Philip Goodwyn Hall was born in Exeter, England, on 7
October 1905.
Having attended the Kingston Art School in Surrey, Hall came
to work for Bradbury, Wilkinson in the late 1930s. While there, he was trained
by William Adolph, an engraver from the American Bank Note Company who was in
England for a while.
His work on the New Zealand 1940 centennial issue involved
quite a lot of die proofs to get the details all right. The 0.5d for example
had to be re-engraved after it was found that the faces of the Maoris in the
foreground needed a different treatment.
On the 1d a line which the designer had meant to be a
coastline was presumed by the engravers Hall and Godbehear to be a line to mark a route that Cook followed.
Thinking it wrong, they studied an engraving of Cook's own chart, which
subsequently led them to include lines of latitude and longitude and remove the
mountain shading from the map, in concurrence with the original they studied.
When the die proof was sent for approval, the lines of latitude and longitude
were approved but the mountain markings had to be reinstated as they formed
such a pivotal part of the story and therefore the design.
The 2d, too, needed quite a bit of extra work after the first
die proofs were submitted. Signalling flags from the Heemskercq had
to be removed and there was some confusion with regard to a mark on Tasman's
chart which the engravers Hall and Ferré thought was a lake but should
probably have been Mt. Egmont, even though its position on the chart was not
correct.
The 7d proved rather troublesome as well. Hall found it very
hard to follow the original design. When submitting his first die proof, he
asked for supplementary photographic material so he could make a better design
for a new engraving.
In 1941, Hall engraved the 10g and 80g values from the set
issued by the Polish exiled government in London. Die proofs of these values
exist in black. There are die proofs of the 10g with the following annotations:
‘blast marks on foremost pillar’ and ‘crack in roof at left’.
In 1943, a second set was issued for the Polish exiled
government in London. For this set, Hall engraved three values: the 5g, 25g
and 55g. Of the 5g value, various proofs exist, some annotated ‘Join (plane)
aerial to tail’. Die proofs exist in black, blue and carmine, and numbered
proofs exist in carmine and red. The approved colour trial is dated 9 September
1943. The set was issued on 1 November of that year.
For the 25g value, too, annotated die proofs (printed in jet
black) are known, stating ‘Smoke at top gives appearance of tank being on
fire’, ‘Gun not as clear as my picture’, and ‘losing left hand tractor’. These
were probably written by the designer Flight Lieutenant Artur Horowicz. The die
proofs are known in black, jet black and deep carmine. Numbered proofs were
printed in carmine blue and violet.
The die proofs for the 55g value were printed in purple and
violet. An early version of these was erroneously inscribed ‘NORWEGJI’ at the
top, which was subsequently changed into ‘NORWEGII’. Numbered proofs were
printed in violet and blue, with the approved colour trial dated 12 September
1943.
The die proof that Hall made for the 1947 New Zealand Life
Insurance 6d value was approved immediately, but that for the 0.5d value needed
some more work. Both the steamer in the top left and the rocks on the right
needed to be more clearly defined.
In 1955, Hall engraved two values for a Portuguese set,
depicting various kings. He was responsible for the 10c portraying King Afonso
I and the 20c portraying King Sancho I. The two stamps are engraved in a
very particular style, with the complete portrait made up of vertical lines in
varying thickness. The die proofs for these stamps show how the background was
experimented with.
Soon after, Hall had a disagreement with the management of Bradbury, Wilkinson and left the company. was to leave Bradbury, He became a freelancer, working for Waterlow & Sons and in the 1960s for De La Rue as well.
Philip Goodwyn Hall passed away on 15 April 1979, in
Easterton, England.