Collecting By Engraver

More than glad to contribute some of my duplicates to the jjarmstrong philatelic trust...just don't spread the word...everyone will want donations. That 'Stamp Day' stamp has to be one of my favourite stamps....amazing contrast in the textures of wood, cloth, flowers, hair and body of lovely lady reading the love letter presented in the engraving.


Here's an image of the original painting.

I was intrigued by this post and thought it might be interesting to see the two stamps side by side to compare the portraits, so I fired up Photoshop and ...

I see some slight re-engraved differences in the hair and his new nose has more shine, but it was a pretty clean transfer.

I find it interesting to see how many changes an engraver makes when copying a painting. Some are obviously done because the amount of detail on a large painting just won't fit on a stamp.

If you look at the two together you can see a lot of changes on this one. Detail has gone from the background and from the box on the table and these are understandable as is the slightly different expression on the girl's face. Carving a mouth that is only a couple of millimetres long doesn't allow much.



Less easy to understand is why did he change the time on the clock? Also, the figurine next to the clock is completely different. He has simplified the table cover yet added pattern to the blue cloth on the table.

I agree that it is a fine rendition as it captures the essence of the painting but it is interesting to see the sort of decisions an engraver would have to make when reproducing a work like this.

jjarmstrong47, thanks for the suggestion, I guess I can go with the method you've outlined. Though, I've already made the album pages using Steiner's on French Morocco, would share them here.
The next ones I would surely love to use the format you have given.

Recent additions from French Morocco with albums pages from Steiner with added colour and catalog information.

Designer - R. Belliot
Engravers - Antonin Delzers, Jules Piel, Henry Lucien Cheffer, Abel Mignon, Georges Hourriez, Antoine Dezarrois

It looks great! If you really wanted to keep the engraver data you could always print two copies of each page. In the first you put the stamps and on the second you could add the information in the stamp spaces.

scinde_dawk, those pages look great, thanks for showing them.

Looking at that group of French engravers who took part in
creating this set I'm amazed at this accumulation of
exceptional talent.

What a joy it is to look at these engravings.

I posted this on 12/13/2016 page 209




Well we can strike Sweden and Denmark off that list.

https://goscf.com/t/52681

If you go into a retail store, most of the analog clocks will be set to 10:08 or 10:10. There is a tradition that it looks more attractive; here is a brief article that sums up the arguments I've heard.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/2246...-and-watches

Maybe Kaczmarczyk and/or Konecki were familiar with that logic.

Ah! The benefits of privatisation. I wonder what will happen to the position of official court engraver.

The rumour was around for a long time that this was going to happen but at least I won't need to update my Scandinavia catalogue.

On the other side, I've been hearing a very strong rumour that Russia is to increase their production of engraved stamps. At the moment it seems that they only produce one every year or so but a source I consider to be usually correct tells me that they are to increase this as they have identified a strong philatelic market for engraved stamps. What was unclear was whether they are planning hand engraved or "computer assisted" issues. Time will tell, I suppose.

Hi,

Just found this thread that is really... astonishing!! Thank you all for your interesting posts!

Best regards!

Looking back over the thread, I noticed that most of the Australian images have disappeared. Australia had some magnificent engravers, the most famous being Frank Davies Manley but I'll go back a little further and re-post some of the ones I think deserve to be seen again.

Although Australia federated into a nation at the turn of the century, for the first thirteen years they continued to use the stamps of the various states, most of which had Queen Victoria's head on them. I've never understood why this was but eventually they came up with this.




The first KGV stamp only lasted a year before being replaced by a typographed version which is now the most collected stamp in the world. The original engraved version was based on the "ideal stamp", a typo cinderella, produced for a London exhibition. It was designed by Ronald A. Harrison and engraved by Thomas S. Harrison and printed by the Note Printing Branch in Melbourne.

Speaking of "Harrisons", our first commemorative was also a Harrison affair. Again, it was designed by Ron Harrison but the engraving was done by the famous English engraver, John Augustus Charles Harrison. It was produced for the opening of the new Parliament House in Canberra.

For those who know little about Australia, one of the big obstacles to Federation of the states was the argument over where the capital city should be. Melbourne claimed it as the financial capital of the country while Sydney disputed this as they were the largest city and also the site of the original white settlement.

It was settled in a typically Australian way. They built a new city, way out in the middle of nowhere, half way between Melbourne and Sydney and sent all the politicians there. That way, nobody had to have them as neighbours. The new city was called Canberra and is now quite a nice place if you don't mind the fact that it is freezing most of the time and there is nowhere to park your car.



Opening of Parliament House, Canberra, SG 105, Scott 94

My favourite Australian stamp is from Frank Manley and it has quite a story behind it.

At the start of the Second World War, the Australian government wanted to let the soldiers know that they were right behind them (actually, a long way behind them - back in Canberra).

Frank Davies Manley was responsible for designing and/or engraving many stamps for Australia and territories. This stamp shows that his skill was equal to any engraver of his time or since. His talent was only restricted by the abilities of the printing presses of his time.

The detail in the background of this stamp is astonishing and shows scenes from the city and the bush, the twin sources of AIF fighters.

The stamp was based on a painting by Virgil Reilly which was used as the cover for the Australian Women's Weekly. Manly kept the model for the nurse, who was Virgil Reilly's wife, but substituted post office workers for the other original models as the postal authorities were worried about the effect on the families of the men if any one of them was killed and they had to see their image every day in the post.

It proved to be prophetic as all three men on the original painting, which included Reilly's son (the soldier), were killed in the war.

The model for the soldier on the stamp has been identified as another engraver who worked with Manley, R.J.Becker. Manley also brought the men to attention and has the nurse looking forward instead of upward.



Here is how the stamp compares with the cover of the Women's Weekly.

I've always found the stories behind a stamp to be as interesting or more than the stamp itself. The same goes for the artists and engravers. Most of the time, all I have is a name on the database but occasionally when someone posts a photo or an article about one of them, they become much more interesting as now I can envisage them as a whole person.

Perhaps it is a bit silly. I was fascinated by the Bernard Revel stamp, more because an article I had read in a 1987 Washington Post suggested that Kenneth Kipperman, the engraver, might have had some sort of breakdown. Knowledge of the star only came to light after Kipperman was arrested for threatening to blow up the Holocaust Museum, according to the article. Knowing what a stressful job engraving could be, I was inclined to accept that explanation.

Today, I found a later article, also from the Washington Post, that shows that the earlier one was complete rubbish.

It tells the story of a man who has spent a large part of his life trying to deal with the effects of the Holocaust, even though he was born a year after it ended. As for threatening to blow up the museum, well, the true story can be read here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...445086d8c82c