Collecting By Engraver

Ooh yes, I love those, John. I was gonna put those up on the blog as well at some stage, but that might take weeks so I won't leave you in suspense. These were made for the 1949 exhibition to mark the centenary of the first French stamps. As you may know, the official stamp issues were based on the designs of the first stamp and the Gandon design because that was then the current definitive. No wonder, then, that these exhibition labels also include the Gandon stamp image. But the designer of the whole thing is J. Carré and the labels are absolutely engraved by Charles Mazelin. I don't think Gandon's period of disgrace lasted that long, especially when his work turned out to be such a hit.
By the way, the vignettes come in twelve colours (look great on a single page!), and every day of the exhibition a new colour was made available.

Well. I've got four colours so only eight to go.

Yesterday, Canadian announced on the Stamp Magazine forum that the Belgian engraver Charles Leclercqz had died late last year.
His best known work, I presume, is this 1970s Belgian definitive.



Here's another stamp engraved by him.



On page 49 of this thread there's some more work of his to be seen.

On my blog, which you'll find by googling a bit for stampengravers, you can see which ones are my personal favourites of his.

http://arrbnb.wordpress.com/registr...ont-quittes/

2013

Décembre

31-12: Pierre TAMBUYSER (°09-05-1927)
30-12: André SPILIERS (°08-06-1931)
27-12: Nelly SOETAERT (°27-05-1927)
24-12: Lodewijk VAN DEN EEDE (°31-07-1930)
24-12: Henri BARBE (vf/Mireille BREDAEL) (°15-07-1939)
19-12: Gilberte WATTY (vve/Joseph BLAIRON) (°24-01-1925)
18-12: Armand DE BOITSELIER (e/Theresia MOSTINCKX) (°15-12-1933)
17-12: Charles LECLERCQZ (v/Ghislaine DESCHRYVER)(°19-12-1922)

CHILE - 1910
Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane

Printed by American Bank Note Co.

Vignette engraved by Charles Schlecht (1843-1932)
Frame & lettering engraved by George H. Seymour



Charles Schlecht was born in Stuttgart, Germany. He worked for ABNC, Western Bank Note Co. and BEP, and was trained by Charles Burt and Alfred Jones.

Thanks Jorgesurcl. That's another one I can move out of my unknown album and put it where it belongs.

Before we move away from the tribute to Leclercqz, here are a few more that show just how good he really was.

This is one of my favourite stamps from any engraver.


The detail in this lace is quite stunning.


This one makes it onto my list as it shows how much detail he could get on a small stamp.


He was particularly good at portraits as this one shows:

jjarmstrong47, this is another stamp from the same Chilean series of 1910...

$1 - Statue of General José San Martin

Printed by American Bank Note Co.

Vignette engraved by Elie Timothée Loizeaux (1873-1956)
Frame & lettering engraved by George H. Seymour

You have made my day. I have the stamp and I have Loizeaux listed in my album but up to now I had no stamps listed for him. Thankyou!

Glad you enjoy the information and find it useful.
This is another stamp of the same series and engravers :

CHILE 1910
Statue of General Bernardo O'Higgins
Printed by American Bank Note Co.

Vignette : Elie Timothée Loizeaux (1873-1956)
Frame/lettering : George H. Seymour

George Seymour didn't have to work too hard on that one. Most of the frame is the same. It must have been good to sit back and have a cup of coffee while Elie had to start from scratch to do his bit.

Actually, I think we often underestimate the frame and lettering engravers. Because they are so good we take them for granted but if you ever see one that does not come up to standard (I'm trying to think of an example)you really notice it.

I remember a friend of mine (fifty years ago) who was doing commercial art in college. He showed me a page of letters he had spent all day on and I'm ashamed to say, I pointed out all the flaws. We stayed friends (just) but I got a real appreciation of just how hard good lettering is drummed into me that day.

These came out the year before the above examples. Do you know if these were done by the same engravers?
(Just looking at these, they could use a good wash!)

jjarmstrong47, I also agree. The work of engravers of frame & lettering has not been recognized and praised as the engravers of vignettes, although it is also remarkably artistic and difficult job.

Your stamps are from the same series of 1910 and depicting various events of the war of independence.
The engravers are :

1ct. Green/Black (Swears Independence)
Vignette : Harry P. Dawson
Frame & lettering : George H. Seymour

5cts. Blue/Black (General O'Higgins and San Martin in the Battle of Maipu)
Vignette : Robert Savage (1868-1943)
Frame & lettering : George H. Seymour

10cts.Brown/Black (Combat between frigates Lautaro and Esmeralda)
Vignette : Edwin Gunn (1876-1940)
Frame & lettering : George H. Seymour

Another one :

50 cts. Olive green/Black (Statue of Gral. José Miguel Carrera)
Vignette : Charles Skinner (1841-1932)
Frame & lettering : George H. Seymour



(I just published an article about ABNC engravers and Chilean stamps in the Chile Filatelico magazine of the Philatelic Society of Chile...and I hope that it will be online soon, in the ChileCollector website)

Thanks Jorgesurcl. You must have spent many years finding that information. The American Bank Note company haven't ever published their records as far as I know. George Seymour did the frame and lettering for the whole set by the look of it but the vignettes were shared by five engravers. How many did they employ at one time, I wonder. I suppose they were producing stamps for a lot of countries so there would have been plenty of work.

Yes, indeed, in those years ABNC produced postage stamps, tax stamps, currency, stocks, bonds, certificates, etc. for many countries and companies around the world.

More Chilean stamps from the Centenary issued of 1910 :

12cts- Maria Isabel capture
Vignette engraved by Charles Skinner (1841-1932)
Frame & lettering : George H. Seymour
Modification of face value, engraved by Archer




15cts. Gen. B. O'Higgins & Liberation Army
Vignette engraved by Harry P. Dawson
Frame & lettering: George H. Seymour