Collecting By Engraver

It looks typo doesn't it. There are differences in the ground as well, such as five points to the "waves" on the label and six on the engraving. Another mystery to ponder.

This week, I have been rewriting my Italian WW2 exhibit, upgrading from three frames to five. I was sorting through the drawers of extras when I found something I thought I had lost. I showed this a few years back on another board but it deserves another airing.

I saw an Italian cover on ebay with a railway stamp that I didn't have. It looked quite nice and was a couple of dollars so I bought it. As it turned out the stamp was the least interesting part of it.



The name of the sender was ringing bells in my head and I remembered that Diena is a famous name associated with expertising on Italian stamps.



It seems that Emilio Diena was the father of the Diena most people are acquainted with and in his time was the most respected expert on Italian stamps. Moreover, the person this was sent to was also a famous U.S. philatelic expert, Elliot Perry. This was not the end of the story as the seller had obviously never opened the envelope or he would have mentioned the enclosure, a 1939 New Year greeting card.



The front of the card is the real treasure, a miniaturised copy of a famous etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, "Veduta del Tempio di Cibele a Piazza della Bocca della Verità"



Piranesi used a mixture of engraving and etching on many of his works and at first I thought this was a litho or etching but on close examination, it appears to be a fine recess printing. What at first appears to be screen dots are actually engraved dots in a style similar to pointillism. My scanner refuses to give me enough detail without pixellating adding to the screen look of the scans which is not on the original, even under a powerful lens.



The detail is extremely fine and very close to the original which can be seen here.http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collec...earch/363893

My question is, of course, who did the reproduction. The engraved stamps of Italy before WW2 were almost exclusively the work of Alberto Repettati and Diena would probably have known him so he could be a candidate. He was also a professor and some of his pupils went on to become famous engravers though the quality of this looks like the work of someone with a lot of experience.

Alternatively, this could have been something a printer had as a stock item and Diena only had to have his details added. Oh, No! Not another mystery. Whatever the answers, it was certainly worth the two dollars it cost.

Gibbons gives this stamp as being typo which it is obviously not but as I rely on Gibbons for my engraver details, it leaves me in the dark.


It was designed by Alfred Cossmann and if I had to guess an engraver I would say Frederick Schirnbock would be top of my list. Unfortunately, that is all it is - a guess.

Does this stamp get any better description in other catalogues?

As far as I'm aware, the engraver of this stamp is not known. It is normally presumed that it was indeed Schirnböck who engraved it, and that seems highly likely, but as far as I know there's no evidence one way or the other. Ferdinand Schirnböck did of course engrave his predecessor's stamps, such as this one:

We seem to focus on the Americas and Europe so today I'll show my favourite Chinese engraver from the 1950s, Kong Shaohui. He was one of a talented team of engravers and designers who did the early Chinese People's Republic stamps. Here are some samples.

He engraved the set of famous men in 1953. I only have three of the four stamps to show.


Rabelais SG 1605 Scott 202


Copernicus SG1606 Scott 203


Qu Yuan, Chinese Poet SG 1607 Scott 204


Huai River Barrage SG 1565 Scott 163


Capture of the Lu Ting Bridge SG 1686 Scott 271

More later.

I can't add all the in-depth info you all can to this post, but I picked these Zanzibar stamps (#214-217) up at a real nice price. As usual, the engraving caught my eye.

Zanzibar did a few really nice ones. You scored well there!

I was able to get to the FIAP exhibition in Melbourne yesterday. Unfortunately the displays are so extensive, there is no hope of seeing it all in one day and that's all I had. I did spot this though but as you can see photographing it through glass with a phone is pretty poor.



I don't have any engraver details for this stamp but as this was a signed proof, probably the designer rather than the engraver but possibly both, I'm hoping someone here can recognise the signature.

Another small win for me was the 1930 airmail stamps from Czechoslovakia. Gibbons gives Karel Seizinger as the engraver but they do not list a designer. Also on display in Melbourne were signed artists proffs and original artwork for Seizinger's air mail stamps proving (to me, at least) that he was the designer as well as the engraver for those stamps that he engraved but a designer is not listed.

If your Ivory Coast 20f stamp is SG255, part of the 1965 'Native Handicrafts' set, which I presume it is because SG names it 'Ivory-carving', then the designer will be René Cottet (complete set), and the engraver Pierre Forget (sort of fits the signature well, I think). He also engraved the 10f value, with Cottet engraving the other two.

Thanks Adrian. I was guessing it would be one of the Pierres and I agree that with a good imagination and screwed up eyes you could see Forget there.The photo doesn't do it justice as it was a beaut proof and I was quite jealous. Not as much as I was over the original Seizinger artwork though. That was worth going on its own.

Okay, so I thought I could always edit my own posts, but that turns out not to be true so I couldn't edit my index list on page 200 anymore. So here is the new list, updated up to this point. I thought I'd do one every 6 months, so as to keep us all fairly up to date. Maybe someone somewhere can update post no. 1 to refer to the index on this page? Cheers.

Aarts, Johannes J – page 166
Achrén, Reijo – page 46
Adolph, William – page 121, 124
Aferov, S – page 151
Aizawa, Shou – page 187
Albuisson, Pierre – page 3, 5, 34, 108, 185, 189, 197
Alexander, Deborah – page 55
Ali, Zulfiqar – page 136
Allen, Silas Robert – page 18, 167
Andreotto, Claude – page 34, 38, 73, 74, 189
Andric, Dragisa – page 125, 126
Araujo, Renato de Penha e Cantos de Sousa – page 62, 209
Archer, Edward P – page 45, 139, 158(?)
Arghittu, Pietro Nicolo – page 28
Arlt, Carl T – page 40, 130, 159, 163, 198, 205
Askwall, Mikael – page 85
Aufschneider, Gilbert – page 52, 206
Babic, Stanimir – page 26, 65
Baiardi, Mario, page 61, 93
Baldwin, Marcus W – page 102, 107, 121, 122, 136
Bannister, James – page 119, 121
Baril, Yves – page 11, 12, 70, 80, 81, 107, 150, 167
Barlangue, Gabriel-Antoine – page 40, 78, 98, 177, 186, 188, 196, 198, 202, 204, 205, 212, 215, 216
Barrick, Ruben K – page 208
Barron, Alfredo – page 108
Bast, Jean de – page 13, 42, 64, 115, 180
Beaujard, Yves – page 34, 35
Benzing, Joachim C – page 18, 169, 212
Béquet, Pierre – page 42, 90, 95, 106, 184, 208, 213
Bétemps, Georges – page 2, 17, 23, 95, 137, 146, 184, 193, 213
Bickel Sr, Karl – page 32, 132, 137, 177, 178, 181, 182, 185, 186, 188, 190, 191
Bickel Jr, Karl – page 141
Bitzer, Margot (see also under Sachs, Margot) – page 4, 24
Boulanger, J – page 115
Bourne, Herbert – page 67, 134, 160, 170
Bower, Richard M – page 9, 12, 113, 208
Braband, Harald, page 58
Brandt, Boguslaw – page 46, 92, 186, 205, 208
Britze, Johannes – page 20, 21, 34
Brooks, Charles A – page 9, 10, 17, 23, 24, 42, 112, 115, 130, 163
Broux, Guillaume – page 142, 208
Brown, Dennis – page 19, 45, 55
Brown, William J – page 162
Burland, George N – page 199
Burnell, William R – page 10, 18
Burt, Charles – page 67, 119, 122
Cabrera, Maria Adelma – page 52, 173
Call – page 157
Cami, Robert – page 19, 188, 192, 204, 207
Canfarini, Mazzini – page 26, 213
Carande Boto, Daniel – page 8, 19, 38, 184
Carradine, Henry – page 189
Carswell, Allen – page 79, 107
Catelin, Elsa – page 110, 135
Chabada, B – page 76
Chaconas, Gary M – page 75
Chao Mei-ling – page 196
Cheffer, Henry Lucien – page 20, 21, 87, 159, 180, 185, 193, 196, 198, 204, 205, 210, 211, 212, 214, 216
Chen Yu-ling – page 196
Chiaburro, Antonio – page 41, 209
Christensen, Axel W – page 50, 163
Ciganik, Rudolf – page 62, 112, 132
Cinovsky, Martin – page 61, 133, 137, 191
Cionini, Trento – page 78, 169
Coatantiec, Raymond – page 103
Colombati, Mario – page 10, 14, 213
Combet, Jacques – page 23, 25, 74, 95, 99, 116, 174, 188, 192, 204
Cottet, René – page 9, 23, 74, 77, 78, 87, 94, 110, 193, 198, 204, 205, 213, 215, 216
Cranz, Edwin R – page 204
Creamer Jr, Joseph S – page 11, 199
Crossett, A B – page 100
Culin, Robert G – page 11, 19, 42, 45, 55, 75
Cvetkovic, Velibor – page 62, 125
Dawson, Clifford – page 108, 150, 163
Dawson, Harry P – page 139, 140, 142, 144, 158, 199
Decaris, Albert – page 5, 6, 7, 26, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 100, 101, 106, 114, 132, 137, 181, 183, 188, 193, 200, 203, 204, 207, 215, 216
Decuyper, Henri – page 64, 115
Degorce, Georges-Léo – page 50, 142, 184, 196, 198, 203, 204, 205
Delhom Rodriguez, Camilo, page 59, 161, 162, 170, 171, 172
Delnoce, Angelo – page 197
Delnoce, Louis – page 97, 102, 107, 142, 163, 197
Delpech, Jean – page 76, 207
Delzers, Antonin – page 13, 79, 132, 174, 176, 177, 184, 185, 196, 205, 214
Derrey, Jacques – page 65
Dewever – page 196
Dezarrois, Antoine – page 94, 214
Dijk, Willem van – page 132, 133
Dingee – page 158
Dintaman, Arthur W – page 10, 42, 96
Dolan, Lyell – page 133
Donnini, Eros – page 14, 185
Doubtfire, Stanley – page 175, 176, 189
Dow, Nigel Alan – page 31, 134
Downey, Alfred J – page 130, 133, 189
Downs, George W – page 172
Dufresne, Charles P – page 34, 46, 56, 175, 185, 186, 192, 196, 197, 198, 204, 215, 216
Dumitrana, Ion – page 61, 175
Durrens, Claude – page 2, 18, 23, 57, 87, 116, 188, 192, 200, 204, 206, 212, 213
Dymock – page 157
Edmondson, John S – page 12, 23, 24, 35, 40, 42, 97, 104, 107, 163, 197
Eissler, John – page 18, 63, 102, 104, 159, 212
Ekholm, Birger – page 19, 95
Ellis, Lyman F – page 209, 216
Eriksson, Inga-Karin – page 12
Ermakov, Yurii – page 49
Evans, J C – page 100
Ewert, Sven – page 20, 21, 60, 70, 138, 164, 199
Fairweather, George R – page 134, 159
Fajt, Vaclav – page 55, 90, 111, 134, 163
Falz, Egon – page 3, 123, 124, 207
Fantini, Rita – page 209
Farrington, Elmer – page 140, 141
Faulwasser, Gerhard – page 24
Federici, Enrico – page 171
Feltesse, Emile, page 60, 78, 196, 198, 205, 215
Felver, Edward R – page 26
Fenneteaux, Roger – page 44, 147, 194, 196
Fenton, Matthew D – page 17, 18, 82, 130
Fichter, Herb – page 35
Filhon, Line – page 34
Fischer, Alfred – page 15, 27, 28, 86, 87, 145, 152, 153, 154
Ford, William F – page 80, 96, 97, 102, 121, 143, 147, 156, 157, 194, 197, 199
Forget, Pierre – page 42, 197, 218
Franke, Rupert – page 45, 51, 52, 53, 111
Franzén, Majvor – page 5, 14, 78, 83, 84, 86, 87
Freres, Andre, page 56, 188
Fuchs, Ernst – page 70
Fuchs, Hans Joachim – page 3, 123
Füle, Mihaly – page 63, 185
Gandon, Pierre – page 4, 16, 20, 34, 54, 56, 78, 79, 94, 99, 137, 138, 141, 145, 172, 175, 177, 183, 185, 194, 195, 196, 198, 199, 200, 204, 205, 208, 212, 213, 215, 216, 217
Gauthier, Jacques – page 52
Giuseppe, R di – page 45, 137
Godbehear, Robert G – page 146, 155, 216
Goffin, Marie-Noëlle – page 17, 95, 121
Goldschmied, Jaroslav – page 52, 105, 117, 167, 217
Gonzalez de la Lastra, Julian – page 173
Goodbody, J L – page 19
Görlitz, W – page 76
Gourzis, Yannis – page 150
Grant, William – page 89
Grove, Edward R – page 50, 168
Guillame, Cecile – page 16
Gundersen, George Arthur – page 11, 73, 97
Gunn, Edwin – page 134, 139, 140, 146, 148, 150, 158, 162, 163
Gutschmidt, Heinz W – page 62, 201, 202
Guy, Kenneth Graham – page 108
Haley, Claude – page 25, 26, 140, 182, 208
Hall, Edward M – page 18, 29, 40, 102, 198, 212
Hall, Philip G – page 110, 141
Hall, P S – page 141
Hanniquet, Louis-N – page 124
Hao Ou – page 213
Harrison, J A C – page 9, 10, 41, 65, 108, 119, 130, 131, 137, 138, 193, 214
Harrison, Thomas S – page 214
Hartman – page 80, 97, 100, 102
Hartz, Sem L – page 61, 104, 133, 141, 184, 211
Hatch, Lorenzo J – page 89
Hauck, Warrell – page 102Hay, John – page 98, 147, 165
Hay, John – page 103, 104, 148, 159, 198, 204
Helmuth, Edward H – page 18, 50
Heinz, Bohumil – page 44
Heras Vicario, Juan Carlos, page 60, 173
Hercik, Josef – page 11, 15, 36, 46, 54, 59, 69, 70, 88, 98, 99, 105, 114, 167, 204
Herman – page 158
Hertenberger, Claude – page 53, 192, 193, 204
Hertz, W – page 76
Heusser, Heinrich – page 68
Hipschen, Thomas R – page 8, 150
Honings – page 150
Horniak, Frantisek – page 112, 164
Horvath, Endre – page 69
Hörwarter, Walter – page 145
Hourriez, Georges – page 184, 214
Housa, Bedrich – page 11, 39, 40, 47, 55, 59, 70, 104, 113, 114, 116, 117, 167, 177, 178
Hu Zhenyuan – page 213
Huang Lien-tsai – page 196
Huber, G L – page 12, 18, 24, 40
Huybrechts, Paul – page 97, 98
Jacobsen, Bent – page 17, 20, 34, 93
Jakus, Zlatko – page 54, 59, 78, 83, 84, 85, 86, 93, 97, 99
Janssens, Leon – page 42, 116
Jiang Weijie – page 143, 213
Jirka, Ladislav – page 11, 36, 43, 45, 47, 54, 56, 57, 59, 69, 70, 88, 104, 114, 117, 134, 167, 191
Jones, Alfred – page 100, 106, 119, 128
Jones, E R M – page 41
Jones, Robert J – page 12, 17
Josso, Camille Paul – page 161
Jubert, Jacques – page 61
Jumelet, Claude – page 34, 35, 51, 73, 121, 132, 140, 206
Jung, William – page 80, 100, 101, 142, 150, 158, 160, 163
Kanior, Jacek – page 143, 207
Kasano, Tsuneo – page 131, 187
Kauffmann, Leo C – page 130, 141, 163, 198, 212
Keen, Joseph L – page 141
Keller, Joseph – page 100, 143, 163, 165, 169, 173, 194, 197, 198
Kipperman, Kenneth – page 55, 214, 215
Kirstein, Charles – page 165
Kisely, Jerry – page 163
Kocmut, Bozidar – page 26, 109
Konecki, Edward – page 8, 92, 185, 213, 214
Kong Shaohui – page 216, 218
Kopecki, Jan M – page 66, 190
Kowalska, Barbara – page 15
Kowalski, Zbigniew – page 134
Krajewski, Przemyslaw - page 142
Krieg – page 158
Krnjajic, Tanasija – page 26, 64
Ksidias, Pericles Spiridonovich – page 48
Kühlmann, Arne – page 7, 8, 14, 69, 107, 197, 215
Kummer, H – page 206
Lacaque, Eugene – page 2, 43, 80, 186, 193
Lamasure, Frank – page 29, 104, 169
Lambert, George R – page 165, 198
Larriviere, Jacky – page 2, 34, 51, 186
Lauren, Alexander – page 26
Laurent, Maria – page 15, 16, 52, 86, 87, 88, 153, 154
Lavergne, Andre – page 34
Leclercqz, Charles – page 49, 115, 139
Leitgeb, Kurt – page 15, 28, 45, 90, 95, 103, 151, 152, 153, 154, 160, 161
Lengyel, Gyorgy – page 71, 197
Levigne, Hubert – page 43
Li Manceng (Manzeng) – page 216
Li Qingfa – page 213
Lieven, Karin – page 130
Lochmiller, Charles – page 150
Loizeaux, Elie Thimothee, page 57, 122, 139, 142, 143, 147, 148, 163, 198
Lokke-Sorensen, Knut – page 49, 50, 76, 166
Lorber, Ferdinand – page 3, 5, 11, 20, 38, 45, 68, 76, 83, 95, 137, 152, 166, 217
Lowe, James R – page 130
Lozano, Armandina – page 17
Lucas, Alvaro – page 123, 124
Lück, Lothar – page 207
Lukaszewski, Stefan – page 33, 186, 205
Mabie, Carroll S – page 96, 107, 150, 157, 194, 197
Major, James Parsons – page 142
Majorova, Lidiya Fedorovna – page 39, 151
Manley, Frank D – page 1, 30, 41, 108, 214
Manso Fernandez, Antonio – page 19, 29, 31, 38, 184, 199
March, Dixie – page 16
Maple, William H – page 80, 130, 150, 155, 158, 162
Mash, John F – page 167
Mash, Gordon – page 107
Mastrangelo, Vincenzo – page 213
Mata Martin, Jose Manuel – page 61, 184
Matic, Dusan – page 126
Martin Orbe, G – page 19, 38, 170, 172, 184
Mash, Gordon – page 79, 81
Mauer, Wolfgang – page 207
Maura, Bartolome – page 119
Mazelin, Charles – page 32, 57, 74, 78, 138, 147, 173, 174, 182, 186, 188, 192, 193, 196, 198, 204, 205, 213, 215, 216, 217
McLeod, Donald R – page 29, 40
McPherson – page 108
Mechelse, Cornelis A – page 133
Mele, Tullio – page 42
Mikheyev, Nikolay A – page 151
Miermont, Jean – page 61, 147, 174, 182
Mignon, Abel– page 137, 214
Milks, Charles H – page 80, 97, 100, 102, 142, 158, 165, 169
Miller, Jerzy – page 43, 205, 213
Mirowsky, Max – page 103
Mitchell, Donald J – page 11, 80, 109
Mizutani, Senkichi – page 65
Mokrousov, Ivan M, page 60, 151, 203
Monvoisin, Michel – page 2, 62, 95, 137
Morant Flores, Vicente – page 173
Mörck, Martin – page 34, 35, 36, 67, 84, 87, 89, 93, 98, 99, 100, 137, 144, 185, 193, 197, 198, 200
Morena, Rita – page 16, 209
Moreno Benavente, Jose – page 63, 67, 106, 120, 121, 150, 155, 159
Morken, Sverre – page 44, 49, 50, 76, 137, 200
Mracek, Jan – page 11, 42, 46, 54, 55, 57, 59, 75, 105, 114, 167
Müller, Max – page 73
Munier, Pierre – page 21, 34, 60, 78, 99, 122, 173, 185, 192, 196, 198, 199, 205, 213, 215, 216
Myers, Edward E – page 18
Nakada, Shokichi – page 49
Nagy, Zoltan – page 62, 185
Naszarkowski, Piotr – page 13, 53, 98, 129, 144, 193
Nefe, Alfred – page 27, 28, 71, 72, 74, 75, 86, 88, 90, 144, 152, 153, 154, 160, 186
Nicastro, Giorgio – page 156, 172
Nicastro, Pietro – page 172
Nicastro, Vittorio – page 7, 78, 169, 172
Nichols, William D – page 145
Nikitina, Tatyana Mihailovna – page 43, 151, 169
Noordzij, Gerrit - page 133
Nowraty, Peter, page 206
Nüesch, Wilhelm G – page 104, 107, 121, 149, 162, 195, 196, 199
O'Brien, John – page 147, 148
Olinowetz, Maria – page 3, 166
Ondracek, Milos – page 36, 46, 55, 105, 111, 113, 175, 195
Orihara, Maseo – page 187
Oro Sanz, Alfredo de – page 173
Osborn, Harold – page 97, 100, 103, 147, 158, 162, 195
Oshikiri, Katsuzo – page 40, 187
Ourdan, Joseph J P – page 100, 145
Ouvré, Achille – page 24, 79, 87, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 192, 196, 198, 205, 208, 216
Oyama, Sukeichi – page 170, 171
Paakari, Eero – page 104
Paniagua Martinez, Enrique – page 184
Pascual, Pedro – page 161, 199
Payne, G A – page 10, 12, 18, 24, 42, 96
Pedersen, Walther – page 66
Pedroso, José A – page 209
Peral, Jorge – page 150, 183
Perrini, Maria C – page 209
Pfeiler, Werner – page 15, 27, 28, 72, 85, 89, 92, 94, 98, 99, 131, 152, 153, 154, 186, 201, 217
Pheulpin, Jean – page 11, 47, 48, 95, 106, 147, 182, 188, 189, 204, 206, 216
Piel, Jules – page 12, 34, 57, 74, 87, 94, 97, 175, 183, 184, 185, 187, 188, 189, 198, 203, 213, 214, 215, 216
Pinzhang, Gao – page 190
Piwczyk, Jan – page 53, 76, 92, 206
Polak, Marian Romuald – page 51, 92, 205
Ponickau, Robert – page 150, 209
Puliti, Valerio – page 34
Quieti, Alceo – page 43, 132, 213
Quillivic, Rene – page 64, 208
Rajewicz, Joseph – page 131
Ramassotto, Mario – page 177
Ranzoni, Hans – page 6, 11, 27, 45, 53, 54, 76, 83, 95, 111, 217
Reitsma-Valença, Engelien – page 70
Repettati, Alberto- page 62, 171
Rollins, Harry R – page 130
Rosch, Walter – page 80, 100, 169
Rose, George you – page 209
Ronaldson, Douglas S – page 70, 100, 143, 150
Rönnberg, Stig – page 62
Rosch, Walter – page 158
Roule, Bohdan – page 45, 116, 117, 181
Saavedra, Albert – page 11, 19, 26, 45, 55, 199
Sachs, Margot (see also under Bitzer, Margot) – page 4, 24
Sampedro Molero, Pablo – page 19, 170
Sanchez Gutierrrez, Antonino – page 43, 118, 184
Sanchez Toda, Alfonso – page 29, 160, 201
Sanchez Toda, José Luis Lopez – page 8, 93, 162, 170, 171, 172, 184
Sapronov, Ivan – page 149, 151
Savage, Robert – page 80, 130, 139, 140, 142, 146, 155, 157, 160, 162, 163, 169, 171, 172
Scheidl, C – page 77, 157
Scherrer, J – page 163
Schimek, Herbert Toni – page 11, 42, 45, 51, 53, 144, 152
Schirnböck, Ferdinand – page 14, 15, 82, 106, 121, 168, 169, 171, 211, 218
Schlecht, Charles – page 131, 139, 140, 143, 149, 155, 159, 171, 199
Schlumbohm, Petra – page 208
Schmidt, Jindra – page 36, 42, 46, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 70, 90, 91, 105, 111, 114, 117, 160, 161, 167, 175, 191
Schmirl, Gerhart – page 52, 65, 77, 88
Schnell, Leon - page 63, 76
Schoff, Stephen A – page 98
Schofield, Louis S – page 29, 64
Schopfer, Pierre – page 77
Schuricht, Arthur – page 38, 76, 77, 170
Seidel, Wolfgang – page 13, 15, 25, 27, 52, 71, 74, 79, 82, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98, 131, 153, 161, 208, 209
Seizinger, Karl – page 44, 88, 97, 104, 218
Serres, Raoul – page 34, 43, 56, 99, 182, 184, 185, 196, 198, 205, 212, 216, 217
Sese, Luis – page 161, 162
Seymour, George H – page 80, 102, 131, 139, 140, 142, 143, 144, 146, 147, 148, 149, 155, 157, 159, 160, 171, 172, 199
Sharpless, Howard F – page 9, 11, 12, 18, 26, 42, 82
Silva, J R da – page 72
Silyanova, Marina – page 70
Simpson, Marcos – page 131
Sjööblom, Lars – page 12, 13, 20, 25, 35, 85, 97, 98, 136, 137, 142, 144, 184, 193, 200
Skinner, Charles – page 80, 102, 121, 139, 140, 141, 142, 147, 163, 172
Skov Jorgensen, Bertil – page 35, 36, 67
Slaght, Gary J – page 16, 55, 75
Slania, Czeslaw – page 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 14, 15, 20, 37, 38, 39, 60, 61, 62, 64, 66, 69, 70, 78, 79, 84, 85, 86, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 126, 127, 128, 130, 135, 136, 144, 145, 146, 147, 164, 166, 191, 192, 194, 200, 205, 217
Smillie, G F C – page 119, 122, 158, 209, 212, 214, 216
Smillie, James – page 142
Smillie, Walter de Forest – page 107, 162
Smirnov, Vladimir – page 42, 151, 203
Smith, Charles Albert – page 35, 50
Smith, Sydney F – page 80, 102, 142, 147, 197
Sneider, Bohumil – page 110
Spiegel, Manfred – page 207
Spinoy, Constant – page 34
Sprenger, Jean – page 64
Srb, Martin – page 111, 112
Staphorst, Johannes – page 133
Stefferl, Otto – page 28, 89, 92, 94, 134, 217
Struve – page 102, 160
Svengsbir, Jiri A – page 36, 46, 47, 56, 59, 69, 114, 115, 165
Szklarczyk, Andrzej – page 72
Tang Linshen – page 216
Tassos, Anastasios A – page 19
Taylor, A – page 41
Taylor, Robin – page 189
Terriza de Coca, Jesus – page 65, 184
Teubel, Friedrich – page 53, 111, 145, 217
Tirdiszek, Eugeniusz – page 12
Tkachenko, Aleksander – page 53
Toth, Rudolf – page 3, 11, 12, 15, 27, 28, 46, 51, 52, 73, 83, 84, 86, 87, 90, 92, 95, 103, 136, 137, 152, 153, 154, 156, 161, 166, 172
Trsek, Robert – page 201
Tulli, Francesco – page 19
Vacek, Wlodzimierz – page 35
Vail, James T – page 40, 50, 130, 163
Valadez, Emiliano – page 108
Vana, Silvestro – page 54
Vangelli, Egidio – page 39
Vangelli, Luca – page 65
Vaquer, Enrique – page 103, 172
Velamazan, Carlos – page 196, 197
Velly, Jean Pierre – page 196
Verdelocco, Giuseppe – page 52
Verheyden, Paul – page 18
Vogel, Arthur C – page 142, 143, 146, 198
Vos, Jean de – page 7, 29, 115, 144
Wallace, John S – page 19
Wallhorn, Arne – page 5, 14, 27, 78, 84, 85, 86
Welde, Henry – page 42, 49, 50
Wells, William B – page 40, 130, 197
Wilcke, Paul, page 58, 199
Wimmer, Georg – page 21, 43, 51, 52, 53, 72, 73, 74, 83, 84, 95
Wiram, Kenneth C – page 18, 24, 26, 42, 45, 82, 112
Wolf, Karl – page 111
Woyty-Wimmer, Hubert – page 11, 38, 45, 48, 53, 77, 100, 104, 111, 157
Wyon, Alfred B – page 119
Yan Bingwu – page 213
Yersin, Albert Edgar – page 67, 68
Yttri, Arild – page 132
Zainea, Serban – page 38
Zajdel, Wanda – page 17
Zechowski, Stefan – page 186
Zenziger, Rudolf – page 51, 53, 76

Wow! You must have needed a good lie down after that effort. Thanks, Adrian.

Sad news: Eros Donnini passed away on March 19, 2017; news just in from his Son.
cNA

That is indeed sad news. Another great engraver gone. Here is some of his work.

Yes, thanks Canadian for informing us. Here are Donnini's 1983 Europa stamps for Italy, which I quite like.

There is nothing like stamps to keep an inquisitive mind active and it is amazing where it takes you. I was scanning this stamp into the database today and found a small mystery.



According to the catalogue, and to the stamp if I am reading it correctly, this stamp celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Czech Botanical Society. As a botanist myself, I decided to look a little further.

The Society was founded in 1912 and this stamp is from 1962 so that fits. The stamp shows Ladislav Josef Celakovsky, a famous botanist and son of an equally famous writer, Frantisek Ladislav Celakovsky. Ladislav Josef was also the father of another botanist, Ladislav Frantisek Celakovsky so I guess when it came to names in the family, they liked what they had and stuck to it.

Now according to my catalogues, the reason Ladislav Joseph is on the stamp is that he was the founder of the society but when you look at the dates, he died ten years earlier than that in 1902.

Ladislav Frantisek lived until 1916 so perhaps he was the real founder. Also possible is that LJ set the wheels in motion to get the society going but it didn't actually happen until ten years after his death.

I love these little mysteries but I don't seem to be able to find the answer to this one.