Collecting By Engraver

I've been catching up on the last few pages. Unfortunately, my computer died when the fan on the CPU stopped working. My backup computer sullenly refuses to talk to the scanner so working on the database has almost stopped.

I bought a new computer online but due to the disastrous new parcel sorting system that Australia Post has adopted, it still hasn't arrived. Under the old system I would have got it next day or the day after. Now a week and a half after it was given to Australia Post it is still at the sorting depot eighty kilometres away.

Enough grumbling. I have also been wondering about the Sapronovs. It seems strange that among a host of I Sapronov stamps, Gibbons lists one as A. Sapronov. As the database is very finnicky about things like that, I have to list it as "A" until I can prove otherwise. This is the stamp in question.


"The Proposal of Marriage" by Fedotov. SG 3238 Scott 3146 listed in Gibbons as engraved by A Sapronov and designed by Anatoly Ivanovich Kalashnikov.

I hope someone, somewhere, comes up with the answer.

I'm afraid "A.Sapronov" has gone down as Ivan Sapronov in my album! The team of engravers was fairly stable at this time, and although (as I've already intimated) there were some family connections, there's no mention of a second Sapronov.

Here's Lydia Mayorova on the subject:

I agree that sounds pretty convincing. Gibbons typos are the bane of my life at the moment. Thanks for posting these articles. You have given me a few more first names. I was guessing that Smirnov was Vladimir but up till now, I had no evidence. I have only one of his stamps listed so far, SG3216 in the Soviet Metro Stations set.



Russia produced so many stamps that would have been far better if they had been engraved and they certainly had the talent to produce them. I suppose we should be grateful for the ones that they did produce.

Another name in that article is Valentin Nikitin. The 1966 stamp,"Avtandil at a Mountain Spring" from an engraving by S. Kabuladze is credited by Gibbons as being by T. Nikitina who is credited with quite a few more. I wonder if they are the same person. Like she says, the little team was complete.


SG3329 Scott3237 "Avtandil at a Mountain Spring"

These last stamps are absolutely lovely!

Remember that the suffix -a is the feminine form in Russian. Tatiana Silova became Valentin Nikitin's wife, taking the name Nikitina. In the same way Anna Lukyanova, daughter of Yuri Lukyanov, became Anna Seyfulina on marriage.

There was a degree of 'family' tradition at Goznak, for example designer Vasily Zavyalov had two sons who also designed Soviet stamps.

Thanks Ian. Now I'm getting the hang of Russian names I might have another go at War and Peace. Every little detail such as the above makes the database more complete.

As we are talking about this generation of Soviet engravers, we should show some more of their work. My scanner is out of action but these are already in my database. Firstly, the Republican Capitals set.


Main Steet, Kiev, Ukraine. SG2271 Scott 2133. Engraved by Lidiya Mayorova Designed by Sergei Pomansky


Communist Street, Baku, Azerbaijan. Engraved by Ivan Sapronov Designed by Sergei Pomansky.


Round Square, Minsk, Byelorussia. Engraved by Lidiya Mayorova. Designed by Sergei Pomansky


Viru Gate, Tallin, Estonia. Engraved by S. Aferov, Designed by Sergei Pomansky


Vilnu, Lithuania. SG2266 Scott 2134. Engraved by Ivan Sapronov. Designed by Sergei Pomansky.


Lenin Prospect,Kishinev, Moldavian S.S.R. Engraved by I. Micheiev, Designed by Sergei Pomansky.

One of the problems with databases being so exacting is the varied spelling of names when they are translated fro Cyrillic script to English. My database only searches by surnames but even keeping this consistent is difficult. I've seen three different spellings for Lidiya/Lydia/Lidya Mayorova.

Another set from the same era is my favourite. The stamps are half the size of the Capitals set above but they are exquisite. These are the 1959 tourist publicity set. Again, all were designed by Sergei Pomansky.


River Lena. SG2401 Scott 2274. Engraved by Ivan Sapronov


River Chusovaya, SG2399 Scott 2272. Engraved by Lidiya Mayorova



Riza Lake, Caucasus SG 2400 Scott 2272, Engraved by Ivan Sapronov



Iskanderkuly Lake, Central Asia. SG 2402 Scott 2276. Engraved by Ivan Sapronov



Coastal Region SG 2403 Scott 2275. Engraved by Lidiya Mayorova



Lake Baikal, Siberia. SG 2404 Scott 2277. Engraved by S. Aferov


Beluha Mountains, Altay. SG 2405 Scott 2278 Engraved by Ivan Sapronov.


Hibinsky Mountain, Crimea. SG 2406 Scott 2279. Engraved by Ivan Mokrousov


Gursuff Region, Crimea. SG 2407 Scott 2280. Engraved by Lidiya Mayorova.

Transliterating Russian names is almost a matter of taste, and so several varieties appear. However, some Russian letters confuse English speakers more than others, a notable example being the E with the umlaut (sorry, do not know what it is called in Russian). This is not pronounced E at all, but YO. Thus the engraver Aferov is pronounced and should really be spelled Afyorov (but never is).

As for the Russian capitals set, your attribution "I.Micheiev" cannot be easily verified, and the two relevant stamps (Kishinev and Ashkhabad) are almost certainly by Nikolai Andreyevich Mikheev. The Gibbons catalogue identifies an "I.Mikheev" as a designer (not an engraver) of 3 stamps in 1945 and a further set jointly with Mandrusov in 1947. It seems unlikely that this is the same person as the engraver Mikheev - it is an entirely different skill. That said, definitive and well-sourced attributions would be welcome.

AaaaH! My dyslexic old Gibbons. I wonder where they got that name from. I just went back and checked and I Micheiev is attributed as engraver for 2267 and 2270. I guess you could accept that the two surnames are simply different spellings of the phonetic pronunciation but "I" doesn't really correlate with Nikolai Andreyevich.

I must have had another reference as well as Gibbons when I loaded these as I have more information than they give but since my computer crash, I don't have my list of internet sites and references.

We had a Prime Minister who was slated for saying, "Life wasn't meant to be easy". Apparently, he was quoting from Kipling and like many educated people, he expected everyone to know the full quotation. He was wrong, of course, hence the public outrage but for the benefit of non-Australians and others the full quote is, "Life wasn't meant to be easy but it is meant to be enjoyable".
I'll try to remember that when I'm using my Gibbons.

Here is another superb engraving from the period but one for which Gibbons only lists the designer, Ivan Ivanovich Dubasov. I'm guessing that the Ivanovich means that his father was also Ivan Dubasov.


1957 Soviet Union. "Lenin at his desk" SG 2146 Scott 1997.

Here is another stamp by Mayorova that goes with the first one I showed.


"The Knight in the Tiger's Skin" after I. Toidze, Engraved by Lidiya Mayorova and with three designers attributed, L. Burduli,L. Shengelia and E. D. Aniskin. 1966 SG 3327 Scott 3235

As I've just noticed I have 99 posts, I'll round it off with this super portrait of Engels. Designer is listed as V. Tirdatov and the engraver is (you guessed it) Lidiya Mayorova.


1968 Soviet Union/Russia "Engels" SG 3842 Scott 3749

I haven't seen any examples of Austrian engravers for quite
awhile so I scanned a few stamps.
Some might have been already posted before but without an up to date
list it's impossible to know which ones.


Austria 1970

European Nature Conservation Year

Scott 862

Designer : Otto Zeiller (*1913 - +1988)

Engraver : Kurt Leitgeb (* 1939 )

Printing: Austrian State Printer