Collecting By Engraver

Perf14 - Glad you liked Antonio Ciaburro's work. Re perfs: My strong preference is to view images of entire stamps, not just parts of them. To me, cropping out the perfs makes the images resemble mere illustrations from out-of-date stamp catalogues. Call me old-fashioned. :) - nethyrk

Henry Welde (1914-1991) was both an artistic designer and an engraver. Welde attended the Norwegian National Arts and Crafts School. He began his career in Norway Bank's Printing Works as a graphic artist in 1939, and worked there until his retirement in 1979. He was primarily employed producing banknotes, but fortunately he also designed and/or engraved a number of postage stamps; here are images of some examples of Welde's work for Norway.

- nethryk

PS Separately, I am posting a skiing set that Welde engraved in the sports stamps thread.

Rye and fish, designed by Arne E. Holm, issued on January 24, 1965, Scott No. 421, Facit No. 554aA.


Sabers, owl and oak leaves, designed by Arne-Jon Jutrem, issued on February 16, 1967 to mark the 150th anniversary of Higher Military Education, Scott No. 502, Facit No. 585.


Ebenezer Church, designed by Welde, issued on September 26, 1967, Scott No. 509, Facit No. 592.


Graph paper, old and new subjects, designed by Welde, issued on July 1, 1976, Scott No. 679, Facit No. 761.


Sigurd and Regin, designed by Rolf Graff after a motif from Hylestad stave church, issued on January 20, 1976, Scott No. 669, Facit No. 751.

Following his military service, Jan Mracek (1909-1987) began studying engraving in 1939, and joined the State Printing Office in Prague four years later. Over his career Mracek produced over 300 postage stamps and many bank notes. Here are images of six examples of Mracek's engraving work for his native Czechoslovakia.

- nethryk

Bozena Nemcova (1820-1862), Czech writer, designed by Czech artist Karel Svolinsky (1896-1986), and issued on June 21, 1950, Scott No. 416.


Lathe operator, designed by V. Nemecek, and issued on September 25, 1954, Scott No. 650.


Women's basketball, designed by Czech sculptor Jan Cerny (1907-1978), engraved and photogravure, and issued on April 25, 1956, Scott No. 748.


Man holding trade union banner, designed by Czech painter Viktor Polasek (1911-1989), and issued on September 28, 1957, Scott No. 824.


Lynx, designed by Slovak painter and graphic designer Jozef Balaz (1923-2006), engraved and photogravure, and issued on September 25, 1959, Scott No. 935.


Ski jump, designed by Czech artist Anna Podzemna-Suchardova (1909-1991), engraved and photogravure, and issued on January 1, 1964, Scott No. 1222.

Pierre Forget (1923-2005) was an award-winning French painter, engraver and illustrator, and also a professor of engraving at l'École Estienne. Here are images of five stamps Forget designed (except as noted) and engraved.

- nethryk

Figure skating pair, issued by France on February 20, 1971 to publicize the World Skating Championships in Lyon, February 23-28, Scott No. 1299, Y&T No. 1665.


Hauling in the net, after a gouache by Monacan artist Louis Tinayre (1861-1942), issued by Monaco on May 3, 1977, Scott No. 1057.


Charles Cros (1842-1888), French poet and inventor, semi-postal stamp issued by France on December 3, 1977, Scott No. B502, Y&T No. 1956.


Horses, designed by French painter Yves Brayer (1907-1990), and issued by France on December 9, 1978, Scott No. 1585, Y&T No. 2026.


Child and International Year of the Child emblem, designed by Odette Ballais, and issued by France on January 6, 1979, Scott No. 1624, Y&T No. 2028.

Beautiful engravings nethryk. The talent is without end!

I take your point about the whole stamp. It's just a difference in how you look at the topic: you look at the final work on the stamp itself, I try to imagine the work as the engraver did it...I was almost tempted to post the images in black and white and reversed...but I thought that might have been going too far...to...

...something like this?

Love this thread!
Puzzler gave me some airmail Belgium stamps which so impressed me with their design and engraving that I thought you might like them also. Below is one of them at the best resolution I can achieve by direct upload.

Douglas DC 4 "Skymaster", (Scott C10) designed by J. D Cross and engraved by J. De Bast
That is all I know from the Michel catalog. Any additional information about them would be very much appreciated.

Also, as an aside, I wonder how many different DC 4 stamps there are world wide and if this is the best of the lot.

Perf14 - Thanks. So many engravers...so little time.

butterfly - That's a great looking De Bast-engraved airmail stamp. Thanks for sharing.

Here's an image of another airmail stamp depicting a DC-4 Skymaster, designed by Victor Stephen McCloskey (1908-1988), engraved by Charles A. Brooks (vignette) and John S. Edmondson (lettering), and issued by the USA on September 25, 1946, Scott No. C32.

- nethryk

Here are a few more from Sanchez-Toda

The 1930 Goya Airmail series from Spain

Arthur W. Dintaman (1919-2004) studied at the Abbott School of Fine and Commercial Art and at the Corcoran Gallery School of Art. He began his apprenticeship at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1939, and was appointed an engraver in 1943. Before his retirement in 1974, Dintaman engraved some 30 stamps for the USA; here are images of some USA stamps for which engraved the vignettes.

- nethryk

Great White Heron and map of Florida, designed by Robert L. Miller, Jr. (1911-?), issued on December 5, 1947, Scott No. 952. (Lettering: A.W. Christensen)


Abraham Lincoln, designed by American graphic artist and illustrator Ervine Metzl (1899-1963) after a bust by American artist and sculptor (John) Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (1867-1941), and issued on February 27, 1959, Scott No. 1114. (Lettering: Howard F. Sharpless)


Sam Houston (1793-1863), Texan and U.S. soldier and statesman, designed by American muralist, illustrator and artist Thomas Calloway "Tom" Lea, III (1907-2001), and issued on January 10, 1964, Scott No. 1242. (Lettering: G.A. Payne)


New York World's Fair Mall, Unisphere, and "Rocket Thrower," by American sculptor Donald Harcourt De Lue (1897-1988), stamp designed by Robert J. Jones, and issued on April 22, 1964, Scott No. 1244. (Lettering: Howard F. Sharpless)


Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), American architect, and the Guggenheim Museum, designed by the staff of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation; the portrait, based on a 1952 photograph by Blackstone-Shelburne, New York City, was drawn by Patricia Amarantides and Ling Po. Issue date: June 8, 1966, Scott No. 1280. (Lettering: Kenneth C. Wiram)


U.S. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), designed by American artist Paul Calle (1928-2010), and issued on December 6, 1971, Scott No. 1424. (Lettering: K.C. Wiram)


Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963), American poet laureate, designed by Paul Calle after a photograph by David H. Rhinelander, and issued on March 26, 1974, Scott No. 1526. (Lettering: Robert G. Culin, Sr.)

Vladimir Smirnov joined Goznak (Russia's government-owned printing house) during the 1940s, and he engraved stamps and bank notes there until the early 1980s. Here are images of six stamps issued by Russia (USSR) which demonstrate Smirnov's engraving skill, particularly with portraits.

- nethryk

"The Lute Player," designed after a painting (1595) by Italian artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), and issued on December 29, 1966, Scott No. 3294, Michel No. 3317.


Karl Marx, designed by Viktor Ermakov, and issued on May 5, 1968, Scott No. 3463, Zagorski No. 3536.


Konstantin Alexandrovich Mardzhanov [Mardzhanishvili] (1872–1933), Soviet Georgian theater director, designed by A. Kovrishkin, and issued on September 20, 1972, Scott No. 4013, Michel No. 4048.


Nikolai Ernestovich Bauman (1873-1905), Bolshevist revolutionary, designed by V. Pimenov, and issued on March 20, 1973, Scott No. 4065, Michel No. 4105.


Georg Ots (1920-1975), Estonian opera singer, designed by P. Lutchyn and V. Trager, and issued on March 21, 1980, Scott No. 4818, Michel No. 4939.


Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna (c. 980-1037), Persian polymath of the Islamic Golden Age, designed by S. Pomanski, and issued on August 16, 1980, Scott No. 4852, Michel No. 4981.

Jindra Schmidt (1897-1984) was a prolific Czechoslovakian master engraver of bank notes and postage stamps. He attended the High School of Applied Art in Prague, and began his professional career in 1918. Here are images of some examples of Schmidt's superior engraving workmanship.

- nethryk

St. George and the Dragon, semi-postal stamp designed after a painting by Czech artist Josef Mánes (1820-1871), issued in 1946, Scott No. B157.


Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924), Russian Bolshevist revolutionary leader, designed and engraved by Schmidt, and issued on January 21, 1949, Scott No. 371. An outstanding likeness!


"Marycka Magdonova," designed by Czech artist Karel Svolinsky (1896-1986), engraved and photogravure, and issued on September 15, 1957 to mark the 90th birthday of Czech poet Petr Bezruc (pseudonym of Vladimír Vašek, 1867-1958), Scott No. 823.


Karel Capek (1890-1938), Czech writer (including science fiction classics R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) & War with the Newts), designed by Czech painter and graphic designer Max Svabinsky (1873-1962), and issued on August 20, 1958, Scott No. 875.


Czechoslovakia stamp of 1918 and garlanded allegorical figure "Republic," designed by Max Svabinsky, and issued on December 18, 1958, Scott No. 896.


Sprinters, designed by Czech artist Mario Stretti (1910-1960), engraved and photogravure, and issued on June 15, 1960 as one in a set of three stamps to publicize the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome, Scott No. 967.


Karel Kovarovic (1862-1920), Czech composer and conductor, designed by Max Svabinsky, and issued on February 26, 1962, Scott No. 1097.


"August Noon," designed by Schmidt after an original work of art by Max Svabinsky, lithogravure and engraved, and issued on September 17, 1973 as a tribute to Svabinsky, Scott No. 1903.

Tullio Mele (1929-2008) was an artist and engraver in Italy's Printing Office from 1951 to 1981. During those years he designed and engraved a number of stamps for Italy, San Marino and Vatican City. Here are images of six examples of Mele's skills.

- nethryk

Delphie Sibyl, designed by Polish artist Casimira Dabrowska (1890-1972), after a Sistine Chapel fresco by Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo (1475-1564), and issued by Vatican City on June 16, 1964, Scott No. 389.


The Mystic Nativity, after a detail from painting by Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445-1510), issued by San Marino on December 5, 1968, Scott No. 693.


Achilles ambushing Troilus, after an Etruscan fresco in the Tomb of the Bulls, Tarquinia, (c540-530BC), engraved and lithogravure, and issued by San Marino on February 20, 1975, Scott No. 856.


Courtyard, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, after a painting by Italian artist, writer and architect Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), engraved and lithogravure, and issued on December 20, 1974, Scott No. 1174.


La lettera dell'artigliere al fronte (Gunner's letter from the front), a futurist composition of a work by Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (1876-1944), an Italian poet and editor, the founder of the Futurist movement, and a fascist ideologue, engraved and lithogravure, and issued by Italy on July 26, 1976, Scott No. 1230.


Francesco Severi (1879-1961), Italian mathematician known for his contributions to algebraic geometry, issued by Italy on April 23, 1979, Scott No. 1365.

Pierre Béquet (1932- ) designed and engraved more than 700 postage stamps for 36 countries, including France, former French colonies and others. He was trained at the Ecole Estienne by René Cottet, then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris by Robert Cami. Béquet won the 1960 Grand Prix de Rome for engraving, and was also a four-time winner of the Grand prix de l'Art philatélique. Here are six examples of his work, all stamps designed and engraved by Béquet.

- nethryk

Dragon tree (Draceana ombet), designed after a painting by Malagasy artist Victoire Ravelonanosy-Razafimbelo, and issued for use in Somali Coast on March 24, 1962, Scott No. 287, SG No. 300.


Tobacco pouch and pipe, issued by Mauritania on September 13, 1965, Scott No. 196.


Dagger encrusted with precious metals, issued by Mauritania on September 13, 1965, Scott No. 197.


Foumban bas-relief, issued by Cameroun on April 15, 1966, Scott No. 435.


Chateau de Val, in Cantal, Auvergne, issued by France on January 11, 1969, Scott No. 1169, Y&T No. 1506.


View of Ehnen, issued by Luxembourg on May 3, 1977, Scott No. 600.

Leon Janssens engraved many stamps for the State Printing Office of Belgium during his career from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s. Here are images of four examples of his work.

- nethryk

Mermaid, Mercury and Rotary International Emblem, designed by Belgian graphic artist Jean Van Noten (1903-1982), and issued on September 10, 1954 as one of a three-stamp set marking the humanitarian service organization's 50th anniversary and 5th regional conference, Scott No. 480, SG No. 590.


"The Foolish [or "Mad"] Virgin," one of a two-stamp set designed by Belgian-born artist and graphic designer Marc Fernand Severin (1906-1987) after a statue by Belgian sculptor and painter Rik Wouters (1882-1916), and issued on June 10, 1955 to publicize the 3rd biennial exhibition of sculpture in Antwerp, held June 11 - September 10, Scott No. 491, SG No. 601.


Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), Belgian violinist, composer and conductor, known as "The King of the Violin," designed by Jean Van Noten, and issued on September 1, 1958 to mark the musician's birth centenary, Scott No. 526, SG No. 642.


"The Mason," designed by Leon Janssens after a statue by Belgian artist and sculptor Georges Minne (1866-1941), with some photogravure, and issued on October 17, 1970 to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Housing Society, Scott No. 792.

Where'd everybody go?

Although the ranks of contributors to this thread have thinned out considerably, some folks do still seem to be reading the stuff posted here, so I guess I'll go ahead and highlight another engraver.

Herbert Toni Schimek (1905-1982) was a Viennese-born painter and engraver who produced a number of stamps for Austria around the mid-20th century. Here are images of five examples of Schimek's engraving skill, with each stamp designed by a different artist.

- nethryk

Symbols of global telegraphic communications, designed by Austrian painter and illustrator Hans Strohofer (1885-1961), issued on November 5, 1947, Scott No. 495.


Airplane over Prägraten, East Tyrol, airmail stamp designed by Austrian graphic artist Heinrich Blechner (1895-1983), issued on May 5, 1947, Scott No. C51.


"Girl with a Straw Hat," semi-postal stamp designed by Austrian designer Ernst Schrom (1902-1969), after a painting (1835) by Austro-Hungarian portrait painter Friedrich von Amerling (1803-1887), issued on June 20, 1947, Scott No. B217.


Family reunion, semi-postal stamp designed by Austrian anti-war activist and artist Sepp Jahn (1907-2003), issued on August 30, 1947 as one of a set of six stamps to benefit the Prisoners of War Relief Fund, Scott No. B221.


Symbols of Austria joining the United Nations, designed by Austrian artist Robert Schober (1892-1971), issued on February 20, 1956, Scott No. 610.