Collecting By Engraver

Mmh, yes I see this particular issue mentioned on the site. But why then this other signature on the die proof? Having had another look I think it might well be the signature of Jules Piel, which looks like this:



I've written off to the Gandon site owner to see if they know anything more.

Just got an email about the new France International auction and it includes loads of signed die proofs, including the 1954 Lorenzi stamps from Monaco. They confirm my previous suspicions, so here they are:



The (1f and) 15f Ozanam design signed by Jules Piel.



The 5f Ozanam design signed by artist Lorenzi and engraver Dufresne.





The De La Salle stamps signed by Pierre Gandon.

Great sleuthing, Adrian! Thanks!

Hold your horses, jjarmstrong47, it gets much worse! Here's the reply I got from the guy who owns the Gandon website:

Merci pour votre message, celui-ci m'a permis de corriger une erreur de mon listing « Monaco ».
En réalité c'est Lorenzi qui a dessiné cette série de timbre et c'est P. Gandon qui l'a gravé (confirmation par un autre collectionneur de Gandon.

Quant à l'épreuve signée par Piel, cela arrive assez souvent pour des essais ou des maquettes sans pour autant que ce signataire soit le graveur final du timbre.

Or, in other words: he says that the signature on the die proof does not autmatically mean that the eventual stamp is engraved by that person. And he still claims the Ozanam stamps are engraved by Gandon.

But no need to panic just yet. I've got one more card up my sleeve. I know a Gandon expert, have tracked down his address and will write to him to see if he can give any more details.

to be continued...

This stamp really appeals to my sense of irony. In 1967, when almost every country was changing from engraved stamps to lithography to cut costs, Romania produced this beauty. It was designed and engraved by Ion Dumitrana and released for Stamp Day in 1967.


Crossing the River Buzau by Denis Raffet. SG 3530, Scott B426

Why does this appeal? Well, the original was printed by lithography.

jjarmstrong47, I believe that was the last engraved stamp
issued by Romania.

It was the same with Romania's neighbour Hungary which
issued a few fine engraved stamps sporadically sprinkled
among tons of photo and litho CTO wallpaper.

For comparison of course there is Czechoslovakia which has been
for many decades one of the top engraved stamp issuing countries
in the world.

Speaking of Czechoslovakia, I received these beauties from SCF member Florian a few days ago.

The Bratislava tapestry stamps were issued between 1974 - 1976.
I previously posted the 1975 pair on page 36 of this thread.

Designed & engraved : Milos Ondracek

Printing : Multicolour steel engraving by the State Printing Works of Securities, Praque

Czechoslovakia 1974

Scott 1950 & 1951






Czechoslovakia 1976

Scott 1953 & 1955

lithograving - Thank you very much for posting the images of the two sets of 2 stamps each issued in 1974 and 1976.

Completing the series is a set of 2 issued in between, in 1975. Here is a link to your images of the 1975 issue (Scott 1952 & 1954): https://goscf.com/t/9106&whichpage=36#157035

The tapestries were produced in the Mortlake Tapestry Works (1619-1703) alongside the river Thames near the then London.

The series of tapestries relate the story of Hero and Leander based on a Greek myth ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_and_Leander and http://www.gmb.sk/en/exhibition/det...from-england ).

These are the details of the tapestries shown on the stamps:

The 1974 set
Meeting of Hero and Leander at the Temple of Venus, Sestos
Leander having left his home at Abydos to swim across the Hellespont to Sestos for a tryst with Hero while his sister Hermione is praying for his safety

The 1975 set
Servant Janthe announcing Leander´s arrival to Hero
Hermione warning in vain her brother against his last trip across the stormy Hellespont

The 1956 set
Leander's body lying across the rocks
Cupid weeping for the tragedy.

I honestly can't understand why more people don't collect Czech stamps. They are still some of the best. Even during the days when they were issuing hundreds of CTOs to raise money, the quality was good.

I recently exchanged some non-engraved Austrian stamps for this miniature sheet.







Adrian(AKPhilately) tells an interesting story about the signature on these stamps. You can find it here:
http://stampengravers.blogspot.com....abinsky.html

If you did not know this B4,then this is end of an era.
http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/o...y_Doubtfire/

jjarmstrong47 - Czechoslovakian CTOs served to make stamps of exquisite facture available in perfect condition and at a fraction of the nominal price to lovers of the beautiful in stamps primarily in my country, where such stamps, even if printed in small runs and seldom found on the mail, were widely available to young collectors educating them not to become investors in stamps but those enjoying the art of the postage stamp as created by many of the country's foremost artists, master engravers and master printers - fervent believers in this kind of art but few of them supporters of the regime they had to live under.

If any money was raised thanks to the cheap CTOs, it was no doubt reinvested in raising the standards of the very same art as further developments have shown.

Recent developments in world-wide stamp issuing policies and the latest new issues collecting trends seem to support the tendency. Collectors do aim at what they really like among the flood of pricy new issues if not concentrating on earlier ones..

This is the only Stanley Doubtfire stamp I have listed so far. It would be nice to see some others.

R.I.P Stanley. Another great loss.

Lithograving,




Any idea about the type of paper they were printed on??? It looks so white and shiny?!

Here's one of the many beautiful portraits Doubtfire engraved:

Rein, I have no idea what type of paper it is.

Perhaps the scanner brightened it a bit but
by my eye the paper looks the same as any of the other
Czechoslovakian Art stamps of the seventies and on.

I suppose it's a coated chalky type of paper which
I would have thought be more suitable for photogravure
or offset/litho instead of recess engraving.

I'm sure Florian would have some info about this.