Collecting By Engraver

Ferdinand Lorber 1883 - 1957

Was a stamp engraver but also a very well-known Austrian painter and graphic artist of the first half of the 20th century.
He engraved well over 100 stamps for Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg & Generalgouvernement.

Probably one of his best was the 1933 WIPA stamp. Below is a reprint of the stamp, original was
violet blue.



His stamp for Anton Wildgans, was issued on May 3, 1957 just a few days before Lorber died.

Scott 616




The die for the stamp below was originally engraved by Lorber and was supposed to be issued
in 1951 for the 150th Anniversary of Johann Nestroy's birth but was not used at the time.

It was finally issued in 1962 for the 100th Anniversary of Nestroy's death.

Scott 682

indeed, I was referring to any stamp that was engraved that may be considered 'ugly' or 'less accomplished'.

Those 2 from East Germany are a bit less accomplished but not ugly, IMO. You can see the figure of the person and the statue bust, the engraving is not as elaborate, compared to the stamp Stallzer posted just above it with the angel.

Even so, it still seems to be very difficult to make an engraving ugly. IMO of course! The actual art of engraving, itself, to me, is already beautiful in essence. It would be very difficult to mess it up by accident! lol

There were some simpler engravings from Slania in Sweden, from earlier years, namely the early Norden stamps and Europa CEPT stamps, but the simplicity is in the fact the stamp did not depict places or objects, just geometric symbols and words. Yet, they still looked more amazing to me than the same rendering did/would in offset or other 'plainer' forms of stamp designing.

Arne Wallhorn 1921 - 1994

Engraved 168 Swedish stamps during 1953 - 1986. He served his apprenticeship under
the court engraver Sven Ewert.

Below are six stamps which he engraved near the end of his career portraying scenes
of Swedish towns from the eleventh to the sixteenth century. The booklet was issued
in 1984.

Scott 1513a Booklet




Scott 1508 - 1513

IMO it would be difficult to make either Lenin or Marx look good.

Andrew I agree with you for the most part but even though I obviously love engraved stamps sometimes
litho/offset is the better choice for certain illustrations plus of course they're cheaper to print.
For example the Austrian building series. Lithographing is more
solid and the colours brighter than I think would have been
achieved by engraving.







Or for example this Austrian stamp from 1934 printed letterpress/typography which gives the appearance of a woodcut.

You could have fooled me with those stamps. They look like engravings, and are very beautiful.

Isn't lithography a similar art to engraving, just done in a different way?

Offset always appeared to me to be a simple print-out of an image. Basically what we get today in most countries.
As you mentioned, cheaper.


And to end, I had to go back and check the first stamp. Indeed, it's Lenin! I didn't read the text on either stamp but recognized Marx. Didn't recognize Lenin though.

Slania vs Franzen

The stamps in this booklet are some of my favourites.
All four are beautifully engraved and there isn't really
much difference between the top two engraved by Slania and
the bottom two by Majvor Franzén.

Except IMO even if I didn't know who engraved what I would still
prefer the top two. Anyone agree? Disagree ?

Sweden 1982
Scott 1395a booklet



Scott 1392 - 1395

Actually typography/letterpress is similar to engraving
even though one is in relief and the other recess.
Both methods need an engraver to make the dies.

See this very informative article on Linns

http://www.linns.com/howto/refreshe...rcourse.aspx

I agree but I think Slania had the better source material to work with in this instance.
There's little difference in quality of engraving.

Thanks for the link Litho. Will have to read it carefully.

All 4 look brilliant and are quality engravings, like Anthony mentioned. I also think it seems Slania's images seem more complex and he could probably venture that far because he was just so good.

It's just a brilliant quad no matter what.

A few years ago a Danish friend called us The Four Fools (De Fire Idioter):
A retired French diplomat, a retired Maltese translator, a retired Danish lawyer, and an active French engraver by the name of Pierre Albuisson.
Then very suddenly the Danish lawyer passed away and time moved on; the group broke up.
We were all involved in preparing an Internet exhibition of the Frenchman's engravings.
The French, Danish and Canadian telephone companies sure made a killing off us during that period. Here are two.



These should bring back some fond memories for some members here.

Beautiful stamps Tony. Thanks for sharing them!

Thanks Andrew.
Here's a Mozart and a Poussin also by Albuisson.

Hi everyone! I have been collecting postage stamps by engraver for quite a while, and I have posted images of some of the stamps in my collection on two other stamp forums, but this is my first entry here.

May 6 is the birthday of one of France's most gifted maîtres-graveurs, Albert Decaris (1901-1988), so I thought I'd start off today with images of a couple of stamps that he both designed and engraved.

- nethryk

Farmer, a semi-postal issued by France on February 14, 1949, Scott No. B233, Yvert & Tellier No.823.



Bourbon Palace, issued by France on August 28, 1971, Scott No. 1219, Y&T No. 1688.

This is one of the best threads I have found on any site, thank you very much to all the above posters, please keep going. Engraved stamps are really the best and I did not realize that there were so many engravers and so talented.

The amazing thing for me is that all these engravings would be fine works of art on any wall, but when done in miniature they are truly masterpieces!

For sometime I have been searching for a 'worthwhile' topical, in the sense that it would thrill me with each new find, and I think that collecting the works of some of the engravers you have shown us would be extremely rewarding, and I thank you.

:)

What an amazing thread, and so many great pictures, my poor old computer is having trouble keeping up.
Stampgal, after all this are you still collecting Mr. Slania?