Collecting By Engraver

Denmark 1970
Scott 470

Designer : Povl Christensen

Engraver : Czeslaw Slania

50th Anniversary of the reintegration of
Northen Schleswig with Denmark

Denmark 1970
Scott 471

Designer : Dan Sterup - Hansen

Engraver : Czeslaw Slania


150th anniversary of the discovery of electro-magnetism by the Danish physicist H.C. Ørsted

Denmark 1970
Scott 476

Designer : Olav Mathiesen

Engraver : Czeslaw Slania

25th anniversary of the United Nations

Denmark 1970
Scott 477

Designer : Connie Linck

Engraver : Czeslaw Slania


Bicentenary of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844)



This is one of my Slania favourites.

lithograving - I do appreciate your lifelong feeling for the beautiful in stamp art (perhaps inculcated in you by your grandfather whose guidance you sometimes recall in your posts) as manifest in the varied acquisitions - the source of sheer philatelic joy on your part - you are now sharing with us.

As for me, though on a smaller scale, I am very much like you although I never took out a subscription except with the Posts of my own country for some time while their new issues policy was still fairly moderate. Now that the numbers of new issues as well as their face values have soared practically all over the world I limit my choices to exclusively hand-engraved stamps that are to my own liking.

We are most fortunate in having the opportunity to admire the highly magnified images at sharp resolutions of your own mint Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Scandinavia, etc. or of nethryk's mint pearls of French, Scandinavian or U.S. provenance (to mention but a few) taking the pride of place on this thread as they rightly deserve. Thanks a lot. I wish rather vainly my circumstances permitted me to join you but all I can do is express my deep admiration.

As for Jane Muus' designs I am very happy with Czeslaw Slania's interpretations of them. With stamps as with the proverbial proof of the pudding there's no telling what the stamps would have looked like if printed by a different method because so much depends on the appearance of the finished product.

What I admire in stamps is the splendour of fine engraving which can be magnified without losing any of its beauty, on the contrary the quality of its facture is yet enhanced through the appreciation of every minute detail created by the master engraver's sure hand guided by his/her sense of proportion. Cf. e.g. Decaris' women mentioned in my post of 12/06/2012 05:49 am on page 82 of this thread, all of them caught with a few sparing but effective nicks od his burin, or Achille Ouvré's Martinique Woman designed by Paul-Pierre Lemagny and shown by graphis in his post of 11/30/2012 on p. 79.

As for the other methods of printing stamps, in my opinion, there is not much to be gained from enlarging stamps printed in those ways although well-done typography is of course an exception: see especially the Austria 1908 Francis Joseph Jubilee set (on coated paper) designed by Koloman Moser and engraved by Ferdinand Schirnböck or the Austria 1934 Folk Costumes definitive set designed by Georg Jung (to me the latter set is slightly reminiscent of the old pics on my grandfather's and my father's packs of Piatnik playing cards for Sunday afternoons' games of tarots with friends in the local pub).

Unfortunately, well-preserved mint stamps of the 1908 set are hard to come by or inaccessible, so I have them in my old collection of used stamps except for the engraved 60 h. and 72 h. mints but I do keep a short mint set (from 1 g. to the 2 s.of the cheaper variety) of the 1934 Folk Costumes in my collection of selected mints. What memories of my early collecting days!

There's no doubt that the postmark detracts from the aesthetic perception of the stamp as a work of art. To me the stamp socked on the nose is a downright eyesore from that point of view. However, I do fully appreciate the charm of postal history items in my small collection (just two presentation liqueur boxes) of postcards (rarely whole letters) bearing historical messages (including such trifles as a mention of the cost of a kilogram of apricots in the summer of 1910).

Piotr Naszarkowski is another great engraver. Hewas born in Warsaw Poland in 1952. From 1975 to 1980, he pursued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. As a student, he began to work as a theater set designer and an assistant set designer at Polish Television. His promising career was interrupted by the introduction of Martial Law (December 1981) and military mobilization of mass media. To earn a living, he started to work for the State House of Engraving and Printing in Warsaw as a stamp and banknote engraver. He also completed a course in copper and steel engraving at this time. His interest in these techniques soon turned into fascination as he worked at improving his skills and researching the techniques used by masters. This is when he was introduced to the works of Czeslaw Slania for the first time. Soon after his arrival to Sweden in 1989 he joined the team of engravers at the Slania-headed Swedish Post Stamp Division. From the beginning, he was coached by Slania. They completed several stamp booklets together including the Swedish Maps, Derek Walcott, Icons, Museum of Antiquities and others. When Slania, already ailing in 2004, could no longer complete his engraving tasks, Naszarkowski was assigned the task of completing the work on the portraits Elvis Presley and Greta Garbo. Has has engraved over 185 stamps now. Much of his work can beseen on his website at: http://web.comhem.se/p.naszarkowski/

ACANALIZO - Welcome to this thread and thank you very much for your detailed biographical data on Piotr Naszarkowski. Most appreciated.

Strangely enough all my data on Polish engravers come from nethryk's posts even though I live in the Czech Republic bordering on Poland. Now you simply find it particularly difficult to get into contact with likeminded collectors abroad due to the fact that their numbers keep diminishing, face values of abundant new issues are pretty high and postage on letters abroad has become prohibitive. Actually the phenomenon has been encountered here for the last two decades at least.

Yes,Czeslaw Slania was a great engraver. Happy he left a great student of his, Piotr Naszarkowski who is continuing in his style.

Hi ACANALIZO

Nice to have another aficionado in our little group.

I always enjoy getting new information about engravers.

Florian, I think what I was getting at when I look at some
of Slania's work on Danish stamps is that I believe his talent
was wasted for certain issues.

I sometimes reflect on those times when the stamps of Austria,
Canada, Denmark, Sweden, USA etc where for the most part
printed via recess engraving.
That's the way it was, they had the printing presses and they
had the engravers and nobody talked about how labour intensive
and how much more it cost to produce engraved stamps compared
to offset/litho or typography or photogravure.

Now everything is money, money money.

Now we have reached the stage where Postal Authorities have either
totally abandoned engraved stamps as in Germany and Austria or
basically only use it the odd time to produce special items
now and then, example Canada's $10 whale and US inverted Jenny.

Sad state of affairs for the hobby of stamp collecting.

I collect STAMPS not labels or Xmas seals but that's what most
Postal Agencies are throwing out there.

lithograving - You are right about the general trend that can be perceived in most economic activiies (including stamp production) everywhere nowadays.

Fortunately, there are fields in stamp collecting that can suit every taste as well as every pocket. You only have to be aware of them as well as of your limits. Ours is just a pastime with links to the other pleasures of life of ours. Like you, I often turn to my stamp collection when reading a history book. Or when reminded of my stamp collection on seeing something special on my hikes, sightseeing tours, etc.

After all, investors in modern stamps are known to have been sadly disappointed ever since the 1960's.

Once, there were countries employing several technologies in producing their stamps. Consider e.g. Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia, ...

When my own country tried using offset printing in stamp production in 1964 - 1967 there was a public outcry that made the Czechoslovak Post give up the experiment.

I do not think the very first U.S. photogravure stamp in 1967 was a universal success either. Certainly not with me.

Remember e.g. your own Canada's Suzor-Coté issue?

Nevertheless further improvements in offset printing made even this technology acceptable and even honourable now.

But do not let us judge the then products and capabilities of various postal administrations by today's standards and achievements.

You were lucky in catching some of the best countries in their prime but will have found it impossible to keep up with the ever-rising numbers of new issues and their cost, so you wisely gave up.

Today few people can afford to collect the whole range of their own countries' new issues to say nothing of acquiring duplicates to be used as exchange material with collectors abroad, which has another adverse effect on modern philately.

Now the Posts keep telling us that no one makes us buy anything they offer. Why not listen to them?

Hi Florian
Its good to be back Yes all advice appreciated Thank you That Croatia Stamp is not lonely anymore
I'm here to learn
John.

HAWAII 1890
Queen Liliuokalani

Printed by ABNCo.
Vignette engraved by Alfred Jones (1819-1900)

Welcome back biglff.

Ireland issued some nice engraved stamps in the fifties
and sixties.
Do you have any that perhaps you could show us here?

Actually though for me the most interesting
stamps are the Irish Architecture definitives (1982/1990)
printed via offset.