Does anyone collect vignettes?  

 

In an upcoming sale at Heritage Auctions I see they have several different die proofs of various vignettes.

I'm fascinated by the amazing detail in many of the images. I particularly liked the train ones and imagine those will sell for good prices.

In the same sale, there are two lots of printing plates. I was thinking about bidding on one lot of them however the more I think about it, I ask myself what I'd do with them.

In case anyone wants to preview the auction. http://currency.ha.com/c/search-res...2088+56+1192

-MV

Yes, I'm a big fan of vignette proofs -- thanks for the link. Since the archives of the American Bank Note Co. began to go on the block a lot of material has surfaced. Bank note vignettes are relatively reasonable - the most desirable ones are usually those by the BEP that appear on federal currency.

Here are some favorites from my vignette collection:

After looking at the Heritage lots, I can tell you that the presidential portraits are all bookplates from the "Messages and Papers of the Presidents" -- a 10 volume set first published in 1896. The first edition contained BEP engraved portraits and vignettes and can be readily found on eBay. It will be interesting to see what they sell for.

[up for sharing some from your collection Greg.


How do you store/display them? If I were to buy some, I want to make sure I'm preserving them properly.


-MV

I keep them in a Lighthouse album that was originally designed for large blocks of stamps. But it's got acid-free pages with clear plastic coverings so I feel like it protects them pretty well.

See: https://www.stampcommunity.org/topi...45652#390094

Beautiful pieces GregAlex

Thank you for sharing them with us.

I have a couple more to add to this thread. The first is the Statue of Freedom, which sits atop the U.S. Capitol dome. This statue has a very interesting history and was commissioned by Jefferson Davis! This vignette appears on a couple early U.S. $5 federal notes from the 1860s.

The other is a very small vignette of a log cabin. I included a commemorative stamp next to it for scale. I could use some help identifying this one. I haven't been able to trace down the bank note engraver or any usage on currency, stamps or securities.

Washington chopping down the cherry tree???

GregAlex, that small vignette is beautiful! I can not enlarge it very well, it gets blurry. Is there a name under the two rocks in the foreground?

Peter

Okay, Peter, just for you I did an extreme close-up scan of the wood chopper and cabin (no, I don't think that's a cherry tree). I looked it over pretty carefully and didn't see any "Easter egg" signatures hiding anywhere. But feel free to keep looking!

Just for fun, and to give this thread a bump, I did some super high resolution scans of another couple miniature gems, to see how the engraving holds up under scrutiny. Pretty impressive!

First the big scans, then one with a stamp to show actual scale. The USS Iroquois is a BEP vignette; the landscape is by an unknown banknote company. I haven't identified usages for either -- if they look familiar let me know.

I was happy to catch this on eBay recently - it's a proof of a vignette used on stock certificates of the Hamilton Watch Company during the 1940s.

Nice! I missed that one. Did you purchase it yourself?

Beautiful stuff. I absolutely love almost anything line-engraved.

The book on the History of the American Bank Note Company is loaded with stuff like this, and is always a favorite of mine.

It is a fantastic book. I've had a copy in my library for years. They used to be easily available for $25 to $30 -- now you'll be lucky to find one for $60. Some unethical dealers have been buying them up, clipping apart the individual vignettes and selling them on eBay as "proofs". There are over 100 engraved images in the book, so even if they sell for a buck apiece the dealers make money. I try to educate collectors about this practice whenever I can.