Czeslaw Slania - 10 Year Anniversary Of His Death

Since we are getting close (Mar17) to the 10 year anniversary of the death of - at least in my opinion - the best engraver the world has ever seen, Czeslaw Slania, I thought of sharing a few of the stamps he engraved, incl. quite a few for the USPS.

Here is Grace Kelly (U.S. Scott #2749):


Dean Acheson (U.S. Scott #2755):


For more USPS related stamps, here is a website:
http://www.slaniastamps-heindorffhu...edStates.htm

Two of the many stamps he engraved for Sweden - simply stunning work:



What happened to the art of engraving? Are they too expensive to make & print? USPS could at least engrave PM & EM stamps to make them more appealing to collectors...

Check out the collecting by engravers thread

Thanks for the tip! I'm glad to see there are like-minded people. :)

Yes there are a few of us around.

I think part of it is that they just have other ways of thwarting would-be counterfeiters today. Engraved stamps were engraved (like currency) to make it difficult for counterfeiters. Today they have tagging and micro printing.

Here in Canada at times in discussion with a fellow philatelist..i'll mention that I collect the engraved stamps of Czeslaw Slania...they'll look at me puzzled...not knowing his work..so I tell them to pull out a $5 bill out of their pocket..and say "that image of Sir Wilfred Laurier is the work of Slania". (Can't do it much these days...they designed a new $5. bill)

The Grace Kelly stamp is one of my all-time favorites. However, for some reason, the Princesse Grace version from Monaco beats it, in my opinion.



Robert

More stamps engraved by Mr. Slania:

Vatican City Scott # 1214

GREAT idea for a thread. I have moved it to the MAIN forum because so much of Slania's work is worldwide.

Thanks for thinking of this!

This is a perfect time for me to continue my Slania collection.



Wow, It's hard to believe 10 years has passed. I have quite a few of his stamps in used condition, but for my engravers collection, I prefer unused copies. Thanks for this thread!



Regards,

Don

I think this is one area where the images really need to be high resolution scans to show them off at their best.
Not wanting to duplicate unnecessarily as most of these images can be found in the aforementioned collecting by engraver thread but I had to show that Grave Kelly one off at its best.

My initial introduction to this master of the art of engraving
came in the early seventies when I had a new issue subscription
with Swedish Post.

When the stamps arrived my eyes were immediately drawn
not to the design but to these sharp, fine lines.
They just jumped out at you.







I had by then already collected for many years and seen
lots of stamps and many engraved ones but these were different.





I wondered who is this CZ. SLANIA on the bottom right?
Who even makes definitives like the one below look spectacular.



In those pre internet days there wasn't much info available
about engravers even in stamp papers like Linn's Weekly
to which I had a subscription for many years.
I didn't even know what his/her first name was.

Now mainly due to the internet Czeslaw Slania is getting his justly
deserved recognition and honours.