Collecting By Engraver

Hi

Die proof of 1867 Chile stamp. Engraved by Charles Burt (1823-1892) of American Banknote Co.



Actual stamp was printed in green

I've been away a while but thought I'd chip back in with the following stamps which highlight the talents of Martin Morck and Bertil Skov Jorgensen. I don't recall seeing this here before but if I am repeating a previous post please excuse me.....



The mini sheet is entitled "The Old Town, Aarhus 1909-2009" (SG MS1544) and was designed by Jakob Kühnel, and features the sign of the coppersmiths' guild to the left of the stamps.

The four stamps (SG 1541-4) portray different areas within the 'old town' and some of the people who live there. The stamps were designed by Jakob Kühnel and engraved by Martin Morck and Bertil Skov Jorgensen, and whilst the mini sheet is printed in offset the stamps are line engraved intaglio.






Enjoy!

Jon

Hi
Herbert Bourne (1825-1907) was a British engraver. He worked for Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. and Waterlow & Sons.
Some examples of his work :

Stamps engraved by Jose Moreno Benavente (1905-1981) of Casa de Moneda de Chile (Chilean Mint)

They are beautiful examples Jorges.

If anyone has any biographical details for prof. Georg Wimmer the Austrian engraver I would be most appreciative.

jorgesurcl – Thanks for continuing this splendid thread. Back in the 1950s, I exchanged used stamps with a collector from Curicó, Chile and I sometimes wondered who they were designed and engraved by.

Now I often go back to the fine images posted here by lithograving, nethryk, AnthonyUK and others. Pity that lithograving no longer posts his Austrian and other engraved beauties as well as occasional reminiscences of his early stamp-collecting days. I miss him and his interest in postage stamp printing methods I shared with him.

Fans of Austrian hand-engraved stamps often marvel at their elaborate engravings. What facilitated the admirable fineness of lines in intaglio printed stamps produced by the Austrian State Printing Office were special processes employed in their production.

First, the model of the design in detailed line drawing eight times (not six times - as usual elsewhere) the size of the stamp was etched into a zinc plate from which it was transferred by means of a pantograph onto a soft steel plate covered with etching ground.

Second, shallow grooves were etched into the steel plate to serve as guidelines for the master engraver who deepened them and gave them definite shape, often incising only the vignette and leaving the rest of the job to lettering and frame engravers.

Third, the finished steel plate (the die) needed no tempering, no copying under enormous pressure to a transfer roll, it was but impressed into a thin lead plate from which it was duplicated by electrotypy. The resulting copper electrotypes were reinforced and joined together to form a copper plate which was finally shaped into a printing cylinder used in a sheet-fed Koenig & Bauer – A.G.press into which dry (i.e. not moistened) gummed sheets of paper were fed by hand.

The high-quality printing of artistic postage stamps was regarded as a matter of prestige. Production process was sometimes repeated in part or as a whole so as to ensure that the end product was perfect. Strict economy was not the crucial point.

This is a summary of an account published in #5/1957 of the Czechoslovak bimonthly Filatelie. It was signed by "f See" reporting a guided tour of the postage stamp printing section of the Österreichische Staatsdruckerei Wien.

Relata refero.

love those Denmark ship stamps by Pederson! What does the little del. stand for?

florian - Thanks for sharing that terrific explanation of Austrian Printing Office stamp production methods.

clifhiker - Welcome to SCF! I'm glad you like Walther Pedersen's engraving work on the Denmark ships stamp set. In answer to your question, on many engraved stamps the following abbreviations for Latin words are used to identify the stamp's designer: DEL = "delineavit" = "he (or she) drew it," and to identify the stamp's engraver: SC = "sculpsit" = "he (or she) carved it." - nethryk

Albert Edgar Yersin (1905-1983) was a Swiss artist and engraver who studied at the Pratt Institute in New York City and the Royal College of Art in London. Here are images of five examples of Yersin's design and engraving work on stamps issued by Switzerland.

- nethryk

Two airmail stamps designed and engraved by Albert Edgar Yersin, printed on granite paper, and issued on May 1, 1941:

Alpstein and airplane, Scott No. C30.


Lake Lucerne and airplane, Scott No. C32.


Three semi-postal stamps designed by Swiss artist Paul Boesch (1889-1969):

Weaving, issued on June 15, 1945 to benefit needy mothers, Scott No. B146.


Cheese making, issued on June 15, 1946 to benefit the National Festival and the Fund for Swiss citizens abroad, Scott No. B154.


Railroad workers, issued on June 14, 1947 to benefit professional education of invalids and for anti-cancer funds, Scott No. B162.

this is perhaps a topic that deserves it's own thread ... but I'd be very interested to hear and see how you guys organize and mount your engraved stamp collections. Are they just part of your general country collection? Do you have a seperate album?

Personally I'm tempted to design my own album pages where I can include information about the designer ... I have a nice unused stockbook ... maybe for now I'll just add little cards for each stamp

clifhiker - Generally, I keep my engraved stamps in Vario black stock pages stored in 3-ring binders for organizational flexibility and easy access for photo scanning. - nethryk

florian, I'm glad that you've had contact with a Chilean collector of Curicó and enjoyed the stamps.
Here are more examples engraved by Jose Moreno B.

Wow. That $10 Train Engine is a beauty.

nethryk - Your Boesch - Yersin stamps: what early post-war memories! The joy of living in a country free again. Impressive designs and engravings. Thanks.

jorgesurcl - Yes, Pesca-Chiloe 1938 and the rest of the set, some of the Airplanes 1934, Cervantes 1947, Stamp Centenary 1953, Technical University 1956, G. Mistral 1958 - I still keep that old collection of used stamps and look for some of their mint versions to come up one day. Thanks.