HM Queen Elizabeth II Stamps & Ephemera

These are some covers signed by Queen Elizabeth's maids of honour at her wedding and coronation; it is not complete.

Another set of rare stamp covers with rare coins limited to 1000 celebrating the silver jubilee.

sarah .......Thanks for posting those nice covers of QEII, you have an amazing collection.

I am interested in your research regarding the 'Smilers' sheets which are still being produced today under the guise of 'Collectors' sheets. I guess Royal Mail no longer wanted to folk to smile when they looked at their stamps !! 
The images of Her Majesty are merely labels to the sheet, not stamps and have no postal validity. Many Philatelic Dealers jumped on the bandwagon of these sheets and started to produce their own, much like any individual. I also produced 'private' smiler sheets although the ones you speak of are of a different ilk. Dealers have special arrangements with Royal Mail. These are usually in limited editions and most often don't sell. Long ago I wondered why they bothered, they cannot possibly make a profit.
Anyway, the Flag stamps are legit, the labels showing the Queen are just that.

Regarding the legitimacy of the sheets in question, I did some checking and did not find anything wrong with the copyright.
The 10 images shown on the labels were not from the 2004 Jersey Commission by Levine/Munday but were produced at a later sitting for 2012 Jubilee by Levine.
That's what I found in my search but I stand corrected if I have missed something 'en route'.

Keep showing your Royal stuff !!

Londonbus1.........and I will never forget your kindness for the Penrose Annual ! 

Glass Equanimity.  Joint collaboration between Chris Levine and Rob Munday.

This is the closest i am going to get to show you how the original lenticular would look with its 3D effect unless you live in Jersey!

This is the 2006 80th Birthday Smiler Sheet. This should have been copyrighted as a Commision by Jersey Heritage Trust as a joint collaboration between Chris Levine and Rob Munday

sarah

Do you have a contract with the Royals ?? 
René
Nice work !!

I concur with Londonbus1 , both on his assessment of sarah 's collection, which is of the utmost impressiveness, and on the smiler sheets (at first I did not understand what that name referred too) which are now used too many times as overprized gimmicks by dealers. I've bought one back a few years back, for the flag stamps, not for the side labels, and have little plans to buy more, unless the flag stamp design itself changes!

Queens 85th Birthday Rolf Harris and Brian Dunlop.

Interestingly the Rolf Harros portrait appears to be missing.  The BBC and Buckingham Palace have no details where it is located.

Wondering if one day it will turn up on ebay

Mara McGregor undertook a number of commissions.  This is a picture of the £1 Jersey Stamp and a signed print of another commission. She has unfortunately passed away.  I did speak to her daughter about her mum's work

Earl of Litchfield signed cover.  Again he has signed below his stamp portrait.

This goes nicely with the lord Snowdon first day cover 

Something a bit different.

As you know I know very little about stamps as in the technicalities but I have tried to learn by reading.  For me the interesting part of the stamp is the picture and history so I dont collect variants or to be honest understand the different types.

On holiday I always go into charity shops to see if they have anything.

In one shop I found these.  As Dorothy Wilding is one of my favourite artists.  I managed to persuade the lady in the shop to let me buy these separately from stamp magazines for £3. They are brilliant reading for anyone trying to learn about Wilding stamps.

I will one day get all my Wildings out and do a complete post on her. 

If any one has any original Dorothy Wilding Photographs please share as I am in the process of setting up a database.  A lot of the  records were lost in the Bond Street bombing in 1940.  However, Dorothy being very particular numbered all her portraits.  I have managed through research to gather a data base which I will share and can hopefully authenticate each portrait.

I did something very similar with Olympic coins a few years ago.  I can now authenticate whether the rare Olympic swimmer coin is genuine all not within a few hundred.

Back to Dorothy Wilding

These are the leaflets.  I will try and share bits of them in the next post and how they shaped my wilding and coronation collection. 

This next article got me interested in Jeffrey Matthew's 1978 designs which I have shown in s previous post.

This article shows some of the 1978 designs that have not been seen before.

The next article should interest stamp collectors and value.

I believe this coronation issue was from 2003 so the world wide web  had been around 9 years but Ebay not so much.

There is an interesting piece in the booklet about coronation stamp investment.

It is interesting that they valued the 1953 South West Africa stamps at £200 due to rarity.







You will be pleased to know I picked up a mint set for the price of £1.56 in February 2020.

Like a lot of people on the site I am guessing they are juggling their computer with their darling offspring.  I apologise for spelling errors on some of my posts during the day but a lot are created via mobile phone as all computers are being used!

Spent the afternoon trying to get my head around quadratic equations for one and chemical equations for the other. So glad I am classed as a key worker.  Once I start to feel better I will go back to work for a rest!  Have at last my computer back so thought I would write a couple of posts tonight.

As you have probably worked out I have a fairly large collection!.  I love finding new artists and stamps of the Queen and researching new information.  The feeling when I have something new to research can sometimes take away the sadness that I sometimes feel.  However, my collection does have ups and downs and I am trying to learn that this is ok as well.  As you probably have noticed, I am enthusiastic about my collection.  It therefore saddens me when I may contact an artist and they can be rude and abrupt and that does happen like it does in all walks of life.  I try not to let it affect me but truthfully it is reflected in my collection and can hurt.  It brings back to me feelings that personally that I am not good enough!

When I come across an artist who has no time for someone or thinks that they are too great to speak to someone like me it reflects in how I research.  Take for example one artist, I contacted him very early in my research. He produced a portrait of the Queen commissioned by Reader's Digest.  The original is in the NPG.  His portrait came 2nd in the Radio Times survey in 2006.  I found an original print, first day covers, the readers Digest from 1986 and the Radio Times as well as first day covers etc. I contacted him to be put through to his PA.  I asked very nicely if he would be kind enough to sign a cover and i was told in no uncertain terms that he was far to famous for that or to speak to me about the work!   I no longer wanted to collect or research further work.

In complete contrast I found by research the PA to another artist who it was no problem to get his signature even though the artist lost the details several times and she kept chasing him around the world! (this was pre COVID times)  His PA was lovely with correspondences etc.   Eventually after numerous informal emails, telephone calls I received my signed postcard.  Later and after a bit more research I found that she was actually related to the Royal family with a title of her own!  The artist in question is world famous and so is she but she took the time to get the signature on a postcard for me.  That makes the item more special that she went to the effort she did to help me.

What i am trying to get to in a round about way is to tell people not to get so concerned that they are missing that one item and fretting that because of it there collection does not feel complete or that they are not good enough.  With a bit of research, different frame mind of thinking and luck something different can come of it and take your collection in a whole new way.

There are pieces in my collection that I am never going to own no matter what I do and I have learnt that is ok.  I have compromised.  The art has not been made into a stamp (Sorry I know I am deviating) but thought people might like to see.  If someone knows differently please tell as I would love to own an Andy Warhol Queen Stamp!

Andy Warhol.  Now i am not sure if I actually like the pieces but if they are good enough for the Queen to buy in 2012 then they need a mention in my collection.  (albeit she did buy the diamond dusted pieces)

I cannot buy the originals so instead I bought an original invitation for the pricey sum of £30 and an original advert for the pricey sum of £10.  I can official say I have a Warhol in my collection lol Enjoy seeing.  I would like to say the portrait by Warhol was not original but from the Peter Grugeon silver Jubilee portrait.