Collecting By Engraver

Philippines - 1940

President Quezón taking oath of office
Printed in US by BEP

Vignette engraved by Carl Theodore Arlt (1883-1956)

Pierre Munier ( 1889 - 1962) designed and engraved stamps of France & colonies, Monaco and the Saarland.

His first engraved stamp for France was issued in 1936


FRANCE 1936

Designer : Gabriel-Antoine Barlangue

Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott C16

100th airmail flight across the Atlantic





FRANCE 1938

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott 342

Arc de Triomphe d´Orange




FRANCE 1938

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott 346

Keep & gate of Vincennes




The stamp was reissued in 1941 and surcharged with new 5F value.

Scott 412




FRANCE 1938

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B78



The surtax was for student relief

FRANCE 1939

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott 372

French Pavillion at New York's World Fair






The same design was reissued in 1940 with the new value of 2F50

Scott 373





FRANCE 1939

Designer : Jean Julien

Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott 394

Languedoc





FRANCE 1940

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B102

French Red Cross





FRANCE 1940

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B105

National Relief

FRANCE 1941

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B108

The surtax was for French POW




FRANCE 1941

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B127

Arms of Montpellier





FRANCE 1942

Designer : Paul-Pierre Lemagny

Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B129

Jean François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, French navigator & explorer




FRANCE 1942

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B135

Arms of Chambéry

FRANCE 1943

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B165

Maximilien de Béthune, duke de Sully, nobleman, soldier and statesman.




FRANCE 1944

Designer :G. Edelinck

Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B181

Blaise Pascal 1623-1662 mathematician




FRANCE 1944

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B183

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, politician




FRANCE 1945

Designer : Robert Louis

Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott 557

Liberation of Metz




FRANCE 1945

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B200

Ruins of St Malo

FRANCE 1947

Designer & Engraver:Pierre Munier

Scott B213

Church of St Sernin, Toulouse




FRANCE 1949

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott 628

Gustave Auguste Ferrié




FRANCE 1949

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott 632

Mt Gerbier




FRANCE 1949

Designer : André Spitz

Engraver : Pierre Munier


Scott 633

50th Anniversary of chamvers of Commerce

FRANCE 1951

Designer : Robert Louis

Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott 647

50 years of French colonial troops.






FRANCE 1951

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B260

Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac, chemist and physicist




FRANCE 1952

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott 683

Garabit Viaduct




FRANCE 1953

Designer & Engraver : Pierre Munier

Scott B278

Jean-Philippe Rameau, composer

While we are on a roll with the French engravers, here is another set that eleven different engravers contributed to, and just for lithograving, Decaris was not one of them.

This is a 1942 set from Monaco for the National Relief Fund and showing various members of the Monaco royal family. As we have said before, the printing seems a little coarser than normal for the French Government Printer but this was wartime and supplies of ink and paper were probably difficult to obtain. Interestingly, these were designed at Courvoisier. I don't believe Courvoisier had recess printing facilities and they were printed by the French Government Printer. There seems to have been a fair bit of swapping between the two with Courvoisier printing photo stamps for France.


Rainier Grimaldi engraved by Raoul Serres


Charles II engraved by Rene Cottet


Jeanne Grimaldi engraved by Emile Feltesse


Charles Auguste engraved by Pierre Gandon


Jacques I engraved by Antonin Delzers

Louise-Hippolyte engraved by Gabriel-Antoine Barlangue


Charlotte Grimaldi engraved by Pierre Munier


Marie-Charles Grimaldi engraved by Charles Mazelin


Honore III engraved by Henry Lucien Cheffer


Honore IV engraved by Achille Ouvre

Honore V engraved by Georges-Leo Degorce


Florestan I engraved by Antonin Delzers


Charles III engraved by Georges-Leo Degorce


Aklbert I engraved by Achille Ouvre


Princess Marie-Victoire engraved by Raoul Serres

lithograving and jjarmstrong47 - great designs, great engravings, great scans. Many thanks for these praiseworthy posts.

jjarmstrong47 - My old LIPSIA Europa 1954/55 catalogue confirms that the 1942 Monaco set of princes and princesses was printed by the French Government Printer, Boulevard Brune, Paris, but does not mention any role of Courvoisier, S.A., La Chaux-de-Fonds despite the fact that the first stamp of the set is clearly signed Del(ineavit) Courvoisier, S.A. (= designed) - Sc(ulpsit) R(aoul) Serres (= engraved).

Courvoisier, S.A., La Chaux-de-Fonds did, nevertheless, have recess printing facilities: e.g. the 1946 Portuguese Castels set, Portugal Sc. #662-669 was printed by this firm as again my LIPSIA catalogue confirms.

Back to the 1942 Monaco set. Some of the paintings such as that of Rainier Grimaldi ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raini...3%B3naco.jpg ) on the first stamp served as models for a series of stamps which began to be issued in 1967, 25 years later: Monaco Sc. #674 (see the excellent scan of lithograving's https://goscf.com/t/40873#40873 ).

jjarmstrong47

Wow that is a great set of stamps thanks for showing them.
Eleven different stamp engravers working on one set
and Piel, Decaris, Charles-Paul Dufresne & Georges Hourriez still available.
Tell me was there ever a printer that had that many engravers
at their disposal all at one time ?

As far as printer is concerned in my old 1969 Michel Europa
it has the Institut de Gravure (Paris), not
Atelier de Fabrication des Timbres-Poste - Paris;

Oddly enough if you look at the airmail set it has
the 50F value designed by Courvoisier
War times were tough so I guess they had to moonlight to
make ends meet.

It seems that our catalogues can't agree on the printer and perhaps they all did some of the work. I only have Gibbons to go by and that only lists the French Government Printer by default, saying that was the printer unless listed otherwise. I would love to know more about the Institut de Gravure. All the engravers seem to have worked there at some time and they seem to have had a printing capability. I believe that someone mentioned here that Gaston Gandon did a lot of work for them anonymously which is why there are few stamps listed to him. Are there any publications about them?

Gibbons also has Courvoisier as the designer for the 50F air stamp.

Same here. I googled it but nothing there.

I wish Papy24 was still posting here, I'm sure he
would have some information since he was a typographer
with the French State Printer I believe.

500th Anniversary of Pomerania's return to Poland.
Issued 1954
Scott 639-643

Designer:Kaczmarczyk
Engraver:Brandt




Designer: St.Zukowski
Engraver: M.R.Polak




Designer:Kaczmarczyk
Engraver: J.Miller



Designer: Gorska
Engraver:St.Lukaszewski



Designer: E.John
Engraver: Cz.Slania