Collecting By Engraver

jjarmstrong47, I think we've been down this path before.

How much of a stamp has to be engraved before we engraving
fanatics will accept it and admire it.

I think most of us here would love to have all engraved stamps printed in one colour only which really shows the talent of the engraver.
Some old school probably consider bi coloured engraved as an
aberration and think that multicoloured engraved French or Czechoslovak paintings stamps are gaudy.
They certainly abhor those 1 colour engraved spoiled by
mixing with multicolour photo or litho.
But lets face it is what it is and for the most part engraved
stamp issuing countries are gone and won't come back
just like American manufacturing jobs.

As I have said before : Any engraving on a stamp is better than nothing.

When I check new issues in the latest Linn's Stamp Monthly ( from the Library) the only countries who consistently still issue engraved stamps are France, Czechia & Slovakia (same printer)
Sweden, Italy & Denmark.
The rest is offset/litho wallpaper.
Even photogravure printing for stamps is on it's way out
except for India where high print runs for definitives makes
sense economically.
Italy also still prints via photogravure but that
print method is gone from countries like Germany, Austria,Switzerland
etc.

You need to add China to that list as they have embarked on a new engraving schedule. The other news I heard this week was that Russia is to begin engraving again. My friend thought that it was an economic decision as they think they will sell a lot to collectors who have moved away from new issues. He said that their belief was that many people who collect engraved stamps want a mint and a used copy so they win twice.
I hope the story is true but he apparently got it from someone involved in the planning in Russia so we can only hope.
I was delivering mail today and saw a superb stamp from Italy. I didn't write down the details so now I have to go and search. Many of the Italian engraved stamps are so fine, they feel like they were printed by lithography but the one today had that old familiar roughness.

Back in 2009, I was thrilled when examining the portrait in the engraving by Antonio Ciaburro but I failed to give proper attention to the architecture on this stamp:



But having had a look at the next stamp I realised these stamps were not hand-engraved and my excitement died down.



Engraved stamps isued in Italy in 2015 (all of them self-adhesives) can be seen on http://www.wnsstamps.post/en/partic...ing_agencies
Engravers: Antonio Ciaburro (b. 1951), Rita Fantini, Rita Morena, Maria Carmela Perrini. All of them are designers as well.

Portraiture:

So does anyone know the score with regard to Italy? Are there still hand-engraved stamps being issued, or are they all computer engraved nowadays? And if that is the case, when did the Italians change from hand engraving to computer engraving?
That Pasolini stamp, especially, looks rather odd, not to say horrid.

Architecture:

Leonardo da Vinci:










No engraved stamps were issued in Italy in January - June 2016. Later issues are still not available on http://www.wnsstamps.post/en/stamps...year%5D=2016

Here are some more of the Liechtenstein stamps that I recently acquired. These are from 1988 and were designed by Cornelia Eberle from a painting called "The Letter" by Anton Hickel. It is apparently a portrait of Marie-Therese, Princesse de Lamballe, according to my Gibbons. The first two show details and the third shows the entire picture. Printed in combined recess and photo with engraving by Wolfgang Seidel.


Detail: The letter beside a footstool.


Detail: The desk and writing materials.


"The Letter", complete painting.

I loaded the above before I realised I had missed some posts.

Those Italian stamps are not great, are they? We know that Ciaburro and Moreno are fine engravers so I wonder how they feel about the way things have gone.

Actually, after looking at them on as large an image as I could get before they got blurred, the Moreno ones look different to the others. The bat wing particularly looks like many of the lines have ragged edges so perhaps the initial image was finished off by hand. The crossbow does too but to a lesser extent.

I'm definitely going to have to get hold of the stamp I delivered today on a postcard which was also architectural but not one of the ones above. Perhaps I will be in for a big disappointment as well.

Looks like I'm the only one here who actually likes
those Italian stamps.
But I wish they weren't all printed in black.

I think Aldo would have looked better in blue.

I admit I don't like them much. To me, many of them look simplified - more like comic illustrations. Not that I dislike comic illustrations, I just expect stamps to be better than that.

Spanish/Portuguese surnames make my head spin. In 1940, Portugal celebrated 800 years since the founding of Portugal plus 300 years since the restoration of Independence with an exhibition. They also released a set of eight stamps (with four designs).

Researching these stamps led me to an excellent site for Portuguese stamps (and the names of their engravers) which some of you may like to explore at http://michel.wermelinger.ws/postug...centenaries/



This stamp shows King Alfonso Henriques and was designed by Alberto de Sousa. Two engravers worked on it, Renato de Sousa Araújo and José Armando Pedroso. What I find strange is that, on the stamp they are listed as Pedroso and Renato.

I'm also wondering if de Sousa was Araujo's mother's surname in which case, was he related to the designer?

More little mysteries to make philately interesting.

Here are the other three designs in the set.


King Joao IV designed by Henrique Franco. SG 913, Scott 588


Portuguese World Exhibition designed by Jaime Martins Barata SG917 Scott 592


Monument of discoveries. Designed by Maria Kiel de Amaral SG 918, Scott 593.
The characters are identified at the site I posted before.

The first engraver I can find listed for Austria is Ferdinand Schirnbock who engraved almost everything from 1908-1930 for Austria. 1908 is the earliest stamp listed for Austria by Schirnbock in my references.

I can't find any reference for who engraved this issue from 1890 or the similar one from 1899.



In 1890, Schirnbock was engraving stamps for Argentina so is it possible he did these as well?

Is this a record?

We are used to stamps where two engravers were involved and on stamps from the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, three is fairly common.



This stamp was the work of four engravers, a designer and a photographer. According to Arago, "The 5-cent blue stamp was designed by R. Ostrander Smith after a photograph by Matthew Brady.

The Lincoln vignette is shown between two robed female figures holding flags to symbolize the reunited nation. The stamp was engraved by George F. C. Smillie (portrait and decorative figures), Robert F. Ponickau (frame), and John U. Rose, Jr., and Lyman F. Ellis (lettering and numerals)."

Wow! So many people to produce one small stamp!

...and Norway