Collecting By Engraver

It looks OK Litho

Two fine Austrian engravers who seem to be underrepresented in this thread thus far are Walter Hörwarter (1883-1963) and Friedrich Teubel (1884-1965). Here are images of the six semi-postal (charity) stamps in a health-themed set, designed by Austrian artist Franz Mynni, engraved by Walter Hörwarter and Friedrich Teubel (three each), and issued by Austria on March 13, 1954, Scott Nos. B288-B294. Bonuses: Children, Red Cross, nurse, and motor vehicle.

- nethryk

Boy patient under a sunlamp


Surgeon with a microscope.


Mother and children.


Operating theater.


Baby on scales.


Red Cross nurse and an ambulance.

nethryk, I agree with you regarding Walter Hörwarter (1883-1963) and Friedrich Teubel (1884-1965)

I think they were victims of their times. Before the war
Austria issued very few stamps and most of the engraved
ones were done by the master Ferdinand Lorber (1883 - 1957)


During the Third Reich era when both Vienna and Berlin state
printers had to find work for their engravers again no job
for Hörwarter and Teubel.

And after the war the Austrian State Printer could draw
on at least a dozen excellent engravers still led by
Lorber.

From my sparse records of Austrian engravers it appears
that Hörwarter only engraved 3 Austrian stamps, the ones you show above.
Teubel engraved 9 in total and for both engravers these 1954 issues were their final work.
Even though they were 70 years old then they still had the right
stuff IMO. Lorber was the same age and still working and Slania
in his eighties was still the best around.

lithograving - Thanks for sharing that helpful information about the regrettably limited philatelic output of Austrian engravers Walter Hörwarter and Friedrich Teubel. No wonder I've had so much trouble chasing down examples of their work!

Hey, I just noticed that this is my 5,000th post at SCF. In celebration of this milestone, here are images of the three stamps in a set commemorating the arrival in the Långbergsöda Valley of the first Stone Age inhabitants of Åland, c. 4,000 BC, designed by Ålandic artist Anna-Maaret Pitkänen-Darmark, engraved by the aforementioned Czeslaw Slania, and issued by Åland Islands (Finland) on August 16, 1994, Scott Nos. 97, 100 & 107, Facit Nos. 88-90.

- nethryk

Pottery


Stone tools


Early settlement

nethryk, congratulations on reaching your 5000th post
on Stamp Community Family forum.

That is some especially when one considers that
99.9% of your posts have a superb scan of one of your stamps
and usually an explanation of what was behind the image
on the stamp.

I always enjoy viewing all your posts not just the
the ones here on the engravers thread.

lithograving - Thank you very much! And may I say in reply that your own many outstanding contributions, both here and elsewhere, have surely stimulated many collectors to appreciate the wonderful world of "engraved stamp beauties."

Here is an image of a stamp designed and engraved by one of my favorite artist/engravers, Pierre Gandon: "Allegory of Independence," issued by Senegal on April 4, 1981, Scott No. 201.

- nethryk

That is a fantastic effort, Nethryk. Congratulations! I've really enjoyed all your posts and the quality of your scans.

That last Gandon stamp is stunning and I have not come across it before. What great luck it was for all of us that De Gaulle pardoned him, thanks to his Marianne stamp. Otherwise we would be 300 engraved stamps poorer.

I posted a stamp a few pages back that was printed by Quayle and Sons in New York. I said at the time I had found nothing on them and had not seen other stamps by them. Perhaps they didn't get many more contracts after the scandal mentioned here:

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/...empire-state

Apparently over two million dollars worth of tax stamps were not adequately accounted for, except for one person's claim that he had burned them. It seems that they may have been mainly printers of revenues rather than postage stamps which is why I hadn't come across them.

JJ, I couldn't see your earlier post regarding the printers Quayle and Sons but I did notice whilst looking through an old album stamps printed by them which was most likely a South American country.

I'll check later.

Edit - I found it - https://goscf.com/t/9106&whichpage=137#323899

Edit - it was the same set but with airmail overprints

I've shown this elsewhere but I like it so much I'll break my normal habit and show it here as well. This turned up in a pack of wallpaper that a friend bought at a club auction last night for 50c. As she already had this, she gave it to me.


The miniature sheet was produced to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Burgtheater in Vienna. Engraved by Alfred Fischer and designed by Otto Zeiller it was printed five to a page, hence the perforations at the edge. SG MS1755 Scott MS1030. The stamps were not issued separately but here they are.


The old theatre


Internal view showing the Grand Staircase

jjarmstrong47 - Thanks. I would readily agree that Pierre Gandon is among the all-time greats in both stamp design and engraving. Nice Austria miniature sheet, too!

Happy Birthday to Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), an American lawyer, soldier and politician who served as the seventh President of the United States. Here are images of a cover and the stamp (popularly known among USA philatelists as a "Black Jack") it bears featuring a portrait of "Old Hickory," designed by American artist and engraver James Macdonough (c. 1820-1903), engraved by Joesph Prosper Ourdan (1828-1881) (vignette) and William D. Nichols (c. 1835-c. 1880) (lettering), and issued by the USA on July 1, 1863, Scott No. 73, plus an image of a detail of a painted portrait of Andrew Jackson in 1824 by English-born American artist Thomas Sully (1783-1872). Sadly, this is the only example of a Black Jack in my collection.

- nethryk

Black Jack is one of my favourites too and has been on my wish list for a long time. I've only seen one really well centred copy for sale but the owner and I couldn't agree on a price so I foolishly didn't press him. He was afraid he might get more on ebay so I guess that's what he did.

I've been reading Rein's write-up elsewhere, from a few years ago, on the unscreened photogravure stamps of Mexico. I found it when I was looking for more information on this stamp.



I could see it was engraved and Scott calls it engraved while Gibbons goes further and says it is recess printed. It is engraved but I was sure it was not recess printed and suspected litho perhaps.

It is, as Rein pointed out, unscreened photogravure which seems to be a cheaper process that could be done using the same press, if I have understood correctly. Hopefully Rein will correct me if not.

I have added this to the database as it is a good example of how the stamp printing process developed away from recess printing. My quandary is to decide how far I should go with adding stamps like this to the database.

I am trying to avoid modern computer engravings, such as the Canadian whale discussed earlier, beautiful though they may be. We probably agree that the engraver is the robot and the person who controls it is the artist or designer but not the engraver. They would probably disagree

These earlier stamps were hand engraved though and would have been recess printed if the printers at the time were not experimenting with new methods. I think I'll leave them in the too hard basket for now and get through the other five thousand or so sitting here waiting.

The Mexican printers were using Waite&Saville diestamping presses that could achieve unscreened photogravure.

The same method was used for a few years on their new [1936] Goebel rotary (for photogravure) to be finally replaced by traditionally screened photogravure on the same Goebel. Occasionally this Goebel would print commemoratives using the same unscreened photogravure. Better known to stamp collectors are the 1930-1948 Pictorials of South Africa, most of their stamps were UNSCREENED photogravure on the Goebel rotary - using the method patented by the NRM and the State Printers in Pretoria were assisted by personel of the Nederlandsche Rotogravure Maatschappij, Leiden, The Netherlands.

The Mexican stamp with the two methods, the first one on a Waite&Saville press [diestamping], the other two on the Goebel rotary press.









Compare the poor man's recess! The original may have been engraved but the plates / cylinders most likely were etched.