An Observation About #116 (Or Any Classic Engraved Stamp)

I was playing around with the Jewelers loupe my wife bought me and was marveling at #116 under it's 30X power. I know it appears sort of drab at first glance and kind of hard to make out the picture but on closer inspection it just sort of happens! As your ingesting all the fine detail and that lovely shade of yellowish-orange it happened upon me. I think this stamp is just beautiful. I never realized it before, as one can't fully appreciate all it's fine detail from a plate in a book. It's like I re-discovered a long lost treasure and I guess in a small way- I have. That's all I just thought it might inspire some of you to perhaps take a closer look at a long forgotten stamp or a new one and find the hidden beauty that the engraver done with that tiny burin and a lot of time and skill- long ago.
That's all. ~Jay

Last night I was watching the Science channel on TV, more specifically, the "How Its Made" program. It had a 10-15 minute feature on how they make stamps. The show featured a Canadian stamp with a deer as the subject.

The thing that got me is the changes made in creating an engraved stamp. The difference between how they do it now and how they did it 50 years ago is like night and day! You read in the book about the process and I find that the process in the book is of yesteryear, not today's methodology. I was a little disappointed to learn that the process has changed so much.

I will continue to say that today's U.S. stamps, and some other countries, are just labels that serve to collect a fee. In my opinion, they can not be compared to yesterday's stamps in craftsmanship. I guess that's why the classics are called so.

BTW, using a loupe on an early stamp is what really got me started collecting in the 1st place. I still enjoy looking at the engraving and marvel at the craftsmenship of those bygone artist.

Art

I couldn't agree more. Now that's not to say I think all the newer stuff sucks or anything, because that's simply not true either, now there are ones I enjoy looking at but I would have to concur that the fine art of engraving and even most subject matter has definitely seen a better day. IMO

I_Love_Stamps

You have made a very good point, not only about your Sc#116, but all stamps in general.

Sometimes it is easy to forget the art and history that follows each and every stamp that you touch. To me each stamp has a life and when fait allows us as collectors to interact with that life we become part of it's history. Maybe, in generation to come, a collector will muse these very same thoughts and consider themselves privileged to be counted as part of our shared journey.

Here is my example of a #116

Some of mine. I don't yet have any unused though.

Being a once apprentice printer I can really appreciate many parts of stamps. I worked on a webb press that was massive and could do newspapers magazines and comic books but we also had sheet presses and hidden away in the basement was a manual press . Of course the manual was never used but I used to marvel at the workmanship and complex simplicity (oxy moron but it fits). The press I worked on was somewhat manual in that we set all registrations , adjusted inks, waters, rollers and blankets. Since then I have visited a newer shop and was given a tour of the Monster Hidelburg webb press and was really disapointed that all adjustments were from a control panel and no hands on was needed. Talking with the head press operator he said he wouldn't have a clue how to do things manually anymore.