Portrait Of Royalty For Exhibition At Auckland

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27663, 20 May 1955, Page 12

Portrait Of Royalty For Exhibition At Auckland

(New Zealand Press Association)

_ i AUCKLAND, May 19. Locked away in the vault of the Auckland Town Hall is a valuable portrait of Queen Victoria, the prize exhibit for the New Zealand International Stamp Exhibition, which will open at Auckland on July 16. From this portrait was obtained the master die for printing New Zealand’s first postage stamp, released in Auckland on July 18, 1855.

g£ As its frame is old and fragile tho few'dav^hL/ 101 b .t un P ack ed g un'til h a exhibition. ‘ he ° pening ° f the The sketch for the portrait was painted m 1837 by Albert ChaTen when mV°’S ,b Qucen P aid her first visit to the House of Lords. She stood on st»t StCPS ° f th . e House in her robes of state, posing for Chalen. his sk!>toh ter ri nade three c °P ies from ketcb '.. One was given to the Queens mother, the Duchess of Kent ?n < th t o °ir he K i of Pruss ia, and one Of of Port ngal- The Duchess of Kent later gave her original to her son-in-law the Prince Consort. He had « copied by John Buckley. 01 ? g hi a l and the copy were ex9ueen Victoria’s jubilee in 1897, and it was after this that the original was lost. w L as later given ‘o King Castle VI ’ and n ° W hangs in Windsor As far as is known, the King of Prussia s original was destroyed -by bombing in World War 11. y The remaining original was taken from Portugal to England by King Manuel in 1910. In 1947 it was sold by auction, and bought by Mr Lowe