Collecting By Engraver

Beautiful stamps from Iceland. I recently started collecting Iceland and will be trying to get some older stamps.

Their engraved stamps remind me of Sweden as well. But they also have a scent of French engravings. The fact that some Frenchmen have engraved Iceland stamps explains that of course!

Just found this old thread which is also of interest to me.

Austria has had many excellent engravers especially post WWII.
There is mention of Adalbert Pilch in previous posts who was actually a stamp designer not an engraver.
He did however collaborate with the engraver Rudolf Toth on many Austrian stamps. They were like the A team during the sixties and seventies.

Pilch's first design was in 1958 for mother's day.



The 1964 UPU is a good example of Pilch and Toth's joint efforts. The last two are Pilch's own works, the rest are from various Austrian painters.

Pilch also designed six values of the 1957/1970 Building definitives.
They were printed one colour ofsett/lithography.

This 1990 issue is I believe the last stamp Pilch worked on.



The only thing I could find out about him on the net was this article on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalbert_Pilch.

Interestingly it states that he designed his first Austrian stamp in 1956 yet in the old Michel Europa that I have which still lists designers & engravers he first shows up in 1958 for the Mother's Day stamp.

I see Austria is also good at engraving.
Pilch looked like a good artist. On the Wikipedia page, there's a link to a page with a biography and art from him, and there's some stamps on there. Some interesting specimens.

Yes Andrew Austria has had many fine engravers. There is even a Portuguese set from 1957 for Almeida Garett which was engraved by F. Lorber and printed by the Austrian State Printer in Vienna.

Like most countries that used to print steel engraved stamps, Austria is issuing less and less and the few they still produce combine one colour engraving with multicolour pgotogravure.

Oh now you have caused me to consider something else.
Do I organise by country/set or also by engraver

Welocme to my world

May I bring my old buddy Pierre Albuisson to the attention of my fellow collectors?
http://mettealbuisson.blogspot.com/...-author.html

Rudolf Toth was a prolific Austrian engraver who worked on dozens of stamps between 1947 - 1992.

First stamp was one in the set for the Austrian prisoner of war
charity issue.

Austria Scott B219



Here are some of earlier ones like these two from 1959.

The capercaillie is one of my favourite stamps,
superb engraving and rich colour.

Scott 640



Scott 643



And this Artists set from 1961 printed by two colour engraving.

Scott 662 - 665






This one for Day of the Stamp 1960 shows the engraver working on the master die for the stamp shown previously.
Note also that on every stamp the designer was Pilch.

Scott B302



There is basically no info on Toth on the net.The only fact I could glean is that he was born in 1918 and was still alive in 1999.
The last time I see his name on a stamp it's for this 1992 issue which has only the black portions engraved and the rest 4 colour photogravure.
Still engraving at 74 years old and a 39 year career, not bad at all.



UPDATE: Rudolf Toth passed away in 2009 and is buried in Vienna.

Great sets Litho especially the 1961 Artists.

Every one seems to know about Czeslaw Slania but there are many
other fine engravers about whom there isn't a whole lot of
info available.

Egon Falz worked for the Bundesdruckerei engraving stamps
for West Germany and Berlin beginning in 1955 until ?
He was born May 10, 1932 in Insterburg, East Prussia.

Here is an example of his work.

Germany - West Berlin 1974 Scott 9N353



Johann Gottfried Schadow was a sculptor who designed the
Brandenburg Gate Quadriga.

Falz also engraved 3 values of the 1969 Berlin series portraying
19th Century Berliners.

The other five stamps in the series were engraved by another
fine artist Hans Joachim Fuchs.
The only info I can find on him is that he worked for
the Bundesdruckerei from 1955 until 1991 engraving stamps for
West Germany & Berlin.

Sorry to say but I only have these three.

Here are a couple more engraved by Egon Falz.

Germany - West Berlin,

Scott 9N344 1974



Germany - West Berlin

Scott 9N484 1983




Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff designed Sanssouci,
Frederick the Great's summer palace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanssouci