Norvic Philatelics - GB New Stamps and Special Postmarks
The National Portrait Gallery was established in 1856 after 10 years of effort by the 5th Earl Stanhope. and his supporters, including Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) and Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). Stanhope first introduced the idea to the House of Commons in 1846; he tried again in 1852 and after he took his seat in the House of Lords he tried for a third time in 1856.
The Gallery was established with the criteria that it was to be about history, not about art, and about the status of the sitter, rather than the quality or character of a particular image considered as a work of art. As the guardian of more than 9,000 portraits of famous men and women and boasting a phenomenal archive, library and information technology gallery, the NPG rules the roost as a pictorial Who’s Who of British history.
As foreast this will be a set of 10 x 1st class; we think that it will be
issued in a se-tenant block. The stamps depict:
Sir Winston Churchill, statesman, politician, author, artist; portrait
painter Sir Joshua Reynolds; poet and playwright TS Elliot; suffragette,
Emmeline Pankhurst; novelist, Virginia Woolf; novelist and poet Sir Walter
Scott; Mary Seacole the pioneer of battlefield nursing from the Crimean
War; William Shakespeare; Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern
hospice movement and the father of modern evolution theory Charles Darwin.
Sir Winston Churchill. Artist: Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942); Date: 1927; Medium: oil on canvas; Measurements: 18 in. x 12 in. (457 mm x 305 mm); On display at the National Portrait Gallery. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965), Politician, Prime Minister, Statesman. Stamp shows whole painting.
Sir Joshua Reynolds. Artist: self-portrait; Date: circa 1747-1749; Medium: oil on canvas; Measurements: 25 in. x 29 1/4 in. (635 mm x 743 mm); Not on display. Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), Painter and theorist, the first President of the Royal Academy in London, and the artist responsible, more than any other, for raising the status and prestige of artists in Britain. Born in Plympton near Plymouth. Stamp shows detail of painting.
TS Eliot. Artist: Patrick Heron (1920-1999), Painter and art critic; Date: 1949; Medium: oil on canvas; Measurements: 30 in. x 24 3/4 in. (762 mm x 629 mm); On display at the National Portrait Gallery. Thomas Stearns (‘T.S.’) Eliot (1888-1965), Poet. Intellectually demanding and stylistically innovative, Eliot is a writer of outstanding importance in modern English literature, and the author of The Waste Land (1922), Murder in the Cathedral (1935), Four Quartets (1944) and The Cocktail Party (1949). Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939), a book of light verse, is the basis of the musical stage show, Cats. Stamp shows most of the painting.
Emmeline Pankhurst. Artist: Georgina Agnes Brackenbury (1866-1949); Date: 1927; Medium: oil on canvas; Measurements: 31 in. x 24 1/4 in. (787 mm x 616 mm); On display at the National Portrait Gallery. Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), Militant suffragette. The leader of the militant movement for women’s suffrage, in 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union with her daughter Christabel. Georgina Agnes Brackenbury (1865-1949) studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1888-1900. She was a member of both the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies and the Women’s Social and Political Union. Stamp shows most of the painting.
Virginia Woolf. Artist: George Charles Beresford (1864-1938), Photographer; Date: 1902; Medium: platinum print; Measurements: 6 in. x 4 1/4 in. (152 mm x 108 mm); Not on display. Virginia Woolf (née Stephen) (1882-1941), Novelist and critic; sister of Vanessa Bell. This photograph was taken in July 1902, when Virginia Woolf (Virginia Stephen as she was then) was just embarking on her career as a writer and when the photographer George Charles Beresford had recently set up a commercial studio at 20 Yeoman’s Row SW3, off the Brompton Road.
Sir Walter Scott. Artist: Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841), Sculptor; Date: 1841 (1820); Medium: marble bust; Measurements: 30 in. (762 mm) high; On display at the National Portrait Gallery. Sir Walter Scott, 1st Bt (1771-1832), Novelist and poet.
Mary Seacole. Artist: Albert Charles Challen (1847-1881); Date: 1869; Medium: oil on panel; Measurements: 9 1/2 in. x 6 1/4 in. (240 mm x 180 mm); Not on display. Mary Jane Seacole (née Grant) (1805-1881), Jamaican nurse, adventurer and writer. This, the only known painted portrait of Seacole, has been lent to the National Portrait Gallery by its owner. The newly discovered portrait, the only oil portrait identified as Mary Seacole, is by an obscure London artist called Albert Challen and dates from 1869. Stamp shows whole painting.
William Shakespeare. Artist: John Taylor (died 1651); Date: circa 1610; Medium: oil on canvas, feigned oval; Measurements: 21 3/4 in. x 17 1/4 in. (552 mm x 438 mm); Not on display. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Dramatist and poet. The most celebrated English playwright and poet, and one of the great writers of all time, Shakespeare was highly esteemed during his life. This is the only portrait of him which has a real claim to have been painted from life. Stamp shows whole painting.
Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders. Artist: Catherine Goodman (1961-); Date: 2005; Medium: oil on canvas; Measurements: 35 7/8 in. x 27 7/8 in. (912 mm x 707 mm); Not on display. Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders (1918-2005), Founder of the hospice movement. Stamp shows whole painting.
Charles Darwin Copy by John Collier. Artist: John Collier (1850-1934), Painter and writer on art; Date: 1883 (1881); Medium: oil on canvas; Measurements: 49 1/2 in. x 38 in. (1257 mm x 965 mm); On display at the National Portrait Gallery. Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), Naturalist and originator of the theory of evolution. Stamp shows detail of painting.
Technical details: The 27 x 37mm stamps are printed in 4-colour gravure by De La Rue Security Print. Design is by Peter Willberg.
The images except for Norvic FDCs are copyright Royal Mail 2006.
As usual we have produced an exclusive FDC for this issue. The cover is illustrated with a specially-commissioned watercolour of the Gallery, as shown below, and will be available with a choice of postmarks, either L10116 or L10125 - Price £8.95
Set on PO FDC (see below) Price £5.25
- we will have L10116, L10125, L10124, & L10117, please order from
the online store or email us using the link lower down this page.
Also available:
Mint block of 10 - £4.00 - individual stamps 45p each.
PO stamp cards - these are postcard-sized reproductions of the stamps:
price £4.50 for a set of 10.
Presentation pack - price £4.75
Special postmarks available on the day of issue are shown here; (these may not be to scale).
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| Ref FD625 Official Philatelic Bureau FDI postmark |
Ref FD626 Official London WC2 FDI postmark |
Ref FD625N Official London WC2 FDI non-pictorial postmark |
Ref L10116 National Portrait Gallery Celebrates 150 Years, London WC2 |
Ref L10117 The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, London SW1 |
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| Ref L10120 150th Anniversary NPG, Southwark, London SE1, showing Shakespeare's Globe Theatre |
Ref L10121 150th Anniversary NPG, Walmer, Deal, showing Walmer Castle |
Ref L10122 150th Anniversary NPG, Trafalgar Square, London WC2, showing the Gallery |
Ref W10129 150th Anniversary NPG, Plympton, Plymouth showing Sir Joshua Reynolds |
Ref M10126 Rowland's Road, Birmingham |
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| Ref L10123 Great Britons on Canvas, St Martin's Place, London |
Ref L10124 National Portrait Galery, St Martin's Place, London WC2 |
Ref L10125 National Portrait Galery, 1856-2006, London WC2 |
Ref L10128 Portraits on Pub Signs, London WC2 |
Ref L10129 From Paint to Pixel, Bletchley Park Post Office Milton Keynes |
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Ref L10154 International Churchill Society, Churchill, Oxford |
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<<<<< Ref L10136 The Great Britons, British St, London EC3 |
This page updated 22 July 2006
If you have any questions about these stamps or FDCs please email us.
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February 7 British Journey - England 23 Bicentenary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel |
March 1 Welsh Assembly MS 7 Fun Fruit 'n' Veg Smilers 21 Ice Age Animals 28 New definitives and country stamps |
April 18 80th Birthday of HM The Queen |
May 25 Smilers Sheet for Washington 2006 Stamp Expo |
June 6 World Cup (Soccer) & Smilers Sheet 20 Modern Architecture |
| July 4 Generic Smilers Sheet - pictorial definitives 18 150th ann National Portrait Gallery |
August 1 & 15 New PIP definitives for new postage rate structure 31 Miniature sheet: Year of the Three Kings 1936 |
September 12 New PIP definitives 21 Victoria Cross |
October 3 Sounds of Britain (Europa) 17 Smilers Booklet and Generic sheet |
November 7 Christmas 9 Lest We Forget 14 Belgica 2006 Smilers Sheet 30 St Andrew's Day |
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