This is an original charcoal portrait with white pastel highlights on grey textured ‘Ingres’ artist paper by Steve Teasdale. The portrait features Canada’s highest scoring fighter ace George ‘Screwball’ ( also often known as Buzz ) Beurling DSO, DFC, DFM & Bar. The portrait has been conservation mounted ready for framing and features a Canadian wartime postage stamp which has been clearly signed by George Beurling. We believe this signature would have been acquired on his controversial war bond promotional tour in 1943. Beurling was recognised as "Canada's most famous hero of Second World War", as "The Falcon of Malta" and the "Knight of Malta", having been credited with shooting down 27 Axis aircraft in just 14 days over the besieged Mediterranean island. Before the war ended his official total climbed to either 31 or 31​1⁄3. Beurling's wartime service was terminated prior to war's end. In an attempt to continue combat flying in the postwar era, Beurling lost his life in a crash while attempting to deliver an aircraft to Israel.
We have never seen or had in our possession such a rare and historically important signature. This would make an extremely impressive addition to any aviation signature collection. The mount measures roughly 62 x 49 cm with the drawn image roughly 30 x 21 cm.