Collecting By Engraver

You sure know how to pick 'em, stamp_nut! These Red Cross stamps are wonderful indeed. I think Piel is one of my favourite French engravers. And those Machin stamps you showed the other day are indeed exquisite; so much more beautiful than the ones Slania did in the 1990s.

Very apt you should say that the £1 looks best; it has been a well-known secret for years that black is the best 'colour' to print engravings in, as it apparently shows off the detail and shade nuances at their best!

Welcome to the fold an I'm looking forward to your next scans!
:-)

Thanks for that AKPhilately. I am very happy to be here. After having worked my way through all 213 pages of this thread (although "worked" is not really the right word for it - it was pure pleasure, despite all those broken links), I just wanted to be a part of it.

I have now received my first purchases of engraved stamps (mostly French) and I shall be showing scans of some of them in future posts, but they need to be sorted first.

I can show you this next one though. It was issued by Jersey on 9 May 2015 in the form of a miniature sheet on the 50th Anniversary of Winston Churchill's death. The portrait was engraved by Martin Mörck and the stamp is printed in a combination of recess and offset. It is quite a large stamp, measuring 58 x 72 mm. There are actually 2 different miniature sheets, but the stamp is almost the same on both, just a slight colour change. The sheets themselves are poorly designed and very uninspiring. Nothing to write home about, so I won't bother to show them here.

I checked in the Michel catalogue and it states that this stamp was not valid for postage. I can't really believe that. Can anyone confirm this statement?

After that short diversion to the Channel Islands, I take you now across the Atlantic to the USA. I picked up this set some years ago simply because I liked them. It was issued in 1934 and depicts various National Parks. I have absolutely no idea who engraved them. Maybe some-one could enlighten me please.












I would love to know how to post images side by side!

Here goes:

J C Benzing: vignettes of 1c, 3c and 7c
L S Schofield: vignettes of 2c, 6c and 10c
C T Arlt: vignettes of 4c, 5c, 8c and 9c

W B Wells: frame/lettering of 1c, 2c, 3c, 5c and 9c
E H Helmuth: frame/lettering of 4c, 7c and 10c
D R McLeod: frame/lettering of 6c, 7c and 8c

Courtesy of Gene Hessler's The Engraver's Line.

I'm not sure of you can post images side by side, but seeing that this is supposed to be a very visually pleasing topic as well as an informative one, it is better to post them below each other anyway, so the images can be as large as possible.

There was an eight page thread on the National Parks and Farley Reprints posted by stampman2002 last June thru Oct, Very informative.

https://goscf.com/t/54752&SearchTer...tional,Parks

J C Benzing: vignettes of 1c, 3c and 7c. He also engraved the Byrd Antartic Expedetion and signed this part arrow block of Sc733.

Thank you AKPhilately and littleriverphil for the information. I have bookmarked that other thread. It certainly is a fascinating read.

And now for some of my recent purchases. Starting with Jules Piel.
Issued on 11 Dec 1965. Michel Cat. Nos. 1532/33



Issued on 12 Dec 1964. Michel Cat.Nos. 1494/95




Issued on 7 Dec 1963. Michel 1454/55




Issued on 2 Dec 1961. Michel 1376/77



Issued on 3 Dec 1960. Michel 1329/30

Whilst preparing the images for posting here, I realised that many of them had already appeared on this thread. I don't want to duplicate any if I can avoid it. I did come across the name R. Franke, whose engravings have not been featured yet, as far as I can remember.

Rupert Franke (1888-1971) was an Austrian artist and engraver. He didn't engrave many stamps as most of his work appeared on banknotes for Austria and Hungary. He worked for the Austro-Hungarian Bank until it's liquidation, then for the Hungarian Banknote Printing Co., and later for the Austrian National Bank.

Here are some of his Austrian stamps.

1946, Reconstruction of Stephan Cathedral in Vienna, north tower. Michel 799


ditto, South Spire, Michel 800


1947, Fund raising for National Art Exhibition: Benedictine Monastery. Michel 814


ditto, National Library, Vienna. Michel 819


ditto, Ernst Röhm's workshop (printer of copperplate engravings). Michel 820


1948, National Reconstruction Fund, Parliament Building. Michel 867

For today, here are some from Pierre Gandon. Much has already been posted about this superb engraver. I have nothing to add, except for these images.

France 1944, 17th Century Celebrities (from a set of 6), Michel 625


ditto, Michel 629


France 1946, Peace Conference, Michel 763


France 1948, Architecture, Michel 824


France 1951, Maurice Noguès, Michel 925


France 1956, Technical Advancements, Michel 1108


France 1976, Red Cross, Michel 2001 & 2002

Since it seems that you lot have fallen asleep, I am going to show you something different, just to wake you up.

I have been going through my Latvian collection, looking for engraved stamps. I collect the period 1918-1940, the first period of independence. Most of the Latvian stamps of this era were lithographed, but there are a couple of issues that were engraved and recess printed. I hope you like them. I certainly do!

This first one was issued on 18 April 1928, to commemorate the first president of Latvia, Janis Cakste (1859-1927). Designed by Prof. Richard Zarins and engraved by Karlis Krauze. Printed at the State Printing House in Riga. Michel 124-128; SG 150-154; Scott B29-B33; Yvert 132-136. I show you all 5 values in their glorious colours.







These next two stamps are from a set of 7 issued on 12 July 1937, commemorating those who died in the struggle for freedom and depicts various monuments erected throughout Latvia. The other five stamps in the set were printed in offset. Designer/engraver not known. Michel 251/2; SG 266/7; Scott 198/9; Yvert 216/7.

35 Santim value, Bearslayer statue in Riga


40 Santim value, tomb of Colonel Oskars Kalpaks (1882-1919), founder and first commander-in-chief of the Latvian volunteer force.

stamp nut....great stamps and scans!...BTW are you using a third party image hosting service...or are you using the optimiser
upload here at SCF?

Recent acquistion...Mali 1963 Engraved by Pierre Gandon
Scott C19-20

Nice stamps. I haven't got around to getting any of the colonies yet.

I am using the image optimizer on this forum. Works a treat. And of course, my images will be permanent. At least until the forum dies.

I have been looking forward to posting these two great stamps. They arrived in the post today. A joint issue between Sweden/USA which saw the light of day on 23 Sept 2005. Designed and engraved by Piotr Naszarkowski. I love the striking design. The engraving captures Garbo at her provocative best. Two modern masterpieces in miniature, in my opinion. But why do I show both stamps? Take a close look. They are actually two separate engravings.

Sweden, Michel 2485


USA, Michel 3981

Another load of French stamps arrived today. I'm still sorting them, but I couldn't wait to show you these:

France 1962. Engraved by René Cottet (1902-1992). Michel 1415 & 1417. Just superb.



Two Gandons from 1961 & 1962. Michel 1374 and 1416

Just wanted to share this with you. I have framed an enlarged print of the Garbo stamp that I posted a few days ago. Gonna hang it on the wall. Not yet sure if this will be the final print. I may do it again and display the full stamp with perfs. What do you guys think?