Collecting By Engraver

Since I discovered this thread, I've collected some examples of French, Scandinavian, Czech, Italian, Russian and Austrian engravers. Now I'm wondering about German engravers. Can anyone show examples of the work of Axster-Heudtlass, H J Fuchs, G Braband, K Wolf, R Klein or G Schulz? Are they good? And is A Schmidt the same person as Jindra Schmidt, the Czech engraver?

Did the engravers of the countries Germany occupied during WW2 work for the Gross Deutsches Reich or the Generalgouvernment? (Not sure of the spelling there!)

Any thoughts on German engravers and their work?

Hi Strider.
Richard Klein only engraved two stamps for Hitler's birthdays but I don't have either yet. There are examples of all the others that you mentioned on the database at www.engravedstamps.net If you click on the link belowand choose engravers you will get a drop down menu with the names.

I don't have anything by A Schmidt. Which stamps have you seen him listed for?

Generally, engravers in occupied countries kept working with various levels of enthusiasm. At the end of the war, some kept their jobs and some were punished as collaborators. Gandon is a good example in France who would have been blacklisted had his Marianne stamp not caught De Gaulle's eye and got him a pardon.

Jindra Schmidt did a couple for Czechy and Moravia, including one of Hitler looking out the window.


Axter-Heudtlass was actually a couple, Werner and Maria but in those days women were not employed as engravers so they are attributed to Werner. There is no record that I'm aware of that details her input but it is known that they worked as a team.


I hope all that helps.

@strider

Some names on your list were designers of stamps,
not engravers.

Professor R. Klein (1890–1967) designed some of the 1940s
German stamps, he was not an engraver.

Same for the husband and wife team of Werner Heudtlass and
Maria von Axster. They designed the stamps but did not engrave
any.

I have never come across any engraver going by the name A Schmidt

There is a comprehensive list of engravers on page 200 of this
thread although many images stored on Photobucket are now
no longer visible.

It has been almost 100 years since the birth of
my favourite Austrian stamp engraver.
Rudolf Toth was born on March 30, 1918 in Törökbalint, Hungary
which was then still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
He worked for both the Austrian National Bank and
the Austrian State Printer.
He died in 2009 and is buried in Vienna.

Toth was a student of Professor Ferdinand Lorber
and engraved his first stamp in 1947.

Austria Scott B219 , Prisoners of war charity issue.




Rudolf Toth engraved his last stamps in 1992

Scott 1558 George Saiko, writer



Scott 1572 Mother Anna Maria Dengel



In between those years he engraved dozens of stamps for Austria
and a few for Liechtenstein.

These four Austrian 1961 stamps Rudolf Toth engraved,
commemorating the 100 Anniversary of the Artists Society,
show his skill in depicting details from paintings.

Austria Scott 662 - 665 1961

Here are a few more stamps Rudolf Toth engraved over the years.

Austria Scott 763 1966



Austria Scott 811 1968



Austria Scott 1015 1975



Austria Scott 1057 1977



Austria Scott 1326 1985



Austria Scott 1354 1989



Austria Scott 1489 1990

Hello lithograving




While I have no good reason to doubt this as my source is Gibbons which, as we know, has many errors, they attribute the engraving of the 1938 and 1939 Hitler birthday stamps to Richard Klein and also list Axter-Heudtlass as the engravers of the 1937 Winter relief set, one of which is shown above.

Most of Axter-Heudtlass' work was posters or magazine adverts and illustrations including some blatant nazi propaganda issues but there is little information available about their stamps. I would be very interested to know your sources for these. I don't want the database to repeat errors of the past.

Hi John

I have an old 1991/92 Michel Deutschland catalog which
still shows the designers and some of the engravers.
For some reason none of the engravers of the 1930s
engraved German stamps are listed though.
As you can see from the 3 Michel clippings
Prof R. Klein and Axter-Heudtlass are preceded by a boxed E
for Entwurf = design

None of the stamps show them as engravers.
The boxed S is for Stich = engraved




If the design was done by the engraver then it shows
E and S as with Michel 857,858 where H. Ranzoni was
responsible for both.



There isn't that much online for either Klein or
the Axter-Heudtlasses but from the little info there is
shows that they were painters and designers but
no mention of them engraving stamps.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richa...#cite_note-1

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/he...ography.html

Thanks lithograving. That makes sense as Michel are usually more informative on German stamps. I've been following this up as well and the only reference I can find for Axter-Heudtlass as engravers is for stamps in Gibbons. I contacted Gibbons a week or so back to see if there was a way we could report errors in the catalogues as it would be to everyone's benefit. So far, I've only had a message back that they have forwarded my message to Hugh Jefferies, the editor.
The only thing in Gibbons favour is that the signature is in the middle which usually denotes the person(s) doing both.

Thank you all for your helpful posts. When I referred to German engravers, I was relying on SG. The news that SG isn't always correct in its attributions is a bit painful for me - over the last few years I've acquired a shelf full of SG Europe catalogues of various ages, all of them except the Balkans actually!

I've also got a rather old Yvert (1993), which doesn't tell me who the engraver was, and a very old Facit (1975-6) - which does.

So, I've just bought a Michel on ebay! Who needs stamps when you can collect catalogues?

And yes, the Toth stamps are lovely - my favourite is the bride in her veil.

Hi strider

If you want the engravers for French stamps then you need to get a
Maury which has not only the designer and engraver but also
the print quantity and/or how many were sold for many of
the issues.
Or check out this French site.
Phil-Ouest http://www.phil-ouest.com/Liste_artistes.php

John

I'm glad you brought up the discrepancies between different catalogues
which made me look closer at stamps I haven't looked at in years.

Even though Michel is the best catalogue for German stamps there are still many errors and omissions.
It's a pity though that at a certain point Michel chose to no longer
list the engravers in their catalogs.
The clippings I'm showing are from the Deutschland-Katalog 1991/92
Hope they don't mind.
By the time I bought the 2005/2006 edition the engravers were gone.

From what I can see there was no rhyme or reason as to where the artists' names where included on German stamps up to 1945
except when they were engraved by Austrian engravers and printed at the State Printer in Vienna(W)
which followed the rule engraver right corner, designer left and center if he did both.

On German stamps up to 1940 the designer's name could be in the center
as with your Axter-Heudtlass examples or right margin like shown
here below. L.Wüst was the designer.



Or here with Germany DR Mi 828 Sc B215 E.Meerwald was only the designer even though he is in the middle.LOL




Michel also has a few omissions.

Here we have Germany DR Mi 854 Sc B243
Klein the designer is listed.



But where is the engraver?
Rudolf Zenziger (1891–1978) is there on the right
side on the stamp but not in Michel.



Same with Germany DR Mi 899 Sc B283.
Klein is listed but not the engraver Arthur Schuricht (1882 - 1945)yet he is right there on the stamp.





I noticed something interesting on the stamp below.
Germany DR Mi 859 Sc B246.
Michel got it right. Designed by Axter-Heudtlass and engraved by Ferdinand Lorber (1883–1957).


But where is the designers' name?
Spot the initials vAH above the CH.

Hans-Joachim Fuchs worked for the 'Bundesdruckerei,Berlin' from 1955 until 1993. He and Egon Falz, between them, produced 80-90% of W. German and Berlin engraved stamps during 1950s and 1960s.

Here are a few stamps showing Fuchs' work:

Michel 218. Issued 1962


Michel 221


Michel 222


Michel 224


Michel 225


Michel 226


Michel 227


Michel 303. Issued 1967


Michel 304


Michel 306

Here are some more from Hans-Joachim Fuchs.

The following 5 stamps are from the 1966/69 Architecture Definitive Series:

Michel 271


Michel 273


Michel 276


Michel 279


Michel 284


The following 5 stamps are from the "19th Century Berliners" set issued in 1969:

Michel 330



Michel 331


Michel 332


Michel 334


Michel 335


Michel 426 issued in 1972


Michel 454 issued in 1973


Michel 779 issued in 1987

Hi stamp_nut

Thanks for showing some of the stamps Hans-Joachim Fuchs
engraved.
I particularly liked the bi coloured Old Berlin scenes.

I always wondered why Germany didnt issue more engraved stamps.
They had some very talented engravers and top of the line
printing presses.

You mentioned Egon Falz (1932-2010) who engraved the Gottfried Schadow stamp below.

Germany Berlin Mi 482 Sc 9N353



This shows how talented Fuchs Falz was with transferring portraits onto stamps.

Edit: changed Fuchs to Falz

lithograving, you meant Falz of course.

Yes, I agree with you, that 'Old Berlin' set is one of my favourites of the German issues. Have you had a closer look at the catalogue? Most of the stamps of the 50s and 60s were engraved. (I am excluding the GDR here). After that the output of recess printed issues decreased dramatically (as they did in most countries).

Egon Falz (1932-2010) was born in Insterburg, Germany, in May 1932. At the age of 16, Falz managed to be accepted by the German State printers as an apprentice, (together with another pupil - Hans-Joachim Fuchs) starting a career there which would last from 1948 to his eventual retirement in 1995. His tutor was no other than the well-known engraver Leon Schnell.

Falz's first stamp was issued in 1955, after which he would go on to engrave some 200 more. Falz also engraved a number of banknotes for Germany and Venezuela.

Although Egon Falz, like the other engravers, never had a choice of which stamps to engrave, he did have a specific preference for portraits. One of his most iconic portrait stamps is without a doubt the 1964 single, issued in both West Germany and West Berlin, commemorating President Kennedy, (which I don't have to show you - yet!)

I show here some of Falz's stamps:

Michel 272. This and the following 6 stamps were issued in 1966/67.


Michel 275


Michel 277


Michel 278


Michel 282


Michel 283


Michel 285


These 3 were issued in 1969:
Michel 333.


Michel 336


Michel 337


Michel 422, issued 1972


Michel 515, issued 1975