Jeffery Matthews

Jeffery Matthews (born 3 April 1928 in London, died April 2023[1]) was a British artist, specialising in postage stamp design from 1959 to 2007. He conceived the Machin definitive series' colour palette in the mid-1980s.

Biography

Early years

Jeffery Matthews was born on 3 April 1928 in London, England. At Brixton School of Building he learnt painting, decorating,[1] interior design study, heraldry and letter typography, and with his friend Alan Harmer graphic design.[2]

Forming a design studio with Alan Harmer who died in 1953,[1] he then became an illustrator and created logotypes, graphic and typographic designs for public administration, firms (packaging for example)[1] and book covers. He diminished these activities during the 1990s.[3]

Stamp design

At the end of the 1950s, Matthews registered to the Council of Industrial Design, which proposed graphic artists to client entities. In 1959, he was amongst the designers the Council proposed to the Post Office; the British postal administration was looking for the design of two stamp series to mark its 300th anniversary. Matthews' project went up to submissions to Queen Elizabeth II.[1] He was then regularly invited to propose stamp projects. His two first postage stamps were issued in 1965 for the 20th anniversary of the United Nations.[3][1]

He was regularly commissioned projects for stamps. From 1965 to 1998 nineteen issues (47 stamps and two sheet borders illustrated), and two miniature sheets in 2005 and 2007.[1] His designs were chosen for six royal events and three philatelic ones: London 1980 International Stamp Exhibition stamp (one of the very few contemporary British stamps printed in intaglio) and the 150th Anniversary of the Penny Black mixing Queens Victoria and Elizabeth II head on the Machin definitive design.[1]

His skills for heraldry permitted him to propose four stamps for the Welsh Assembly in 1978, that went unissued[1] after the result of the 1979 Welsh devolution referendum. Nevertheless his skills were noted by the Post Office which entrusted him with three heraldic issues starting with four stamps for the Quincentenary of the College of Arms in 1984, four for the Order of the Thistle in 1987 and five for the Order of the Garter in 1998.[1]

His final commemorative stamp works were the design of two minisheets for the 2005 End of Second World War and the 40th Anniversary of the Machin stamp series.[1]

The Machin series

In the 1970s, he became involved in the designs of new Machin definitive stamps, picturing Queen Elizabeth II's profile since 1967. When ordered, he designed new symbols for the Regional Machins in 1971, with new digits (Narrower '0' and '½') and letters to match inflation of the postal rates in 1983.[4][1]

Philatelic recognition came from his work on the Machin series colours. In 1976, he prepared the three colours needed for the photograved high value stamps. In the middle of the 1980s, he provided the Post Office with a large palette of colours, sufficient for the new next values. This work was honoured by a mini-sheet of eight stamps and two labels that Matthews designed, which were sold during the Stamp Show 2000.[4]

Early 1980s Royal Mail chose him to design a new definitive design to replace the Machin head. Under the supervision of Post Office design adviser Barry Robinson, Jeffery Matthews prepared alternative essays from March 1982 pictures of the Queen by Lord Snowdon. Matthews used many different positions of the head and shoulders, from profile to full-face. Essays with the latter position were designed from the photographic representation and from a portrait drawn by his son Rory Matthews.[5] But his and two other artists' proposals failed to please the Stamp Advisory Committee.[6]

Matthews proposed some designs to reshape the Machin design into an horizontal format or with a barcode[1] until Arnold Machin was presented with proposals that he refused.[7] However some of Matthews' ideas were used for a horizontal autoadhesive stamp trial in 1997.[1] He proposed a Machin head design with micro-printed text wavy line for the ten pound stamp of 1993 but Brian Craddock's Britannia was chosen.[1]

Family and retirement

Jeffery Matthews was married to Christine who died in 1994, they had two children: illustrator Rory Matthews and a daughter Sarah Jane.[1]

He died at 95 years old in April 2023.[1]

Awards

References and sources
  1. Richard West, "Pomp and circumstance", Stamp Magazine, July 2023, pages 36-42
  2. "Prolific British stamp designer Jeffery Matthews passes away", Gibbons Stamp Monthly, June 2023, page 7.
  3. Interview during Stamp Show 2000 Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Chronicle, October 2000, page 2.
  4. Interview during Stamp Show 2000 Archived 10 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine, The Chronicle, October 2000, page 1.
  5. "Shock Machin head replacements" Archived 23 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Stamp Magazine website, retrieved 21 October 2007.
  6. Muir, Douglas (2007). A Timeless Classic. pp. 209–215.
  7. Muir, Douglas (2007). A Timeless Classic. pp. 217–221.
  8. http://www.ukphilately.org.uk/bpt/rowlast/2004.htm Archived 30 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 9 October 2009
  • Interview with Matthews published in The Chronicle, the journal of the Great Britain Collectors Club, October 2000. The first page is about the Machin series and the second about the Matthews' professional life.
  • Jeffery Matthews at 80.
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