Many British stamps become rarities.

But few become such favourites as the so-called Seahorses series.

These stamps were the high-value issues of George V’s reign.

George sat on the throne from May 5, 1910 to January 20, 1936.

His reign has a number of interesting issues, but perhaps none so appreciated by collectors and stamp connoisseurs as the Seahorses.

And like many great creations, they were the work of many hands.

Here are five men who created this rare historic favourite. 

A 2/6d Seahorses stamp in wonderful condition really shows off why this design is so well loved. 

1 - George V loved stamps

Diarist (and diplomat, politician, journalist, gardener…) Harold Nicholson didn’t think much of George V.

"He may be all right as a young midshipman and a wise old king, but when he was Duke of York ... he did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps."

In fact, Nicholson took three opportunities to disparage the king’s love of philately. It may not have been the greatest popular or political triumph, but George V’s stamp collecting helped make the British Royal Philatelic Collection one of the biggest and most valuable in world history.

Was he dull? Some said so, but George's love of stamps produced some great work. 

And, his enthusiasm meant he paid attention to the stamps produced in his name and with his portrait on.

2 - An Australian designed the portrait of the king

If he was “dull” as Nicholson said, King George V did have taste of a sort.

And he disliked most art.

One of the few exceptions he made was for an Australian sculptor called Edgar Bertram Mackennal.

Mackennal first came to London in 1882 but had his breakthrough success as an artist in Paris.

The bronze he sculpted for show at the Paris Salon of 1892 proved too risque to be shown without draping at the Royal Academy in London.

Despite this, not long after he started to get official work, including a Boer War memorial, and several statues of Queen Victoria.

When the Olympics came to London in 1908 he designed the medals.

That made him a natural choice to put the new King’s head on his Coronation Medal in 1910.

Australian Bertram Mackennal came a long way to find success and became one of the most consequential designers of his era. 

He did a good job. Good enough to get the job of designing the coinage too, and after that George V stamps.

For the Seahorses he produced a design that still attracts praise today, though it is very of its time.

In it Britannia rides a chariot through the waves.

George came to the throne of a mighty imperial country, but one with a rival: Germany.

You can’t have a global empire without Ruling the Waves, that was the whole deal of British Imperial Power.

From 1906, the British went roaring ahead in the period’s arms race, when the Dreadnought class was introduced by the ship of that name.

But, Germany started to build ships of the same class, and a size and number contest developed that is one the biggest measures of tensions before the explosion of World War I.

Did Mackennal’s design send a not too subtle signal that Britannia was not for challenging when it came to sea power?

Many historians think so.

He was the first Australian to be knighted, but perhaps his most enduring legacy is the BM initials that stamp collectors squint to see in the neck of the king’s portrait on many, much-loved stamps.

3 - Mackennal took his inspiration from other greats

The Britannia design was probably somewhat inspired by earlier Barbadian stamps.

They showed the personification of Britain wielding a trident and sitting atop the waves.

He was also reportedly influenced by John Flaxman’s work, particularly his illustrations of Iliad.

Flaxman - a dreamer - would have made quite a splash had his proposed Britannia statue gone ahead. 

Flaxman was a major neoclassical artist active in the late-18th and early-19th century. He was an associate of William Blake, the mystical London poet and artist who wrote Jerusalem.

Flaxman produced a large number of public monuments and memorials and dreamed of building a Britannia over 60-metres high on Greenwich Hill to celebrate the British naval battles that were then building the Empire.

Take a look at his work and its not hard to see how its clean and clear lines had an impact a century later.

4 - A different man did the lettering

George Eve can be called the etcher’s etcher quite literally. He was the man chosen to produce the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers diploma.

His work was everywhere in Edwardian and Georgian public life, and he was engaged to letter and design invitations for many royal occasions, and even the book plates for Windsor Castle’s library.

Eve's lettering is reproduced throughout British stamps of the period. 

His work provided the framing for a number of stamps.

They include the low-value definitives of George V’s reign.

And for this issue he produced the lettering.

5 - J A C Harrison made the dies

John Augustus Charles Harrison was born in Manchester, into a line of engravers, in 1872.

John was apprenticed into the family business from the age of 13, though he stayed in the UK, when his father moved to the US.

He moved to Waterlow and Sons at the age of 17 but left their employ to go freelance at the end of the Victorian era.

Perfect timing. And John initially did well (later work dried up to such an extent during World War One that he took on some acting roles in early films).

His skill making book plates got him spotted in the right circles and he was engaged to make the dies for the new stamps for George V.

The King had insisted that the high-value stamps be printed in intaglio to achieve a better finish. That meant the paper was pressed into a plate, where ink was held in a recessed design. It was the way the first stamps were printed, but had been abandoned for the cheaper, faster letterpress style. 

A variety of print and paper

So many hands made the Seahorses.

And, a further set of variants make them especially attractive to collectors.

Three printers produced the stamps: Waterlow Bros & Layton from 1913 to 1915, then De La Rue, then Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co from 1918.

That also produced a number of paper variations.

Collectors love to chase them all down. 

But the design remained unchanged until 1934, and even then only a small change to the background was made.

These very British and very imperial stamps are also an iconic Irish issue, as they were among the first stamps overprinted with the name of the Irish Free State as the Irish people achieved independence.

Given an Irish, independent makeover, the Seahorses are a standout Eireann issue too. 

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