Dubai Vol. 1

This is set of 3 paintings by Goya, Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel is an oil-on-canvas painting made by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya around 1805. The portrait depicts Isabel Lobo Velasco de Porcel, who was born at Ronda around 1780 and was the second wife of Antonio Porcel. Isabel's husband was 25 years older than she, and they met when she was 20 years old. Antonio Porcel was a liberal and associate of Manuel Godoy, Prince of the Peace, who was a friend of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, who in turn brought him in contact with Goya, who lived nearby; the painting is said to have been a gift from the artist in return for hospitality. A Goya portrait of Antonio Porcel, though much larger and so not a matching piece, was lost in a fire when the Jockey Club in Buenos Aires was destroyed in a riot in 1953.

 This painting by Francisco Goya, the Portrait of the Duke of Wellington is a painting of the British general Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington during the latter's service in the Peninsular War. One of three portraits Goya painted of Wellington, it was begun in 1812, after the subject's entry into Madrid, showing him as an earl in red uniform and wearing the Peninsular Medal. The artist then modified it in 1814 to show him in full dress black uniform with gold braid and to add the Order of the Golden Fleece and Military Gold Cross with three clasps (both of which Wellington had been awarded in the interim).

It was auctioned in 1961, with the New York collector Charles Wrightsman bidding £140,000. The Wolfson Foundation offered £100,000 and the government added a special Treasury grant of £40,000, matching Wrightsman's bid and obtaining the painting for the National Gallery in London, where it was first put on display on 2 August 1961.

 It was stolen nineteen days later, on 21 August 1961. It was later returned and Kempton Bunton confessed to the crime in July 1965.

This third portrait is of Dr Pearl, on which, if you look closely on the stamp there is a misspelling of his name, funny how Harrison and Sons Limited - that was a major worldwide engraver and printer of Postage stamps and Banknotes made this mistake.

Anyhow, these stamps were issued in 1967 and are very well kept and undamaged, after all, the shape they are in is visible.