Collecting By Engraver

Denmark 1959
Scott 366 - 368

King Frederik IX's 60th birthday.

Designer : Viggo Bang

Engraver : Sven Ewert (1895-1959)
This was the last work by the Swedish master engraver

Those Czech stamps engraved with a colour background is the reason I collect this country

Denmark 1971
Scott 478

Danish Women's Association centenary.

Designer : Connie Linck

Engraver : Czeslaw Slania

Some purists don't like it when offset/litho and photogravure
is combined with engraving.

The black engraved portions define the painting in a way
which would be impossible with only offset or
photogravure printing, I believe.

I agree. Although my preference is for stamps that are not a combination, the engraving adds a dimension to stamps like this that you just don't see in offset or photo stamps.

I'll continue to collect both.

I have similar mixed feelings about "computer assisted" stamps. To me they are a step up from the wallpaper that most countries issue and can be very impressive. In this case though, I choose not to collect them as my collection is of engravers and I can't envisage a page attributed to Apple Mac in my album.

Denmark 1971
Scott 479-480

Nordic countries campaign for refugees.

Designer : Povl Christensen

Engraver : Czeslaw Slania

I know many peoples snob the CZ stamps, they call it poor man collection.

Denmark 1971
Scott 481

250th Anniversary of arrival of Hans Egede in Greenland.

Designer : Povl Christensen

Engraver : Czeslaw Slania

I sure don't.

Czechoslovakian and now Czech Republic stamps
have always been of the highest quality as far as
engraving and printing is concerned.
Czech engravers have always been top ranked.
Sure some of the designs during the Communist era
were lousy in my opinion but those were the times.
They had to put Lenin on stamps once in a while.


I guess the snobs are the ones who are more interested
in how much the stamp is worth and not what the stamp looks
like.

Denmark 1971
Scott 482 - 485

Sports set, promoting swimming, athletics, football and sailing.

Designer : Dan Sterup-Hansen

Engraver : Czeslaw Slania

The 30o and 50o are 2 colour engraved and the 60o and 90o
are 3 colours.







Not exactly great designs and Slania probably engraved all four
in a couple of hours.
But they are an example that the master didn't always engrave
masterpieces.

Slovakia has also kept up the high standard since the split. Fortunately, unlike most parts of the world, when these two countries separated, they did it without violence or rancour. The Czech Republic still prints the stamps of Slovakia (which I think I mentioned before).

I don't have a lot of details on this miniature sheet as, once again, it is too recent for my catalogues, but it is quite superb. If God has a fondness for beetles he would certainly approve of these.







Beetles miniature sheet engraved by Frantisek Horniak. Designed by Dusan Kallay

These wonderful stamps come up so thick and fast that I didn't get a chance to applaud lithograving's surely non-coincidental illustration of the Danish 'Flygtening' stamps three or four posts above this. What a pity the current Danish government seems to have forgotten the spirit behind that beautiful issue of 45 years ago.

Re mixed feelings about "computer assisted" stamps:

When I interviewed De La Rue engraver Chris Matthews last year he demonstrated to me "engraving" on a Mac computer. You may be interested in what I subsequently wrote for an article in Gibbons Stamp Monthly....

Ever since the inception of computer use in graphics it has been the 'Holy Grail' in some quarters to be able to input a photograph of the subject; portrait or vignette, press a button and get a computer generated engraving. Although this is possible to an extent, the finished piece looks very much computer generated. There are bespoke software packages supposed to help this process, however it now seems to be accepted that the computer is only a tool like any other, therefore just an aid to a qualified engraver.

Chris now uses Photoshop and Illustrator software to create his engravings. He uses his many years of experience to manipulate the tools creating images that have all the quality and look of the older methods. Using a stylus and tablet is fairly intuitive and the software makes certain tasks easier, particularly ensuring that line weights are printable and that engravings can be modified more easily if required. There is one draw-back over the other methods and that is that you have to make judgements about the image on a computer screen at various magnifications and resolutions which don't always correspond very faithfully to the finished print. The benefit of drawing on Kodatrace is that you have something tangible in your hand to review instantly. Of course you can send data to an inkjet or similar printer, but this will only be a guide.

Chris stated: "Surprisingly for an electronic process, the final engraving can have a real charm about it, much like the etched method. By using 'dodging' and 'burning' tools in Photoshop I can lessen (dodge) or fatten (burn) lines, much like etching a die with acid, but on screen". It also enables artwork to be resized and 'flipped', working as it will appear when printed.

(I subsequently added by way of "edit" the following to this post which I had left out in error:)

One real surprise was how a die may be engraved traditionally in five weeks, but a computer-based engraving may take six to eight weeks. Likewise, while a computer enables elements to be cut-and-pasted into an artwork, there is the danger that it may look 'homogenised', like an identikit image, so great skill is required to avoid this problem. Another revelation is that Chris deems this latest method of 'engraving' to be every bit as skilful as hand engraving, it just utilises a different skill-set.

Wow. Beetles.

Glenn, having read both parts of your article I have to say
it's well written and illustrated.
The information about computerized engraving is by far
the best I've read anywhere.
Now that doesn't mean I understand most of it.

For instance if I may quote one section from
the article.

Chris drew the line
work for the ships, not
the designer Stanley
Paine, and they were not
engraved onto steel, but
instead they were drawn
four times actual size on
Kodatrace, then film positives were produced
of the ship drawings, adding values and text
photographically. Multi-films were created
using a Misomex step-and-repeat camera to
make the printing plates, which would have
been reproduced using the Kobex impression
process and welding of a 'multi' image prior to
copper deposition to form the printing plate.



I don't understand this part at all.
More like photogravure than recess engraving.
At what point in this process was there a need for an engraver?
Most designers could probably draw as well as any
engraver if not better.

To me it sounds similar to the Austrian Etch Art which
involves only the designer no engraver required.