Czech Stamp Engravers

Lithograving,


arent't the diagonal lines similar in multicolour recess as in combined recess and photogravure???

Can we talk about photogravure here ????



What is the extra profit we have when just one colour [black] seems to be engraved by an artist?

Rein

PS.

This reminds me of the Belgian engraver Guillaume Broux who is a "full-time" employee of the Belgian Post Office for just "scratching" few lines in addition to a complete design printed in photogravure?

Florian, thanks for the additional info regarding the
Cyril Bouda painting.

Rein, I agree that for that particular stamp printing the blue and yellow areas via photogravure or offset instead of recess would have
probably made more sense and in my view would have maybe even
improved the appearance of the stamp.

But perhaps Jindra Schmidt had some apprentice engrave the lines
to get some experience.

Czechoslovakia's Annual Painting series for the year 1971

Engravers : Josef Hercik (1k & 1.80K) Miloš Ondracek (1.20K)
Jiri Svengsbir (1.40k) Ladislav Jirka (2.40K)

Printing Process : multicolour engraving

Scott 1779 - 1783

"Waiting" , 1967, by Imro Weiner-Kral





Resurrection, by Master of Vyssi Brod



Woman with Pitcher, by Milos Bazovsky.



Veruna Cudova, by Josef Manes



Detail from "Feast of the Rose Garlands," by Albrecht Dürer

Czechoslovakia's Annual Art series, ones below for the year 1975

Engravers : Josef Hercik (1k & 1.80K) Jan Mracek ( 1.40K)
Miloš Ondracek (2.40K & 3.40K )

Printing Process : multicolour engraving

Scott 2043 - 2047


May 1975, by Zdenek Sklenar




Woman in national costume, by Eugen Nevan (1947)




Liberation of Prague, by Alena Cermakova




Fire 1938, by Josef Capek (1938)




Old Prague, by Vincenc Morstadt (1828)

An apprentice at work drawing diagonal lines!?

Souvenir Sheet PRAGA'88
Bacchus and Ariadne, by Sebastiano Ricci

Designer & Engraver : Vaclav Fajt *1952


Scott 2716



The Engraving by Sebastiano Ricci

Actually it was Vaclav Fajt who based this B&W engraving below on
Sebastiano Ricci's painting.

Thank you Florian for the correction.




Ariadne

Scott 2716a




Bacchus

Scott 2716b

Probably. I don't think a master engraver like Josef Hercik
would waste his time & talents on scratching in lines whether
diagonal or straight.

This stamp is another example were the yellow beige background
could have just as well been printed by photogravure.

This is why I got into stamp collecting -- or maybe it's why I've kept collecting -- for these drop-dead gorgeous stamps from brilliant artists/designers and engravers. Enlarged like this, they look even better than when they're smaller. Extraordinary stuff.

It may be worth noting that some of our concern over unnecessary lines, etc, is brought about by seeing the stamps so large that we recognize where a different approach would have worked as well. But in their actual small size, this issue may never have been raised or even occurred to anyone since you just don't see it. On my computer screen, these images are 20x the size of a normal stamp. All the better to see how beautifully these stamps were designed, but what I do see we normally wouldn't be so aware of. If that makes any sense. Also, I wonder if some of these countries were trying to keep their engravers busy and employed so they used engraving more than other methods and didn't choose the simpler approach?

DrewM, I'm glad you like the scans and I agree that one sees
stamps as never before when they get "blown up".
On the other hand even the smallest blemish shows up also.




That's quite possible one reason.

This 1973 set was issued in memory of American and Russian astronauts

Designer : Jaroslav Lukavsky

Engravers : Miloš Ondracek ( 20h, 40h, 3,60K )Ladislav Jirka ( 30h, 3K, 5K)

Printing process : For the lower values ( 20h,30h,40h) combination printing, 1 colour engraved & multicolour photogravure.
The larger format high values all multicolour recess.


Soviet space station

Scott 1874




Intercosmos station.

Scott 1875





Lunokhod on moon

Scott 1876




Grissom,White & Chaffee

Scott 1877




Komarov, Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev

Scott 1878 Type 1 cross-hatched lines





Scott 1878a Type 2 parallel diagonal lines





Yuri Gagarin

Scott 1879

Certain experts would no doubt have taught old Czechoslovakian stamp designers, engravers, and printers a lesson on aesthetics, economy, and what not several decades ago if only the creators had cared to listen to the advice offered so gratuitously by them and had been inclined to abandon their efforts at artistic perfection.

Multicolour steel engraving has certainly never been a poor man's something, still less something that had better be partly left to apprentices.

Yet, Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis: http://goscf.com/t/61374&whichpage=2#570486 :
1/ recess print from 3 flat plates in ochre, greenish black blackish green, and black respectively
2/ recess print from a flat plate in black combined with offset

Czechoslovakia issued this set showing Slovak Ikons
16th - 18th Centuries.

Engravers : Josef Hercik (60h) Ladislav Jirka (1K) Jindra Schmidt (2K) Bedrich Housa (2.80K)

Printing process : multicolour engraving on cream paper.

Scott 1722 - 1725 1970

Adam and Eve




Face of Christ on Veronica's veil




St George & the Dragon




St Michael

lithograving - Many thanks for your excellent large-format images bringing out the beauty of earlier Czechoslovakian engraved stamps in their vibrant colours, which would have been difficult to achieve by other processes.

Let's consider e.g. the 2016 Art stamp printed by a combination of offset & recess printing from a flat plate interpreting the painting "Two Women" by Jaroslav Král, engraved by Vaclav Fajt, as shown on http://www.wnsstamps.post/en

and compare its colours in offset with with those in the matching carte maximum as shown on http://cartesmaximum.blogspot.com/2...-vydava.html : .


Another 2016 Art stamp printed by a combination of offset & recess printing from a flat plate showing the polychromed fired clay sculpture "Girl with Absinthe" by Bedøich Stefan, engraved by Jaroslav Tvrdon, again as shown on http://www.wnsstamps.post/en
can be compared with http://cartesmaximum.blogspot.com/2...listu-v.html on the above Cartes Maximum blog:


The third value of the same set was printed from four flat plates, in yellow, red, blue, and black respectively, the first three tints in subdued tones as required by the original painting entitled "Clown With Monkey" by Frantisek Tichy, engraved by Vaclav Fajt:

Florian,

That stamp "Two Women" by Jaroslav Král looks lifeless
and the colours are drab and washed out.
Looks depressing. lol

I wonder why it was printed in such dark hues when the actual
painting has bright colours?




I know I've said in the past that any bit of engraving on a stamp
when combined with photogravure or offset is better than no engraving at all.
But to be truthful in this case the black engraved lines don't
add anything.
Might as well have been printed just in offset.