13 April 2022

Jubilee souvenirs inspired by Queen’s famous postage stamp portrait on sale

13 April 2022

Official Platinum Jubilee souvenirs – inspired by the renowned postage stamp profile portrait of the Queen – have gone on sale.

The contemporary Royal Collection range includes a tea towel, reusable coffee cup, hair scrunchie, silk scarf and jigsaw puzzle, and is based on Arnold Machin’s 1967 clay relief sculpture of the monarch.

The Jubilee tea towel, which costs £9.95 (Royal Collection Trust/HM Queen Elizabeth II 2022/PA)

One of the most reproduced images of all time, the side-on likeness of Elizabeth II has featured on all British definitive postage stamps since 1967.

It was a reworking of a design Machin created for the introduction of decimal coinage, which featured on British coins from 1968 until 1984.

Items in the new Jubilee range (Royal Collection Trust/HM Queen Elizabeth II 2022/PA)

The range of homeware items and accessories features the Queen’s silhouette repeated in a variety of shades of patriotic red, white and blue.

The tea towel costs £9.95, a recycled leather luggage tag £7.95, a 750-piece jigsaw puzzle is £14.95 and the reusable coffee cup £10.95, while a coffee mug emblazoned with the year “2022” is £20.

The fridge magnet set featuring Arnold Machin’s famous design (Royal Collection Trust/HM Queen Elizabeth II 2022/PA)

Other items include a luxury silk scarf in blue hues priced at £150, a silk hair scrunchie for £35, a wooden tea tray costing £19.95 and a set of four magnets for £5.95.

The products, available at Royal Collection Trust shops or at www.rct.uk/shop, follow the Royal Collection’s Jubilee commemorative chinaware, official emblem range and Platinum Jubilee English sparkling wine.

The silk scarf, priced at £150 (Royal Collection Trust/HM Queen Elizabeth II 2022/PA)

Before 1967, postage stamps were based on photographs of the Queen taken by Dorothy Wilding.

Twenty-four of Wilding’s portraits will go on display in a special Platinum Jubilee: The Queen’s Accession exhibition at this year’s summer opening of Buckingham Palace from July 22 until October 2.

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