Collecting By Engraver

I agree that this was to add colour and back then that was what they thought (probably rightly) that the public wanted but the choice to use single colour engraving and add colour by cheaper methods was just that, a choice.

Austria certainly could have produced multi-colour engraving if they had chosen to do so, in fact I'm pretty sure that's how this stamp from 1946 was printed.



This is the only Austrian stamp in my collection that seems to be three colour recess. The pink, particularly, sits up proud on the paper. It is also the only one in the catalogues I have where they have used more than one colour but is simply listed as recess rather than recess and something else.

I guess I'm crying over spilt milk, as they say, and the engraving on the hunting stamp is so fine, it is a wonder the presses could handle it. I guess it could be worse. They could have done the whole stamp in photo.

Actually all 10 stamps from this 1948 flower set were
printed in 1 colour engraving and 2 colours typography (letterpress).

Thanks lithograving. I don't mind being wrong as long as someone points it out. I'll make a note of that on the database. I wonder why the pink stands out. Perhaps they used some kind of over-inking method or one of those inks that swells with heat and pressure. I guess I'll never know.

Gibbons only gives them as recess but I just looked at Scott and they say engraved and typo. I should have noticed that before, I guess. As my original post was really tongue in cheek anyway, that sort of closes the topic and I'll just go back to looking at what a superb group of engravers Austria once had. Now they don't even have the ability to print recess, so I've been told.

Yes it's a real pity that Austria is no longer
printing engraved stamps.
I believe that this one below issued in 2011 and engraved
by a C. Scheidl is the last one that has any kind
of engraving on it.



For the last 4 years or so the Austrian State Printer
has come up with computer (virtual? )
laser engraving called Etch-Art which is a poor imitation
of the real thing.

See the thread here on SCF

https://goscf.com/t/28830&whichpage=1

I agree that the use of Etch Art or computer engraving produces a better stamp than without it. It allows fine details to be included.
It is definitely the way most engraved stamps will be produced in the future and is not really a new idea.

The lines behind the head of the penny black and many other stamps since were cut by an engraving machine and it was commonly used to produce the scroll work on banknotes. The perfection of the lines made it a good security feature that was hard for forgers to reproduce by hand.

Canada had also gone down the same pathway since 2010, another country with a fine tradition of engraving gone. The whale stamp, which was computer engraved, has been discussed here before.

Yes, it can produce beautiful stamps but so can photogravure. My preference is for the art form that is being lost and I will stick to hand engraved stamps in my collection.

I found these on ebay and couldn't resist them.Philatelic exhibitions were a good place to advertise yourself and the American Bank Note Company made good use of this. I showed one set many pages back but here is another from New York in 1926.

The scan on the sellers site made it hard to see whether they were engraved or not but as it was ABNCo, I thought it was a safe bet. The quality exceded my expectations by a mile. I have to ask. Has anyone any idea on the engraver?

They're somewhere buried in these 157 pages! William Fraser Ford engraved the whole thing except the scrolls, which were done by Carroll Stanley Mabie.

Wow! That's fantastic. Where on earth did you get that information

page 96
:-)

Jorge has already been there. I should have guessed. What a great resource those cards are. It is strange that they only list the engravers rather than the modeller or designer. Also, if I read it right, the vignette is made up of three parts. I can see how they would have been able to add small engravings together but what a precise fiddly job that would have been. The high skill levels didn't stop with the engraver but followed through all the production stages as well.

edit: I've just been able to remove another "unknown" from the database. Thanks!

AKPhilately - I found that image on the web some years ago. Bad thing is that I don't remember where. I guess that the book was from Argentina.
.....................................................................

Chile - 1904
Columbus

Printed by American Bank Note Co.

Vignette engraved by Robert Savage (1868-1943)
Frame, numeral and lettering engraved by George H. Seymour



Numeral modifications by...




1ct. : numeral "1" and word "centavo" by Call
2cts - 5cts : numerals by Dymock

Hello people

I've been very impressed by the Russian engraved stamps on this site a while ago, by Smirnov, Sapronov etc. Someone posted scans of the Lute Player (1966), Karl Marx (1968) Avicenna (1980), the Marriage Proposal (1965) and the late 1950s views. Really attractive stamps. But the old problem surfaces - how to find the engraved stamps of this country. I'm in UK, so should I buy Stanley Gibbons Vol 10, Russia and related territories? I'd be looking at the 1991 edition - about £10 - the new edition is a lot more expensive.

But are there a significant number of engraved stamps to make it worth buying the catalogue? Or will the catalogue be worth more than the stamps I'll eventually find on ebay OR BidStart??

But the engraved stamps you've shown are really good looking!

Hello, strider,

To view Russian engraved stamps you can consult either http://skandinav.eu/page65.htm in both Russian and English or http://stamprus.ru/marks/1959/ in Russian only.

Strider - my SG 5th edition (1999) has the last listed Soviet engravers at 20th September 1990. However, there are long gaps in the 1980s when recess stamps are not given their engravers at all.

My own Soviet engraved stamps collection runs from 1925 to 1970 and is on 42 sheets. Only the earlier issues are expensive: some of the best stuff from the 1950s and 60s can be had for pence.

I have mounted these stamps by engraver rather than by set, but I am having second thoughts about the wisdom of this. It would take a finer eye than mine to detect a stylistic difference between, say, Mayorova and Nikitina, and while designers might have visible distinctions, I have yet to be convinced that Soviet engravers do. However, I am not about to re-mount those 42 pages!

Gibbons is not entirely reliable on engraver attributions - there should be a post somewhere in these pages about the complete Lydia Mayorova oeuvre.

The good news is that my 5th edition has now been superseded by the new 7th edition, and so I am in a position to pass it on to you for the price of postage! Get in touch!

Hello Iangreenwood

Thanks for your very kind offer to pass the old Russia catalogue to me. That's a most welcome offer, gratefully accepted. I'll check out how to contact you off the thread.

Sounds like you have a lot of engraved Russian stamps - I'm only beginning my collection, and so far have only a few hundred worldwide. But it's an interesting way to see some really lovely work.