Reginald George James Berry

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Reginald George James Berry OBE (born June 20, 1906 in London-Dulwich , England - † November 6, 1979 in Auckland , New Zealand ) was a New Zealand artist who designed coins , medals and postage stamps .

Life

Reginald George James Berry was born on June 20, 1906 in Dulwich, a suburb of London . Berry attended Russell Hill School from 1913 to 1922 and then worked as an office worker in a London insurance company. In 1924 he decided to emigrate to New Zealand, where he arrived in Wellington on February 18, 1925 . Berry first worked for a year on a farm near Gisborne , then on a slaughterhouse. He returned to Wellington and got a job in an advertising agency.

Since 1932 Berry competed for the design of postage stamps and was successful in 1933 with the design for the health special stamps. In 1934 Berry was invited to design the Waitangi Crown and was accepted into the Royal Numismatic Society. He remained a lifelong member of this society, temporarily as its secretary, president and vice-president. In 1944 Berry went into business for himself and, in addition to book illustrations, designed stamps, coins and medals. In 1968 he became an officer in the Order of the British Empire . Berry died in Auckland on November 6, 1979.

job

James Cook . 200th anniversary of the rediscovery of New Zealand in 1969. Silver medal from James Berry

Berry designed hundreds of postage stamps, coins and medals. The focus of his work was for New Zealand , the Pacific Islands and Australia , but also for the USA , England and Ireland . One of his most important works is his first coin design, the rare and popular Waitangi Crown from 1935 (KM 6). On this coin, Māori chief Tāmati Wāka Nene and Captain William Hobson , the first governor of New Zealand, shake hands after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.

literature

  • James Reginald Tye: The image maker: the art of James Berry. Hodder and Stoughton, Auckland, NZ 1984, ISBN 0-340-35829-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Berry's biography on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand homepage ( memento of the original from June 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 1, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rbnz.govt.nz