Collecting By Engraver

lithograving - Your opinion concerning Jan Piwczyk (after engraving the very last Poland pre-war stamp issued on Aug. 1, 1939 and commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Polish Legion and subsequent to his war-time Berlin career) avoiding Communists in Poland could more properly apply to the option made by another Polish stamp engraver, Wladimir Vacek.

Wladimir Vacek did not sign the pact with the devil and did not therefore compromise himself but fled to London and worked for De La Rue engraving stamps for the Polish government in exile during WWII (see the one showing Warsaw partisans in action signed by him and issued on Jan. 3, 1945).

Seeing the course Polish affairs were taking towards the end of WWII Wladimir Vacek chose not to return to Poland and continue to work for De La Rue engraving e.g. the 1952 Ireland Thomas Moore issue (Michel Nos. 114-115).

By the way, Hubert Woyty-Wimmer started to work for the same company in 1950 engraving e.g. the 1956 Ireland John Barry issue (Michel Nos. 126-127).

lithograving - Thanks for the refreshing change you made in showing the stamps engraved by Knut Lokke-Sorensen in his remarkable style. I also enjoy the colour scheme.

As you say: Variety is the spice ...

I would say that Lipsia was correct,Michel 899 looks like Vienna printing to me.
It was the last engraved stamp issued by the Third Reich
and most of the stamps from July 1944 to April 1945 were printed
photogravure in Vienna.

Germany Scott B283 1944
Deutsches Reich Michel 899

Engraver: Arthur Schuricht



BTW, I had never heard of this Lipsia Katalog before. Looks like
it ceased publication around 1960.
Interestingly, Lipsia is the Latin for the German city
Leipzig which was probably the major book publishing centre in all
of continental Europe up to WWII.

The Lipsia catalogue was the leading stamp catalogue in East Germany. I have a 1984 edition of the catalogue for DDR stamps. Here's an image of the cover of the 1983 catalogue.



According to the Russian Wikipedia page on the Lipsia catalogues, they were quite detailed in their listings, and were very early adopters of colour listings. Try a Google Translate operation on this page, if like me you can't speak 2 words of Russian.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B...D0%BE%D0%BA)

Ryan

Boy was I way off on that one, thanks for correcting me Ryan.

When I did a quick google on LIPSIA all I got was references to a 54/55 Katalog, or 1959 katalog and some was in Russian.
So Assumed they ceased publication around 1960.

Here is the low value of the 1956 set honouring
John Barry's departure from Ireland.

As mentioned by Florian the engraver was the Austrian
Hubert Woyty-Wimmer

Scott 155





I only have a few from Ireland but from what I can see DeLaRue,Dublin produced some very fine engraved stamps for awhile.
Does anyone have info regarding who engraved these below.

IRELAND

Scott 157



Scott 159



Scott 161

What a curious look to the "OH" in "JOHN", looks just like a re-entry, albeit an extremely strong re-entry.

Ryan

Good eye Ryan, or should I say eagle eye.
There certainly is something going on there and it's
more clear in this scan.



I have a couple more of these stamps and they look normal.

Thanks for pointing it out to me.

lithograving - Re your questions on page 75 regarding the USA Transportation coils engraved by Gary Chaconas which I posted: Some of these stamps are on cover or piece, hence the light background. I can't honestly say that I am a huge fan of this series, but in future I'll make an effort to post images of more examples of them as opportunities arise. - nethryk

Pierre Schopfer (1943- ) is a Swiss artist and engraver who attended the School of Fine Arts in Lausanne, and served his apprenticeship in engraving under Albert Edgar Yersin. Since 1967 Schopfer has been engraving postage stamps and banknotes for Switzerland, and stamps for several other countries. Here are images of three examples of Schopfer's engraving work on stamps designed by various Swiss artists and issued by Switzerland.

- nethryk

Pisces and view of Nax near Sion, designed by Gebrüder Lenz, combined engraved and photogravure, and issued on August 23, 1982, Scott No. 718.


Postman, designed by Klaus Oberli, combined engraved and photogravure, and issued on March 10, 1987, Scott No. 786.


Cheesemaker, designed by Walter Haettenschweiler, combined engraved and lithography, and issued on September 7, 1993, Scott No. 848.

nethryk,thanks regarding the light background.

When I scanned the Irish ones especially the John Barry I
noticed that the e watermark was quite visible due to the black
background.
I eliminated it by using a lighter beige.

Regarding the US Transportation coil I like most of them
except maybe the $1 seaplane.

I hesitate to post the four stamps in this famous Swiss people portraits set because according to Scott they were printed by lithography, only. However, to me they appear to be combined engraved by Pierre Schopfer and lithography. Perhaps someone who owns a relevant Michel or Zumstein Switzerland stamp catalogue would be kind enough to provide independent confirmation one way or the other? These stamps were designed by centenarian Swiss artist Hans Erni (1909- ), and issued by Switzerland on September 5, 1990, Scott Nos. 863-66, Michel Nos. 1423-26. Bonuses: One smoker, and four autographs.

- nethryk

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825-1898), poet and novelist.


Angelika Kaufman (1741-1807), Neoclassical painter.


Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961), novelist, poet and journalist.


Frank Buchser (1828-1890), painter.

nethryk, those Swiss are definitely litho & engraved.

Looks like Scott is wrong again or maybe they just don't care
whether they get the print method correct or not.

Here are a couple of Austrian trains.

First was combination printing, photogravure and engraved.

Engraver : Gerhart Schmirl (1942)

I dont have the Scott numbers only Austria Netto Katalog # 2790 2008




The one below was also combo but litho/offset and engraved

Engraver : C. Scheidl (first and only time I've come across this engraver.)

ANK 2976 2011

Wow!..I just finished viewing all 77 pages in this post..what riches of fine engraving! Thanks to Florian, Nethryk, Lithograving, rod222 and many more of you...(you know who you are)..I have broken my piggy bank and have purchased many fine examples of Slania, Decaris, Gandon, Jirka, Kenecki..to name a few. (you know who they are). With this being my first post (of hopefully more to come).i want to thank all of you for many hours of enjoyment...reading your comments, viewing your scans
and having the stories behind the stamps and the artists who created something more than a small square of perforated paper just to lick and affix on an envelope. Two questions?..how do I add an avatar to my profile and how do I tell my wife we're having beans on toast again tonight??

Here's one of my favorite recent acquisitions. Not a bad composer to boot. Rene Cottet Scot B308