Camera Used To Photograph Queen Elizabeth For Postage Stamps Sold At Auction

The camera used to photograph Britain's Queen Elizabeth for postage stamps has been sold at auction. The Hasselblad 503CX was used to picture the queen at her London residence Buckingham Palace on 22 June 1966, and was sold for Ł1,600 [$2,400] in Norfolk, England.

One of the pictures taken by Professor John Hedgecoe was used by renowned sculptor Arnold Machin to make a plaster cast. Hedgecoe then photographed the cast with the camera, and the image was used on billions of stamps.

The camera was auctioned at Keys in Aylsham but failed to make its reserve price and so was eventually bought by the auction house, which is looking to sell it to a private collector.

Hedgecoe took the original picture as part of a project to find a new image which could be used on stamps. His second photograph went on to be featured on 200 billion stamps.

The camera - which was sold alongside a lens commissioned by Adolf Hitler to take pictures of Olympic athletes and 20 other pieces of photographic equipment - was part of Hedgecoe's private collection.

Speaking after the sale, he insisted getting rid of the items had not been hard for him as he owns "lots of cameras" and is not particularly attached to any of them.

In 2001, Hedgecoe won undisclosed damages and an apology from the Royal Mail after they claimed he had nothing to do with the stamp picture, insisting it was actually the work of Lord Snowdon.

Royal Mail later admitted Hedgecoe was "entitled to his full share of credit" for the image.