Arnold Machin

Arnold Machin O.B.E, R.A.(30 September 1911 – 9 March 1999) was a British artist, sculptor, coin and stamp designer.

Machin was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1911. He started work at the age of 14 as an apprentice china painter at the Minton Pottery, and during the Depression he learnt to sculpt at the Art School in Stoke-on-Trent. He later moved to Derby, and the Royal Academy in London. After spending the Second World War as a conscientious objector, he returned to modelling and sculpture, and created many notable ceramics which are now prized collectors' items. In 1946 he was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy, was appointed a Master of Sculpture from 1959 to 1966 and became the longest-serving member of the Academy. He was elected an Academician in 1956 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. From 1951 he was a tutor at the Royal College of Art, where he entered the culture that was to bring him his most celebrated commissions.

[edit] Stamp and coin designs

In 1964 Machin was chosen to design a new effigy of the Queen for the decimal coinage, which was to be introduced from 1968; this effigy was used for all British coins until 1984 (it was still on coins of New Zealand and Australia in 1985 and it remained on Canada's coinage until 1989.)

In 1966 the Queen approved Machin's similar design for an effigy of her to be used on what come to be known as the "Machin series" of British definitive postage stamps. The design, which Machin sets in the context of ceramic sculpture, was first used on the 4d value which was issued in June 1967, and has been used on all British definitive stamps (except more recent regional issues) ever since. It is thought that this design is the most reproduced work of art in history with, to date, approximately 320 billion copies produced.^[1] In 2007 the Machin-designed stamp was still in use at its 40th anniversary and to mark the occasion, the Post Office issued a commemorative stamp featuring a photograph of Arnold Machin. It was also available for sale in a miniature sheet which incorporated another stamp with a reproduction of a Machin series stamp as well as two actual £1 Machins in different colours.

[edit] Family

Home of Arnold Machin near Eccleshall

Machin and his wife Patricia had a son, Francis (1949-2007) who was an artist too and an architect.^[2] After Francis died, the possessions of Arnold Machin in his house were sold in auction on September and October 2008 by Cuttlestones.^[3] The possession included the fourth of the final plasters known made to create the Machin stamp series, the three others are kept in the Royal Mail archives.^[4]

[edit] References