On horseback

After a five stamp series for the coronation issued on 25 May 1953 (one week before the ceremony in London) and two stamps for the royal visit on December 1953, the New Zealand Post Office began the issue of the three-design definitive series figuring Queen Elizabeth II, between December 1953 and the first months of 1954.

The young queen was on a horseback on the high value stamps. Here, the one that cost the less in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue, the three shillings (3/-) issued on 1 March 1953 with a five and a ten shiling stamps. A two shillings six pence stamp (2/6) joined them in July 1957.

And, by this stamp I bought because of my QE2 on engraved stamp mania, the list of researchs to do got one meter longer:
* why the stamp issue of July 1957? What rate change or consumer behavior happened?
* Stanley Gibbons credits "J. Berry" as artist but not engraver, certainly James Berry, specialised in stamps and coins. One more rich biography to reconstruct. Hopefully, this one is remembered by one of his employers: he designed the New Zealand coin of the 1967 decimalisation (£ -> $).
* was the uniform dress one of a New Zealand army corp?
* did Berry work from a picture, with the model? A model put on top a quiet horse or on a pommel horse? If the horse was a live one, can his/her pedigree be retrieved?

My Winter sounds a busy one :)