Engraved Stamps - Take 2

I don't even want to know what he does with the stamps and vicars. I would say its better to collect stamps then vicars though.

Donna

Here's a nice one from Hawaii.

lithograving,

The one thing that getting back into stamps and joining this forum has done for me is make me do research. I feel like I'm in school again. Anyone need an thesis done?....lol

You would think that the country that the engraver came from would would commission the Postal services to publish something about the engravers themselves. I'd buy it and read in in a heartbeat.

Donna

I agree with you Donna, except for Slania and maybe a couple of others, engravers don't get much credit compared to the designers.

For instance how many collectors know the name of even one American engraver? It wasn't until a few years ago when I took out Scott's US Specialized from the library that I kept on seeing one name.. Thomas R. Hipschen, the finest American engraver.
But even the Specialized doesn't list every engraver, yet it does designers.
One small way to give them credit due is by placing their names on the stamp like Austria, Sweden, Denmark where the engraver is on the bottom right and designer on the left or in the case of France & Belgium where the name is somewhere in the design.
I don't know why the US and Canada didn't allow that on their stamps.

Here is a set from Portugal.





The last one in the set is printed litho/offset, even so it's a beautiful stamp.



I normally don't collect Portugal but I remember seeing the set at a dealer downtown (at that time 40+ years ago Toronto had dozens of stamp dealers) and I was struck by the engravings, the designs and the colours.

I have to agree with you there. The 1st two stamps are intricate designs, but the one of the ship has some really eye popping colors. Mini works of art on a stamp. I so miss that with today's stamps.

Donna

Mmm. They are very nice Litho.
I can't say I have much from Portugal either.

I Think the French also add credits to their stamps.

And often there are two names which I assume is designer and engraver?



List of stamps engraved by Jules Piel - French

http://createursdetimbres.voila.net.../P/piel.html

One of my favourite areas - TAAF

Good list Anthony for designers, wish there was one for engravers.

It's like Rodney Dangerfield said "They don't get no respect"

As far as placing the artists names, French stamps (also Monaco & whatever else printed by Atelier du Timbre, Paris) followed no set rule.

This one was designed & engraved by Pierre Gandon based on an old tapestry and he placed his name on lower left in the design.


The Monaco one has the engraver J. Pheulpin again lower left and the painter of the original on the right.


Whereas Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany etc. always followed the rule; engravers name horizontally in the lower right border (never inside the design) and designer LL.
The only exception is where the designer & engraver are one and the same such as the one below from Hans Ranzoni d.J (the younger) who almost always worked solo.



Same as your 1937 blue French stamp, Jules Piel, he designed & engraved the stamp. He also worked on banknotes as did many other stamp engravers.

The Canadian Postal Archives Database lists the engraver for most of Canada's engraved stamps.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/...11703_e.html

Many of them actually had two engravers, one for the image and another for the lettering. For example, this stamp had the picture engraved by Yves Baril and the lettering engraved by Donald J. Mitchell.

Ryan

Ryan, that's very good and is complete regarding Canadian stamps.
As far as engravers & designers, Unitrade catalogues also includes them, perhaps that's were they (Unitrade) got them from.

You're right about Canadian engravers sharing the job on some issues but I would say that the one doing the vignette is the main engraver and that was Yves Baril who engraved just about all stamps for Canadian Bank Note between 1955 - 1970 when Canada Post virtually stopped issuing engraved stamps.

I discovered on the site you posted (Canadian Postal Archives Database) that Baril also engraved US and UN stamps.

Does anyone know which ones?

I just bought this from the local stamp club auction.

I have that set for Portugal. Really nice stamps.

They are of Pedro Alvares Cabral, the man who sailed to Brasil in 1500.

The engraver of the first 2 stamps is Álvaro Lucas.

In 1945, a set of engraved stamps were issued about Portuguese Explorers (Vasco de Gama, Magellan, etc.) and they were engraved by the London based Bradbury, Wilkinson & Cª Ltd. The engravers were: E. Dawson ($10 $30 $35 e 1$00), Maxime Ferré ($50 e 2$00), and Robert Godbehear (1$75 e 3$50).

In 1946, another set about Castles in Portugal. Beautiful set. They were engraved by Karl Bickel (8 stamps) printed by Courvoisier S. A. (Switzerland).

I'll try to find some pictures. I'm glad I have them in my collection.