Head and shoulders portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II, facing the viewer, her torso in left side profile. She wears a black taffeta evening dress with the South Africa Necklace that was a 21st birthday gift from the Government of the Union of South Africa. It was later shortened to fifteen large stones, as shown here, and the remaining diamonds made into a bracelet.

The first official photographic sitting with the new Queen was granted to the society photographer Dorothy Wilding, commissioned by the Post Office and Royal Mint. It took place on 26 February 1952, just twenty days after the accession. A total of fifty-nine photographs were taken by Wilding, showing The Queen dressed in a variety of gowns designed by Norman Hartnell and wearing jewellery including the Diamond Diadem. The photographs taken during this sitting and a second sitting on 15 April were the basis of The Queen's image on postage stamps from 1953 until 1971, as well as providing the official portrait of The Queen which was sent to every British embassy throughout the world.