Collecting By Engraver

Fantastic stuff guys. I've been away for a few months, and I've just gone through about 8 pages of engraving delight.

During the last part of 2010 and early 2011, I came across many mint engravings from Greenland, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Denmark.
I share Lithograving's comment that the only shame about Denmark's engravings is the fact they're small. Other than that, wonderful specimens.
Unfortunately I don't have a scanner so I'll try to find some online photos of the greenland and faroe islands stamps to share with you.

Andrew welcome back, long time no see.
So you've been busy accumulating engraved stamps?

I haven't gotten any older stamps since the beginning of the year. Only receiving, right now, my standing orders. Other expenses coming in!

But my last 'acquisitions' were, in fact, basically all engraved stamps from Greenland and Faroe Islands. Quite a few from Icelands, and almost all from Denmark between the 50s/60s and 80s. Beautiful stuff.

I thought about trying Monaco but there's too many of them and pretty expensive. Will have to wait until I'm richer hahah.

This year Sweden has come out with another fine engraving by Lars Sjööblom and Pjotr Naszarkowski:
https://www.posten.se/c/stamp_issue...environments

They also have this one by Lars about the Struve Geodetic Arc:
https://www.posten.se/c/stamp_issue...11_struvearc

Sweden still amazes me today. Some of their engravings are more 'modernized' though. I'm still a fan of the classic 1 color or few color designs of landscapes.
Their Europa Forests issue is quite interesting, as it resembles bark from trees: https://www.posten.se/c/stamp_issue...urope_forest

Unfortunately, most of my other countries (Norway, Netherlands, Portugal, Macau) have abandoned the art. Waiting to receive my Monaco stamps though. Should have some nice specimens there.

timbres667 & AndrewF31 - Thanks. What I'd really like to see is more SCFers posting sharp images of engraved stamps from their own collections on this thread. Stamp images posted on most websites, especially the commercial ones, are generally of very low quality. Yes, we can do better!

Many collectors consider Jean De Bast (1883–1975) to be Belgium's top postage stamp engraver. Here are images of several examples of his work from the latter part of his unbelievably long philatelic career (1919-1967!), plus an engraved stamp issued by France with a similar design for comparison.

- nethryk

Edward Anseele, issued on October 27, 1956, Scott No. 499.


Countess of Taxis, issued on March 21, 1960, Scott No. 539.


Postilion in Liège, issued on April 5, 1964, Scott No. 609.


Postmaster, issued on April 26, 1965, Scott No. 629.


Rowland Hill, philatelist, issued on March 27, 1965, Scott No. 628.


Hôtel des Postes, issued on May 7, 1963, Scott No. 592.


Hôtel des Postes, engraved by Pierre Gandon, issued by France on May 4, 1963, Scott No. 1064, Y&T No. 1387.

Here are images of four Sweden booklet stamps engraved by Lars Sjööblom, with plenty of lithogravure thrown in to be sure, but nevertheless still nice to look at, in my opinion.

- nethryk

Blue Tiger, favorite horse of King Charles XI, after a painting (1673) by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl (1628-1698) in the collections of Gripsholm Castle, issued on August 10, 1987, Scott No. 1647, Facit No. 1464.


Gripsholm Castle outer courtyard, 17th century, after a lithograph by artist Carl Johan Billmark (1804-1870), issued on August 10, 1987, Scott No. 1649, Facit No. 1466.


European settlers negotiating with Native Americans, map of New Sweden, and Swedish ships Kalmar Nyckel and Fogel Grip, after an 18th century illustration from a Swedish book, issued on March 29, 1988, Scott No. 1672, Facit No. 1490.


Portrait of a Young Girl, after a print by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), a German painter, print maker, mathematician, engraver, and theorist, issued on August 27, 1992, Scott No. 1965, Facit No. 1751.

What about Hunderwasser stamps? I think he was an engraver too.

Please, let me know.

Regards.

Alejandro Sanchez - Perhaps the person you are referring to is the Austrian abstract artist and architect Friedrich Stowasser (1928-2000), who used the pseudonym Friedensreich Hundertwasser? To the best of my knowledge, although Hundertwasser designed some stamps for Austria, he was not actually a stamp engraver. Unfortunately, I could not find any examples of his artwork in my collection, as I believe his stamps were either lithograved or photograved, wholly or substantially, and therefore fall outside my main collecting interest area, which is intaglio engraved stamps. However, here are Scott catalogue numbers for some Austria stamps designed by Hundertwasser: 1029, 1629, 1712 & (posthumously) 1972. - nethryk

Alejandro Sanchez, I have to agree with nethryk that Hundertwasser
was no engraver.

I have some of his work on Austrian stamps including this memorial
SS issued June 2, 2000.
They were printed 1 colour engraving and multicolour
photogravure by the Austrian State Printers, Wolfgang Seidel was the engraver.
Quantity Issued: 1.1 million blocks/sheets

Scott 1821

I'm enjoying learning about Hunderwasser, thankyou Alejandro and Litho!
These Austrian stamps make me think he must be the love child of Gustaf Klimt and Charles Rennie MacKintosh...

That's a good point Andrew. Even though I haven't bought any
Swedish stamps for the last 25 years, I still like to view the
new ones on the net.

Even the few still issued in mono or bicolour engraving seem to have a "cleaner look " which might be due to new printing presses.
Also some engravers including Lars Sjööblom are employing
pointillism engraving using dots instead of lines.
Then you have computer generated engraving used to produce
the recent Canadian $10 whale.

stampgal
I know nothing of Charles Rennie Mackintosh but I really admire
Gustaf Klimt's work and have for a very long time
In my opinion Hundertwasser is no Klimt.
Personally I don't like his work at all.

Litho, of course, no Klimt! It was just my initial reaction to some of the colours and shapes in the pieces. The human brain looking to recognise, sort and label what it sees.
I think I had this piece of MacKintosh in mind (although it isn't particularily typical of his work)

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish Architect, designer and watercolourist whose dates largely overlap with Klimt (he lived 1868-1928). He designed buildings, furniture, fabrics, every detail down to tiles and door handles. I like his work very much.

From the mid-1920s until his death, Antonin Delzers (1873-1943) engraved over 60 stamps for France, and many more for use in French colonies and for other Francophone countries. Here are images of eight examples of Delzers's engraving work, several of which he also designed.

- nethryk

View of Moulay-Idriss, issued for use in French Morocco in 1933-34, Scott No. 131.


Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836), composer of La Marseillaise, designed by Delzers after the statue by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), who also sculpted the Statue of Liberty, and issued by France on June 27, 1936, Scott No. 309, Y&T No. 314.


Pierre Corneille, tragedian, designed by Delzers, and issued by France on February 15, 1937, Scott No. 323, Y&T No. 335.


France congratulating the USA on the 150th anniversary of its constitution, issued by France on September 17, 1937, Scott No. 332, Y&T No. 357


Léon Gambetta, statesman, designed by Delzers, and issued by France on April 2, 1938, Scott No. 341, Y&T No. 378.


France welcoming home people repatriated from Spain, semi-postal issued by France on August 8, 1938, Scott No. B75, Y&T No. 401.


Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), symbolist painter noted for his murals, semi-postal issued by France on June 5, 1939, Scott No. B86, Y&T No. 436.


Ritual of the burning boat (for Sainte Dévote), semi-postal issued by Monaco on January 27, 1944, Scott No. B80.

nethryk, I totally agree that scanned images, with a good scanner are much better, but, unfortunately, I don't have a scanner as good as the one you and litho has so, frankly, internet images are actually better than what I could provide from my own hand.
I wouldn't duplicate things that were posted in the recent past but I may have some stamps that are not spoken about much.
I've found quite a few beautiful specimens in the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, especially during the 60s, 70s, 80s, when Slania was 'ravaging' the Scandinavian countries with his influence.

AndrewF31 - No problem. I was just stating my personal preference to see attractive collector-generated images over the usual stuff that is widely available all over the internet. I was a long-time member of the now-defunct Czeslaw Slania Study Group, and I have collected hundreds of Slania's stamps over the past 35 years, so I know exactly what you mean about the beauty of his work. In fact, I have posted images of some of Slania's stamps that are in my collection on a couple of other stamp collector websites. However, since joining this SCF thread, I have been showcasing other skilled engravers who don't receive anywhere near the amount of adulation that Slania does, and therefore they may not be as familiar to everyone here. Fortunately, there's plenty of room in cyberspace for all of us to post what we like! - nethryk