The King's Stamp

The King's Stamp is a 1935 short film produced by Alberto Cavalcanti under the auspices of the GPO Film Unit and directed by William Coldstream.[1] It was commissioned as part of King George V's Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1935.[2] The music was composed by Benjamin Britten.[3][4]

The King's Stamp
Silver Jubilee 1.5d x 2 on cover 1959 Gravesend Kent
Directed byWilliam Coldstream
Produced byAlberto Cavalcanti
StarringBarnett Freedman et al
Music byBenjamin Britten
CinematographyF.H. Jones
H.E. Fowle
Edited byRichard McNaughton
Production
companies
Release date
  • 1935 (1935)
Running time
20 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Synopsis

The film opens with commercial artist Barnett Freedman[5] sketching designs before working freehand to produce a lithostone. In the second section, Freedman's relaxed dealings with senior GPO officials are contrasted with Rowland Hill's struggles to introduce the penny post'. Hill gets his way eventually, but the public still struggle with the idea of stamps. Victorian England is depicted as snobbish and illiterate, quite unlike the modern Britain run by the clever managers and innovators of the interwar years. As the stamp is being printed, the film turns from black and white to colour.[6]

The final part of the film looks at the rise of stamp collecting, a democratic hobby enjoyed by the young and old of all classes.[7] The film ends with stills from King George V's private stamp collection. The King's interest in stamp collecting was a part of his public appeal and it did not escape the King's notice that his Silver Jubilee, on the 6th May, was exactly 95 years after the first Penny Black. The shots from his 328-album stamp collection made the film of lasting philatelic interest and the enduring popularity of philately has made this one of the most watched documentaries of all time.[8]

Cast
  • Barnett Freedman

References
  1. The Kings Stamp at the BFI's Screenonline
  2. George V Jubilee stamp
  3. Cook, Mervyn, The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten (p.54), Cambridge University Press, 1999
  4. "GPO film makers were pioneers" The Guardian, 10 November 2011
  5. Imperial War Museum's Freedman archives
  6. The Jubilee stamp and other George V stamps at The Postal Museum website
  7. George V Jubilee stamps at The Stamp Exchange
  8. Fix, Anthony Nield, The Digital. "Addressing the Nation: The GPO Film Unit Collection Volume One | DVD Review | Film @ The Digital Fix". Film @ The Digital Fix. Retrieved 2016-12-13.
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