Collecting By Engraver

jjarmstrong47 - I don't have information on the designer, but could be Lim Sinh, a local artist who designed several Cambodian stamps in those years.

Panama - 1936

The 4th Spanish-American Postal Congress
Printed by American Bank Note Co.

Vignette engraved by Joseph Keller (1903-1987)

I wonder why they put the French sentence directly in the drawing




Ok found it . The stamps is a replica of a wall plate in Panama City and the inscription is in French on the plate

I just added these two stamps to my database. They were engraved by Czeslaw Slania and designed by Zeng Xiaolian and printed in a combination of litho (colours) and recess printing (black). The Swedish stamps would have been printed in Sweden, no doubt but I can't find a reference for who printed the Chinese version. China had printers who could handle the job but their official site doesn't say who printed these.


Chinese Copper (Lady Amherst) Pheasant. SG 4189 Scott 2763


Common (Ring Neck) Pheasant. SG 4190 Scott 2764

Here's today's query.


In 1947, Pierre Gandon produced a stamp showing the Conques Abbey. The next year, it was re-engraved to change the value and replace Republique Francaise with France. My query was whether he re-engraved the whole stamp as the two vignettes are very similar.

I think he did, or at least in part. The word "postes" looks quite different and there is a difference in the lines above the value. Also, the tower on the left has gained a lightning conductor and to the left of the shortest of the group of towers, the buttress has lost a vertical line. He has also extended the image under France. Generally though, I can't see much to tell them apart.

So, in my opinion, if he did completely re-engrave this, it shows a remarkable degree of accuracy. But then, we are speaking of Gandon.


Conques Abbey, 1947 engraving


1948

jjarmstrong47 - Your query has been answered by Papy24 in
https://goscf.com/t/48681&whichpage=6#428738

The problem is the same as that concerning the stamps discussed in
https://goscf.com/t/48681&whichpage=5#425838
https://goscf.com/t/48681&whichpage=5#425899

Thanks Floria. I'm familiar with the idea of cutting out a value tablet and then using a transfer roller to make a die with a blank ready for the new value to be engraved. Looking at these, Gandon had a bit more work.

He obviously had to replace the whole top section so they would have removed about this much:



and the new engraving would have been here:



It's a little harder to understand why he didn't simply re-engrave the value at the bottom but to me, he seems to have removed all this section:



and replaced it with this much:



There are differences in the lettering of Postes and also the "s" of conques looks different to me. The cross-hatching lines behind postes look distinctly different though there are very few differences in the centre and none that could not be explained by imagining the engraver "tidying up" the die at the same time.

As this is not meant to be the place for too much technical talk, I'd better show a few stamps before the mods get me.

Staying with Gandon here are a couple more from him.


Gabon 1963. Madame Verreaux's Sunbird (Johanna's Sunbird) SG 171 Scott C14


Gabon 1963. Blue-headed Bee Eater SG 172 Scott C15

jjarmstrong47 - What might apply here is the following passage:

"Each time an imprint is taken under pressure on the transfer press, there is certain loss in the engraving. Some lines are weaker or disappear. The incisions of the engraving are rounded. An engraver has to intervene to re-engrave, deepen certain cuts ....."

The area at the bottom might have suffered some loss in the engraving and had be re-engraved.

------

The two stamps of Gabon engraved by Gandon are lovely. I particularly appreciate the background to the 200 F value setting off the bird so wonderfully.

I agree. The choice of colour for the background enhances the beautiful colours of the bird. Even so, I'm happy not to have that bird around here - I keep bees!

As for the castle, I think we have pretty much sorted out which parts were new. To me, there is so much extra work that has been done, I felt they both had a place in the database though usually I try to only add one of each design.

I added an interesting stamp today which I came across by accident.



This is from the small Spanish colony of Ifni (now returned to Morocco) and is to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Isabella the Catholic in 1951.

I'm not quite sure I see the connection between the image and the theme but I like the stamp anyway.

It was designed by Teodoro Nicolás Miciano Becerra and printed by Fabrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre (FNMT). My Gibbons part 9 does not give the engraver so if anyone has that detail I'd like to hear it.

What struck me was that among the many stamps Spain produced for Ifni, most of which are very common, this is the only engraved stamp. Some of the other Ifni stamps I've seen have been nice designs and it is a shame they didn't engrave a few more.

I was scanning this stamp from Morocco, 1961, celebating the Pan-Arab Games in Casablanca today. The set was engraved by Roger Fenneteaux and is SG 92 and Scott 53.



The designer of this set has me stumped.On the stamp it says Lallouz Gambier. What I can't decide is whether that is one name or two surnames. I suspect the latter. Lucien Lallouz designed one other stamp for Morocco so that could be him but I can't find a designer named Gambier anywhere.

I picked up this rather nice Canal Zone stamp at our club's fair yesterday for the princely sum of ten cents, which I thought was a bargain.

My catalogue tells me that the stamp was designed by Virgil D Westbrook but unfortunately has no engraver listed. It was printed (and engraved) by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.



According to the Arago website this shows the S.S. Steel Worker travelling south through the Gaillard Cut on June 15th 1921. More details are here:

http://arago.si.edu/category_2036955.html

Today I received a couple of items where the engraving was so good I thought them worth sharing yet I have no idea who engraved them.

The first is from Romania in 1907 and is a charity issue showing Princess Maria and her children receiving a poor family who are being escorted by an angel. What particularly struck me was the clarity of the faces. The eldest daughter in particular has been given such detail and expression, it would be hard to achieve in a larger format. On the stamp, her face is not much larger than the head of a pin. All Gibbons can tell me is that this set was engraved by Bradbury Wilkinson.



The second is a cinderella. These were produced by the American Bank Note Company for promoting international philatelic events, and thereby showcasing the standard of their products. This is from the American Philatelic Society's 51st exhibition in Omaha in 1936 and is simply superb but with no credit to the engraver or designer.


As always, any additional information would be welcomed.

I've sent an email to the APS historian. You never know!
:-)

John..thanks for your recent posts..really like that APS 1936 Cinderella..had not seen it before.
Ed

Hi Ed.
The amazing thing about the cinderellas, and they produced quite a few of them, is that they are so cheap. A set of four colours was the norm and thad they will cost just a couple of dollars. Yes, I know they are not stamps but they are the pinnacle of the engraver's art as they advertised the quality that could be achieved.

Here are a couple more, which I may have shown before.


1926 International Exhibition


1934 National Exhibition


1936 International Exhibition