The original photographs used for the first stamps featuring Princess Elizabeth in 1952 have gone on display for the first time, alongside the jewellery she wore in them.

There are two black and white sets; one showing the Queen in comparatively simple pearl earrings and the South Africa necklace of 21 brilliant cut diamonds that was a 21st birthday present from the South African government, and a second set that was commissioned two months later  after the first was deemed insufficiently magnificent. In the second set, the future queen wears the Diamond Diadem tiara. Featuring 1333 diamonds and 166 freshwater pearls, it was originally made for George IV’s Coronation in 1820. Back then, many of the stones were rented, although George took such a shine to them he bought them. 

Both sets of photographs were taken by Dorothy Wilding who, along with Cecil Beaton, became a favourite royal snapper after a picture she took of the Duke of Kent in 1928 attracted the attention of other members of the family. Her stamp portraits would go on to be seen by millions of people around the globe and become popularly known as Wildings.

Wilding, a perfectionist of the craft, spent three years studying the new art of retouching. Her remarkable skills in this field saw celebrities flock to her studio in London’s Bond Street which she opened in 1929. She opened a second one in New York in 1937. “Nobody,” noted curator Val Williams, “knew better than Dorothy Wilding the power of the photograph to create or destroy the desired image.” 

While Beaton brought glamour and romance to the House of Windsor iconography, Wilding often used plain dark backgrounds and minimal props that made her images ideal for stamps and coins. She also illuminated the future queen’s youth and poise with an apparent straightforwardness that created an aura of intimacy and directness. It was Wilding who took the official 18th birthday pictures of Princess Elizabeth in 1944. The double strand freshwater pearl necklace which she’s wearing in the portrait, which has never previously been on display, is in a case next to the picture, alongside the 1920 Queen’s Sapphire and Diamond art deco bracelet given to her by her father, King George, for her 18th birthday.

It was Wilding again who took the official engagement portraits of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten in 1947, although Beaton beat her to the Coronation.

An astute business woman, Wilding transcended internecine Windsor warfare, becoming a first port of call for Wallis Simpson as well as for the latter’s future brother and sister-in-law. On George VI’s and Elizabeth’s accession to the throne in 1938, Wilding became the first official female photographer of a royal coronation. 

The portrait she took of the new King and Queen with their two young daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, is a delightful, if grand, portender of the cosy “quintessentially British” family which became the bedrock of the Windsor appeal. Next to it is the tiny lace Coronation gown, designed by Sloane and co, the velvet and ermine train from Ede and Ravenscroft and the tiny Garrard coronet which the 11-year-old Princess Elizabeth wore.

This is a charming and dazzling exhibition, featuring not just 24 of Wilding’s rarely or never before seen photographs of the Queen, but close-up views of the jewellery Her Majesty wore for the portraits. There is the Vladimir Tiara with its Bendick’s Mints sized emeralds, made for the Grand Duchess of Russia in 1874 and sold by her daughter to Queen Mary in 1921; Queen Mary’s Dorset Bow Brooch, presented to her by the people of Dorset in 1893 and The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara that was presented to Princess Mary of Teck (later Queen Mary) which became one of our current Queen’s more recognisable tiaras after its appearance on British Commonwealth coinage and banknotes. 

There is the 1911 Delhi Durbar emerald necklace with its centre-piece diamond, which was cut from the Cullinan diamond, then the world’s largest ever diamond which was split into nine smaller ones and countless shards. Rarely, if ever displayed to the public together, many of the pieces, which form part of the Queen’s private collection, are still worn. The Bow Bridge and pearls are a favourite of the Queen’s.

The Queen’s final sitting with Dorothy Wilding took place in May 1956, shortly before Wilding retired. The portraits were commissioned by the Bank of England for new currency, though ultimately the images were not used. 

Wilding died in 1976, by then largely unknown by the public, although arguably, it’s her original portraits of the Queen, disseminated around the globe on stamps and banknotes (Princess Diana famously referred to sterling notes as “Grannies”, Warhol used these images as the inspiration for his portraits of her) that shaped the Queen’s image for posterity. 

Platinum Jubilee: The Queen’s Accession opens today at Buckingham Palace. For tickets and more information click here

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