Engraved Stamps - Take 2

I figure it's time to revive this thread.

These Austrian stamps below are based on works by famous
artists and paintings.
They are part of a collection in the Kunsthistorisches museum, Vienna which has many works of art that
Habsburg rulers acquired over the centuries.

Here is another masterpiece by Titian, one of the
best Italian Renaissance painters.
This painting is housed in Prague's Castle gallery.

Nice Litho.

Thanks BC. Pity they don't make them like that anymore, the stamps
nor the painters.

Thanks from me too! Comparing with the originals really hits the spot! The Duerer original particularly jumped out at me. Also the scans bring out the rich details of the engravings, which I don't really notice when looking at the actual stamps.

Thanks Litho for reviving this thread. It's an important discussion. There's a parallel one going on about the degradation of quality in stamps.

https://goscf.com/t/8176

The fact is that the art is being sacrificed for the bottom line. I can credit my stamp collecting for helping me become an artist, I used to look at the engraving through a microscope lens and marvel at it.
Now as an artist, I find myself unemployed because my job is exported to a foreign country because it's cheaper. (Don't get me started!)
Below is a vignette die proof I have framed in my home. It is a work of art! (Although it was for a piece of currency, the principle is the same as for stamps)




I'm not a fan of Columbus by any means (a native friend insists on turning it to the wall when she comes to visit, it's great fun), but the clean line and skill are marvelous. That's what's being lost.

I had to laugh when I read that. Even though Chris didn't really
"Discover" it in the true sense of the meaning, if not him someone
else would have stumbled on these huge continents and events would have
unfolded just the same.
I'm not a fan of revisionist history. Whatever happened, happened and it can't be changed now.

Speaking of Christopher Columbus here is a nice souvenir card
printed by the BEP.

A couple from Sweden.

A Swedish setenant coil pair, engraved by Martin Mörck.

Re: Columbus 'discovering' America. As they say, you can't discover something that's not lost.
But that aside, aren't these all amazing up close?

hope you like this one

Time to revive this thread again. The other thread is
more or less about the engravers https://goscf.com/t/9106
and this one here I gather is just about the beauty of engraved stamps with no emphasize
as to who the engraver was.

Just the other day I was going through some of my FDC and noticed
this Swedish one from 1968 portraying wildflowers and was
again struck how a simple mono or bi colour engraving can make
a flower looks so attractive.
Actually after buying this FDC around 1970 I started collecting
Swedish stamps, primarily because of the engravings not
because they were engraved by Slania, who I had never heard of
before.
I always meant to get the MNH booklet but never did.

These Swedish stamps were issued in 1983 to commemorate
500 Years of printing in Sweden.
I can't imagine these stamps being printed either offset
or photogravure.
Perhaps letterpress/topography might have been suitable
since that was the print method used in the Fifteenth Century.

Just curious but, are there any countries still engraving regular issue stamps?