect a period of radicalchange in the British postaLservice , .G 'oaeoaaaaaaaaao aaaaaaa.aa? ' t | _" t t t r r t t.t't ?, t t, r t t t t t t t'4r t t I { { J t I I I I { a I I ( I I I I t { I I I a I ) a a a a c ? o ? a a ? a e c o e ? II flh a lifespan of jrst 16 . l/1, years,ln companson wrtn Y V the Machins'44years and counting, the Wildings are ofren in dangerof being overshadowed by their successors as Britain's definitive series. But to neglectrhem would be a rravesty. They havea unique claim to fame, in that rhe Wilding head is the only royalportrair ar a three-quarter angle that has everbeenusedsuccessfully on British stamps. They can also boast arristic variery, in that the rangecomprisedfive different designs, albeir with a strong family resemblance. Where rhe Machins havepaper and gum varieties,the Wildings offer che more visual appealofwatermark varieties. And where the Machins had the shake-up of decimalisarion, the Wildings underwenrthe more fundamenral metamorphosis of graphitelines and phosphor bands. ln short, the original Queen ElizaberhIl definirive rangeoffers scopefor a fine collection, wirh rhe benefit that pricesremain within rhe reachof rhe average collector. Stateof readiness One of the first taskson the accession of any monarch is to srart designing new stamps.ln fact, given the failing health ofher father, King George VI, such considerations were being raised for Princess Elizaberhalmost six months beforeher accession. Ahhough no direcr action was taken ar that time, plans were drawn up by the Post Office rhar could be put into immediate acrion should the needarise.Theseinvolved making recommendalions to the Palace as to what might initially be prepared (including a Coronation issue), seeking appropriare poriraits, approaching artists for designs and assessing whac would be required not only in termsofstamps (sheets, rolls and booklets),but also revenues, posral srationery and postal orders. ? I I I I { L t aaa THE AUTHOR Richard West is a former Editor ol Stamp Magazine, and a Great Britain specialist. He researched this featureby examining the fites,artwork and essays hetd by the British PostaI Museum & Archive RIGHT:'rd and 2Y,d Wilding dfinilives, se-tenant inamixed booktel pane of1961 a c c c a o o o a c a o e c t a aaaaaoacaeaaea aaaaaacoe??a 44 www.stampmagazine.co.uk flARc-l 201 j

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Page 1: GB WILDING DEFINITIVES Call of the Wildings · in that rhe Wilding head is the only royalportrair ar a three-quarter angle that has ever been used successfully on British stamps

GB WILDING DEFINITIVES

Call of the WildingsDon't underest imate or over look the or ig inaI def in i t ive ser ies of the current reign.The WiLdrngs of fer fantast ic scope for a coL[ect ion of genuine depth, and ref tect aper iod of radicalchange in the Br i t ish postaLservice

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II f lh a l i fespan of jrst 16

.l /1, years, ln companson wrtnY V the Machins'44 years and

counting, the Wildings are ofren indanger of being overshadowed bytheir successors as Britain's definitiveseries. But to neglect rhem would bea rravesty.

They have a unique claim to fame,in that rhe Wilding head is the onlyroyalportrair ar a three-quarter anglethat has ever been used successfullyon British stamps.

They can also boast arristic variery,in that the range comprised fivedifferent designs, albeir with a strongfamily resemblance.

Where rhe Machins have paper andgum varieties, the Wildings offer chemore visual appeal ofwatermarkvarieties. And where the Machinshad the shake-up of decimalisarion,the Wildings underwenr the morefundamenral metamorphosis ofgraphite lines and phosphor bands.

ln short, the original QueenElizaberh Il definirive range offersscope for a fine collection, wirh rhebenefit that prices remain within rhereach of rhe average collector.

State of readinessOne of the first tasks on the accessionof any monarch is to srart designingnew stamps. ln fact, given the failinghealth ofher father, King George VI,such considerations were being raisedfor Princess Elizaberh almost sixmonths before her accession.

Ahhough no direcr action wastaken ar that time, plans were drawnup by the Post Office rhar could beput into immediate acrion should theneed arise. These involved makingrecommendalions to the Palace as towhat might initially be prepared(including a Coronation issue),seeking appropriare poriraits,approaching artists for designs andassessing whac would be required notonly in terms ofstamps (sheets, rol lsand booklets), but also revenues,posral srationery and postal orders.

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THE AUTHORRichard West isa former Editorol StampMagazine, and aGreat Bri tainspecial ist. Heresearched thisfeature byexamining thefi tes, artworkand essays hetdby the Brit ishPostaI Museum& Archive

RIGHT:'rd and 2Y,dWilding d€finilives,se-tenant in a mixedbooktel pane of 1961

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44 www.stampmagazine.co.uk f lARc - l 201 j

Page 2: GB WILDING DEFINITIVES Call of the Wildings · in that rhe Wilding head is the only royalportrair ar a three-quarter angle that has ever been used successfully on British stamps

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Page 3: GB WILDING DEFINITIVES Call of the Wildings · in that rhe Wilding head is the only royalportrair ar a three-quarter angle that has ever been used successfully on British stamps

GB WILDING DEFINITIVES

SEVEN SISTERSThe Witdings are normatl.y cottected bywatermark varieties and graphite/phosphordevetopments, which add up to seven ctearlydefined sections:

n 1952-51TUDOR CROWN WATE RI.IARKl7 val.ues up to 1s 6d

tr 1955-585T EDWARD'5 CROWN WATERMARK18 vatues up to 1s 6d

o t958-65MULTIPLE CROWNS WATERMARKl7 values up to 1s 6d

D 1957GRAPHITE LINES &ST EDWARD'5 CROWN WATERMARK6vatues up to 3d

tr 1958-59GRAPHITE LINES &MULTIPLE CROWNS WATERMARKI values up to 4%d

tr 1959GRAPHITE LINES, PHOSPHOR BANDS &t'IULTIPLE cRowNS WATERMARK8 vatues up to 4%d

o 1960-67PHOSPHOR BAND5 &MULTIPLE CROWNS WATERMARK17 vatues up to 1s 6d

46 www.stampmagazine.co.uk MARCH 201 1

'The Wilding head is thc orLly rolal portra'tat a three-quarter anglc that has ever been

used successt'ully on British stantps'some radical ideas.

One was to introduce pictoriaJdesigns, of a historicaLor landscapenature, which had only previouslybeen done with high values. But anysuch thoughts were quicklydismissed as they would necessiratereducing the size ofthe Queen'sportrait, which was considered anunacceptable course of act ion.

When, with the advice of rheCounci l of Indusrr ial Design, ashort l ist of potentiaJ art ists wereinvited to submir ideas, their briefwas ro include prominenrly theportrait of the Queen, denominationsin figures or words or both, the words'Postage' and 'Revenue', and thefloral emblems of England, NorthernIreland, Scorland and Wales (as hadfeatured on the King Ceorge VIdefinitive series).

A total of75 submissions werereceived, and an advisory panel setup by rhe Post Office examined them,expressing its preferences andsuggesting changes.

The designs eventualiy chosen werethe work of no fewer rhan fivediffereot artists, each concepr beingused for three or four values. The %d,

1d, 1%d and 2d rvere by Enid Marx,the 2%d,3d and 4d (and the later4%d) by M C Farrar-Bell , rhe 5d, 6dand 7d by G T Knipe, rhe 8d,9d, 10dand 1ld by NlaryAdshead, and thels, ls 3d and ls 6d by EdmundDulac.

All five designs had the Wildingportrair in a ccntraloval frame,although the styles of the framevaried, as did the location and styleof the inscriptions and emblems.

Marx's design was distinguished byits floral frame, for example, Farrar-Bell's by irs 'ER' inscription, Knipe'sby spelJing our the value in words,Adshead's by offserring rhe value andinscript ions wirhin the oval, andDulac's by carrying the mostdecorarion ourside the oval.

The idea of having a special'airmail 'design for rhe 1s 3d hadbeen briefly considered, butquickly dismissed.

Co[our quest ionsThe colours to be used also came infor much discussion, chiefly in orderro avoid any confusion betweendenominations.

Following the change ofcolours of

Page 4: GB WILDING DEFINITIVES Call of the Wildings · in that rhe Wilding head is the only royalportrair ar a three-quarter angle that has ever been used successfully on British stamps

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Page 5: GB WILDING DEFINITIVES Call of the Wildings · in that rhe Wilding head is the only royalportrair ar a three-quarter angle that has ever been used successfully on British stamps

GB WILDING DEFINITIVES

THE SORTING REVOLUTIONThe Post otf ice had been examiningways of automating the sort ing andcancelt ing of maiI since 1934. l t wasfinal. ty ready to try i t for real. in 1957, soover the next ihree years the Witdingdefint ives found themsetves at theforefront of a revotut ion in postatmechanisation.

The key requirement was automatictetter-facing: ensuring that al. tenvetopes passed through the machineswith their addresses on the same sideand upright.

Fortunatety, from the birth of thePenny Btack onwards, i t had beenaccepted that Postage stamPs wereatf ixed to the top r ight of the front of anenvetope, so i t the technotogy coutddetect where the stamp was, a hugehurd[e would be overcome.

GRAPHITE LINESThe f irst attempt to tag stamps was byprint ing btack str ips of cottoidatgraphite in naphtha on the back of thembefore the gum was apptied. Thissystem was known as naphthadag', with'dag standing for deftoccutatedAcheson's graphite.

ALF [Automatic Letter Facinglequipment was being instatted atSouthampton for the f irst tr ial , to starton December'19, 1957, so the f irststamps with graphite [ ines were put onsal.e in the Southampton area one montheart ier, on November 19.

These were the six definit ive valuesfrom %d to 3d, avai l .a6te in sheets orcoits, with the St Edward's Crownwatermark upright. Each vatue had twovert icat t ines on the back [one on eachsidel except for the 2d, which had.iustone lon the r ight, as viewed from thebackl to attow mait at the printedpaper rate to be separated from otherpostat i tems.

In 1958 and 1959, at[ six vatuesappeared with the Mutt ipte Crownswatermark, and 4d and 4y2d va[ues wereadded to the graphite t ine-up.

Booktets were atso producedcontaining these stamps, and as a resuttat[ can be found with the watermarkupright or inverted.

Stamps can atso be found withmispl.aced graphite Lines. These wereprinted from teft-over stocks ofgraphite-t ined paper in 1961, oncegraphite was no Longer required foroperationat purposes so the posi l ioningof ihe Lines was immaterial. .

Nffi

AB0VE: Souvenircover 0f14arch 1958, n0tingthe use 0f etectronic letter-lacing and sorting equipment inSouthampt0n, and bearingthe Iange 0f graphile-Lined slampsuploid invatue

PH OSPH OR-GRAPH ITEAmong the atternative ideas whiich had[ong been under consideration fordetecting stamps automatical[y wasphosphorescence: the af ter-gtow resutt ingfrom exposure to u[tra-viotet t ight.

By Aprit 1959 Harrisons reported thatsuitable phosphor ink had been devetoped,and by August i t was confirmed that i t gavea satisfactory signat. l t woul.d atso be acheaper approach than graphite.

I t was not possibte simuttaneousty toconvert atI the eouioment in use atSouthampton to read the phosphor, so foran interim period stamps woutd berequired with both graphite and phosphor.

Thus, the remaining stocks of sheets ofgraphite-t ined stamps were overprintedwith phosphor, and issued on November18, 1959. Each vatue was given two bands,except the 2d which had just one.

The y?d, 1d and lyrd exist onty with the StEdward's Crown watermark, and the 3d,4dand 4%d ontywith the Mutt ipte Crowns

&. n. aoQ 4 4,t , F"e..7. o. 6or tl.. j,

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LEFT: FitstdaycoveroJthe phosphor-graphiteissue. datedNovemberlS,1959

watermark, The 2d and 2%d can be foundwith either, atthough i t is betieved the 27rdwas never put on pubtic sate.

PHOSPHOR ALONEBy the end of 1959, i t had been ascertainedthat usinq phosphor atone woutd prove aneffect ive means of sort ing mait, and in thefirst hatf of '1960 att the machinery atSouthampton was converted for thispurpose.

A month before the equipment wasready. on June 22, '1960, stamps with. iustphosphor and no graphite were put on satein the area, start inq with aI vatues up to4d, ptus 6d and 1s 3d.

Gradualty, the use of phosphor extendedbeyond Southampton, and wiihin a fewyears i t was being used nationwide. By1967 i t had been added to at l 17 values inthe Wil.dings range.

Speciat ist cottectors recognise dif lerenttypes of phosphor, dist inguishabte by thecotour of the after-gtow.

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48 www.stampmagazine.co.uk NIARCI 201

Page 6: GB WILDING DEFINITIVES Call of the Wildings · in that rhe Wilding head is the only royalportrair ar a three-quarter angle that has ever been used successfully on British stamps

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Page 7: GB WILDING DEFINITIVES Call of the Wildings · in that rhe Wilding head is the only royalportrair ar a three-quarter angle that has ever been used successfully on British stamps

GB WILDING DEFINITIVES

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'Three differentacross the lifetime

watermarks were usedof the Wilding series, and

they can be collected inverted and sideways'Queen Elizabeth), so the'E2R'wasdropped from all stamp paper,leavingjusc a pattern of the StEdward's Crown, known simply as'Multiple Crowns'.

ln 1954 an experimenralwarermark was tried, on the 3d valuewithout phosphor bands: itcomprised a'T' shape sideways, mosteasily visible in rhe sheet margins.

Booktets and coitsln addition to sheets, the mostcommonly used values were alsoissued in rolls (coils) and bookiets.

At the beginning of rhe reign, whenonly a few values had been issuedwith the Queen's porrrair, ir wasnecessary to make up bookletscontaining a mixture ofthe newdefinir ives and rhose ofKingGeorge VI. There are a handful ofsuch booklets, with combinatio,.rsadding up ro 2s 6d and 5s, whichmake unusual collectables.

Some booklets included panes ofrhe 1d and 3d values se-tenant, andothers had panes of the \d and 2lzdse'aenant.

Panes were generally printed fromspecial cylinders that had half of thestamps inverted. During booklet

DID YOU KNOW?A design verysimitarto thatby G T Knipe forthe 5d, 6d and7d Witdingswas adopted byOibrattartor i ts def ini t iveseries issued in 1999.

iffil ffilt,\G4[tw4tt

production, all tcte b'checombinations should have beenseparated, but faulty guillotiningofthe panes meant rhat some suchParrs exLst.

Some coil stamps were dispensed ina verl ical st p, and others in ahorizontal strip.

Watermark var iet iesOn sheet stamps, and those fromcoils dispensed in a vert icalsrr ip, rhewatermark was always uprighr.However, stamps from coilsdispensed in a horizontalstr ip hadthe warermark sideways: whenviewed from the front o[ the stamp,rhe tops ofthe crowns are on the lefr.

As the cylinders used to printbookler panes had half rhe stampsinverted, half of al l booklet paneshave rhe watermark inverted.

The exceptions are panes from the2s booklets issued from 1961onwatds (excluding the 1963 ones forsale in holiday resorts), whichcomprise four stamps printed so thatthe watermark is sideways; again halfthe panes are inverted, so in this casethe tops ofthe crowns can be foundto either the lefr or rhe right.

Paper changesThe paper initially used for theWilding definit ives is described as'cream'. However, it was found thatheavy rain tended to cleanse thewater supply at Ivybridge Mills inDevon, where the paper used byHarrisons was produced, and thishad the effect ofwhitening the paper.

It was therefore decided chat from1962 the warer supply would befi l tered, result ing in a'white wove'paper. Accordingly, stamps from the1958-65 prinrings, wirh the MuhipleCrowns watermark and withourphosphor, can be found on either

50 www.stampmagazine.co.uk MARCH 201 1

8tl0W: Erors ii lheWitding series mosttycomprisemisperloralionsorfiissing pe 0rati0ns

'cream' or 'white' paper.An addit ional paper variety dates

from 1963, with the release of chefirst experimental 2s bookletscontaining a mixture ol lzd, and,2Vdstamps for sale at holiday resorts.UniqueLy, rhese had the srampsprinted on chalk-surfaced paper.

Errors & ftawsThe errors found in the Wildingseries are mainly missingperforarions, but there are also someconstant vanetle5.

Page 8: GB WILDING DEFINITIVES Call of the Wildings · in that rhe Wilding head is the only royalportrair ar a three-quarter angle that has ever been used successfully on British stamps

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