French Stamp Engravers

After scanning 12,500 engraved stamps into the database I thought there was little more to knock me out but the detail on this stamp from Eugene Lacaque did just that. It was issued for the 47th Congress of French Philatelic Societies in 1974. SG 2052, Scott 1412.



What amazed me is the amount of detail Lacaque managed to include. Looking at the stamp in the album you can see that there is a cyclist in the foreground but when you enlarge it you can even see the spokes on the wheels of the bicycles. How good is that? If this had been done in photogravure, that level of detail would have just been dots.

France 1962
Famous Artist - Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Painting Madame Manet at the blue sofa
France 1963
Famous Artist - Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Painting Les Fiances de la Tour Eiffel
France 1970
Famous Artist - Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Painting Danseuse au Bouquet Saluant
Engraver Pierre Gandon

France 1966
Famous Artist - Cratère de Vix
Brown Vase (detail)
Engraver Jacques Combet

France 1965
Famous Artist - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Painting The waitress English Star at Havre
France 1972
Famous Artist - Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Painting The Study
Engraver Claude Durrens

France 1967
Famous Artist - Clouet (1475-1541)
Painting Portrait of Francis I
Engraver René Cottet

France 1970
Famous Artist - François Boucher (1703–1770)
Painting Diana Returning from Hunting
Engraver Jean Pheulpin

Engraved French stamps are simply gorgeous, I have quite a number in my collection.

Back in the good old days - say, the sixties (well, they were good for me. I was a teenager) engravers had a lot more time to produce a die. The quality of the stamp was the most important thing as it reflected the image of the country. Since then, those countries that still engrave give their engravers far less time as economics is more important and stamps are far less of a symbol of national pride. All this is understandable, I suppose, but a lot of modern engraved stamps fail to excite me and I consider them a bit "cartoonish". Of course, there are still a lot of really desirable engraved stamps being produced and when you find them, it is nice to share them with others who can appreciate their worth. I found this set of waterbirds, designed and engraved by Marie-Noelle Goffin at a local auction and I think they show that modern engraved stamps can still be beautiful works of art.








France SG3108-11, Scott 2320-3 Multi-colour engraving.

France 1971
Famous Artist - Georges Rouault (1871-1958)
Painting Hollow Dream
Engraver Robert Cami

France 1976
Famous Artist - Maurice Vlaminck (1876-1958)
Painting Still Life
France 1980
Famous Artist - Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920)
Painting Woman with Blue Eyes
Engraver Pierre Béquet

Just wow - I think it's so easy for people (even philatelists) to overlook the pure beauty of design that goes into stamps - they really are just a whole field of art unto their own.

France 1977
Famous Artist - Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)
Painting Madonna and Child
Engraver Eugene Lacaque

France 1972
Famous Artist - Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Painting Women in the Garden
France 1973
Famous Artist - Watteau (1684-1721)
Painting La Finette
France 1980
Famous Artist - Louis Le Nain (1593-1648)
Painting The Peasant Family
Engraver Pierre Gandon

France 1982
Famous Artist - Marc Boyan (1921-2005)
Sculpture The Family
Engraver Jacques Combet

France 1983
Famous Artist - Gustave Dore (1832-1883)
Illustration from Fairy Tales by Perrault
Engraver Georges Bétemps