Collecting By Engraver

Getting back to Czeslaw Slania, I re scanned some of his
Swedish stamps a few weeks ago since I didn't like
the original scans I had.

These are stamps I bought from the Swedish Philatelic Service
at the time of issue.
When I first saw these engraved stamps by Slania I was
as the said in the sixties " blown away".
At the time I had never heard of this Czeslaw Slania
but I said to myself Wow I love these stamps.

Here are a few

Sweden 1973

Scott 1014




Sweden 1973

Scott 1011



Sweden 1974

Scott 1084-85

Here are a couple more engraved by Czeslaw Slania.


Sweden 1972

Scott 915 is one in a set of 5 in booklet form.
This stamp looks as if its a photograph yet actually
"better" than just a photo.




Scott 1068 1974 - 78 definitives

Sweden King Karl XVI Gustaf

In my opinion one of the best portraitures ever shown
on a stamp.
Slania was very sparing with lines. It's amazing
how he made the face come alive with a few lines,dots and dashes.

Absolutely beautiful stamps, lithograving!
The Swedish Post was really lucky to get Slania working for them. I think Sweden have the most beautiful stamps of the world from that period, maybe shared with France. That means a lot coming from a Norwegian (Arrrghhhh - we hate/love the Swedes )

Actually after Slania skipped out of Poland and ended up
in Sweden he couldn't get a job in his field since
Swedish Post Printing Works already had the
court engraver Sven Ewert and his capable apprentice
Arne Wallhorn.
Slania had apparently also applied to work for
Canadian Bank Note Co but fate took over when Swen
Ewart passed away in 1959.
It was Canada's loss even though CBNC had the young
engraver Yves Baril who engraved the majority of
Canadian stamps right up to the end of the engraved era.
Not including of course the engraved stamps by British
American Bank Note who had their own engravers among them,
George Gunderson.

I also liked the engraved stamps of Norway and had a
new issue subscription with Norway Post same as with Sweden and Denmark.

Here is an example engraved by Knut Lokke-Sorensen.

Norway 1979

Scott 732

It is true, Area66, that it can be a bit frustrating looking back to find the work of a particular engraver. To do it the way you suggest is not really possible on a chat board like this which is why I have started a database site.

All of the posters here that I have contacted have given me permission to use their scans but after more than a year, I am still cataloguing the roughly 10,000 engraved stamps in my own collection.

As the database just passed the 5000 entries, it will be at least another year before I get through my own stamps and I have said all along it will be a five year project.

As for a Slania album, I made one a few years ago using Microsoft Publisher and the information on the Heindorffhus site which you can find here. http://www.slaniastamps-heindorffhus.com/

lithograving: I just found out about one or two French stamps on which more than one engraver worked. See the following two links to my website:
http://stampengravers.blogspot.co.u...ngraver.html
http://stampengravers.blogspot.co.u...nership.html

Also, Maria Olinowetz from Austria engraved a few frames of Austrian stamps in the 1950s. I have still to look into that but I know she did the frames of the 1953 Vienna Evangelical School Rebuilding Fund set, to name just one.



So yes, it did happen elsewhere, but it's more the exception to the rule, I would think.





area66: I see where you're coming from, but the problem is that although most of us here will collect by engraver, we do not always limit ourselves to just the one engraver. And the format of this forum does not allow any handy form of grouping, short of making forum threads on each and every engraver, so that's why when you come here you'll find all sorts.

Having said that, it would be nice to see how we all collect, whether we make album pages etc. Myself, I just have loads of stockbooks in which I put everything, sorted by engraver, and the engravers sorted in alphabetical order. It's only the more special stuff that ends up being written up and mounted on selfmade album/display pages. Here's one (albeit rather sparsely written up).



Is that the sort of thing you're hoping to see more of?

What you will find here if you are collecting by engraver is infomation - and lots of frustration because a lot of the information is not in the catalogues. Today, for me, was typical of that.

I have been scanning and entering my early Nicaragua stamps. There was not one engraver or designer listed in the Stanley Gibbons Central America catalogue, only the printers are known to them.


Nicaragua SG2. Printed by the American Bank Note Company.

This rather grubby specimen is rather special to me. It is SG2. When I was ten or eleven I started sending off for the approvals that were advertised in all the comics (I lived in England at the time).

One month, this stamp came with the approvals as an extra bonus if you bought the whole book. I liked this stamp so much, plus it was catalogued at the time at ten shillings so it was worth far more than any of my other stamps, that I managed to buy the lot, even ones I didn't like much. It cost a month's pocket money.

Unfortunately, as you can see, I hadn't really discovered tweezers by that time but this is one of two stamps from that time that have followed me around the world.

Here are some more of the early Nicaraguan stamps.



1882 SG 21. My catalogue does not give any reason for the May 1882 inscription, just printed by A.B.N.Co.



1890 SG27. The U.P.U. issue for 1890. Printed by the Hamilton Bank Note Company.

This stamp came at the beginning of one of the great philatelic scandals.

One of the principals in the Hamilton Bank Note Company was also a stamp dealer by the name of Seebeck. He made a deal with Nicaragua to supply all their stamps for free but at the end of each year, they were to be demonetarised and all the excess stock was to be sent back to him and replaced with a new issue.

He also had the right to print extras from the plates to sell to other dealers and collectors. He did this until 1900 when A.B.N.Co were reinstated as printer.

Mostly, I don't think the printing by Hamiltons are as sharp as the A.B.N.Co. stamps but some of them are quite charming. The lady in this stamp represents Victory and is holding a laurel wreath. I have no idea who she is being victorious over.


1894 SG67 "Victory" Printed by Hamilton Bank Note Company

Official stamp from A.B.N.Co after they got the contract back in 1900 showing "Justice". SG O148.

Here are the two designs from A.B.N.Co. in 1914. They were used for a set of 12 stamps and show the quality they were able to achieve by that time.


National Palace, Managua. SG395


Leon Cathedral. SG 396.

Unfortunately, these stamps came from an album that lay unopened for thirty years which is death for stamps and allows the dreaded "rust" to have a free run. All stamps need to be looked at periodically.

Finally, this is not one of my favourite stamps but it does show the ability of the engraver to get exceptional detail into a very small space.


Airmail stamp to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Pan-American Union. SG 1046 and printed by the Security Bank Note Company.

@AKPhilately,

You are right about Maria Olinowetz.
She did engrave the frames of the 1953 Vienna Evangelical School Rebuilding Fund
set as noted in the 1968 Michel Europa.

S = Stich = engraved by

Bild = image or in this sense vignette.

Rahmen = frame

I spotted one more Austrian stamp where 2 engravers
were involved.

Maria Olinowetz engraved the frame

Rudolf Toth engraved the portrait

Austria 1956

Scott 609

I can't find any info on Olinowetz doing the frame of the Mozart stamp. Did you get that from Michel as well?

jjarmstrong47, I was about your age when I also sent away
for approvals.
I got some from H.E.Harris (located in Boston I believe), Kenmore and from Empire Stamp Corp right here in Toronto.
Here are some of the envelopes that survived for all those years.



I seem to have been interested in the same stamps as you were.

Nicaragua

Scott 62, 63





Plus some newer stuff

Nicaragua

Scott 750 - 752





Engraved by Waterlow & Sons as indicated on the stamps.
But who was the engraver?

jorgesurcl I'm certain would have that info.