Engraved Stamps - Take 2

Here's a couple of close ups which shows more detail.

Great scans, litho!

I love engraved stamps, but obviously there is some knowledge I don't have as to various nuances such as engravers etc. Where does one acquire such detailed information?

Sweden Post online has a small write up about four engravers and a series on articles on how A Stamp Is Born at
http://www.posten.se/c/facts_engravers_piotr

Otherwise search for the name of the engraver, either on here on Google. There is lots of info out there.

Hi Scouter

It's interesting for me to find out which engraver produced this stamps or that one,or who were the printers, etc, etc. but it's not necessary in order to enjoy looking at them.

Below are a couple of interesting sites.

All about C. Slania who engraved hundreds of stamps and also banknotes for Sweden,Denmark,Poland and many other countries.
http://www.slaniastamps-heindorffhu...m/index.html

The next one is about Czechoslovakian designers & engravers.

http://www.batz-hausen.de/titel.htm

The Austrian engravers had a real knack for producing head portraits.

They're really nice Litho.

I don't know who created this one.

I am looking for a copy of the book on Slania's life work - Lennart Bernadotte präsentiert das Lebenswerk von Czeslaw Slania. If anyone knows where I can purchase one for less than £100 I'll be grateful.
ISBN-10: 3930020122 or ISBN-13: 978-3930020126

Nice link to article on Czech engravers. Some of the stamps are stunning.
I am fortunate to have a few.

I had a delivery from an ebay auction.

Laos SG 385-387 - 99p

Nice ones Anthony, I particularly like the ones from Laos.

Yes the Czechs have had some top notch engravers, certainly in my top 10 list.

Belgium is another country with beautiful engraved stamps but that can be expected from an area which produced a Van Dyke, a Rubens and so many more world renowned artists.

Here is another one from Belgium.



And a close up to see the fine detail.

Good to see the mention of Czech designers, Lithograving - I've always thought that Czech stamps were design classics - artistic, imaginative, effective. But then their second series of stamps (SG 3 to 60a, including the newspaper, postage due and express stamps) were designed by Mucha, one of the great Art Nouveau artists. There are some great stamps also showing famous designers in the act of designing / engraving - sorry, I am too busy this evening to track them down.

But for me the best series of engraved stamps are the Spanish Tourism series, pretty well every year from 1964 yo the 80's (eg SG 1602 ff) - true classics, with superb colour combinations, and also the Spain Artists series, starting with Goya in 1958 - for instance check the Velasquez Las Meninas 60c (1959, SG 1304). Sorry, again no time to scan in but worth a look at how to turn a brilliant painting into a little masterpiece.

Further to my last posting - I've realised I'm not sure that the Spain Artist series are litho - the later ones certainly aren't as they are multicolour, but the early ones are all two colours so I just assumed. I'll have to get my magnifying glass out!

Some from British Honduras - Are there any British Empire that are not nice though?