My Favourite Engravers : Mr. Edmund Dulac.

Engraver / designer.

Well known in the artistic world,
his work includes book illustrations, portraits, caricatures,
stage settings and costumes and decorations.

King's Poetry Prize Medal medallion King George 5



London Exhibition 2010 Postcard of Dulac's Cameo of King George 6




The Cameo with Queen Victoria on the 2d Orange of 1940



1937 Coronation of King George 6

In this we can see the fusion of the old engine turning lines
that framed the Penny Black, into his new and exciting atmospheric
designs that would so highlight his structure on the Free French Colonial issues.



The Free French Colonials :
Photolithography, atmospheric in structure, were like nothing else
on a postage stamp of the period.
I am still undecided whether I like them or not, they are so different. They remain modern even today 70 years later.




The six Hexagonals of his design with cameo.




To be continued..........

I'm loving this stuff! Thanks Rod!
Keep 'em coming, Pleeeeeeeese

Thanks Stampgal, for the encouragement,
Not too much popcorn now....

I'll be back on the morrow, it's nap time downunder.

In 1939 Dulac's high value designed stamps arrived
on the scene, and these were doozies, the 2 shillings and sixpence
yellow green and the 5 shilling red.
Produced in an unusual large format, they were striking
both in quality and eye appeal, and the best looking stamps
since the One Pound black of the St George and the dragon of 1929.

Dulac's treatment of the Lion rampant affronty, and the Unicorn
of the coat of arms, was oozing grace with a touch of humour
esp of the lion with the challenging tongue, and the confident,
self assured, even cocky Unicorn.
It is a beautifully balanced stamp.



The next commision for Dulac was rejected, and the Centenary
of the first adhesive postage stamp is now credited to
one H L Palmer, but for me, he blatantly pinched the design
from Dulac and simply extended the format, and dispensed
with the filagree work. I still like the Palmer effort, but
it lacks Oomph for what was an important event.



Palmer's treatment of the Victory stamps in 1946
followed suit, and to me are uninspiring, even a little odd
(A tractor and a trowel?).

Dulac's next effort appears on 29th July 1948
and the Olympic games, his work is presented with
3 other designers of the 4 values.
He acquits himself well, and possibly along with the
tuppence halfpenny, is the best design of the four,
with his figure of winged victory,
but draws the short straw, and receives the curse
of the mud brown shade.

(Interesting to see the common occurence of the
cross atop the monarch's crown, always popping outside the frame of the stamp design )






to be continued.......

(note : this is just the poster's opinion and preference,
others may have completely the contrary view, which is OK :)

A lot of work Rod! Goodonya!

A great reference source!

Thanks John.

Thankyou, Rod!
Don't sleep, just post

It appears Dulac was not invited to submit for the
next issue, the centenary of the UPU, and the designs
were quite a departure from the usual, excepting
P Metcalf's design, using the linked hands around the globe.

What was pertinent, was the rise of Mary Adshead as a designer,
and her 2s6d HMS Victory and the 5 shilling cliffs of Dover were
in short, spectacular, two of my favourite British stamps,
I am not wealthy enough to afford the higher values
so have not been able to appraise them.

Along came the Festival of Britain in 1951 and Dulac
makes a re-appearance with a lovely design, albeit
a little hackneyed and traditional, having the helmeted
Roman Brittania facing the King, over the Caduceus, and
the Horn of Plenty, signifying Commerce and Prosperity.

Dulac managed to get the colour scarlet this time,
always a crowd pleaser, which enhanced the issue.
For once the cross atop the Edwards crown failed to
rise above the perimeter.



The definitives of QE2 arrived 6th February 1952
and 5 designers were employed, Dulac was up against
4 others, including Mary Adshead, all using the Dorothy Wilding
cameo.
Here I think Dulac bombed out, maybe constrained by Postal
politics, I think the designs although instantly recognisable now
due to the vast volume we see, were all hackneyed.

The designer G Knipe's effort on the five pence shines through,
employing a large value font type, in the ovate belt or garter,
gave the opportunity to expose a large bust of the Wilding study,
yet with a light background, and delineated by the garter, the Queen stood out.
The rest, including Dulacs used a dark background, and all took
the stance of typical ho-hum definitives.
Dulac tried to compensate by giving nicely drawn Regional flowers,
The Rose, Thistle, clover and Daffodil, but that necessitated
a small bust cameo, and the effect was lost.

DESIGNS BY G KNIPE---MARY ADSHEAD--AND DULAC


Soon after, Dulac must have been invited to make submissions for
the Coronation issues, and here, my hero, belted the living daylights out of the opposition.
Dulac's design was brave, he had the fair new Queen, facing
her people, face on, radiant and young, with so much
responsibilty thrust on one so young.
Ermine robes, holding the orb and sceptre, with a hint of Tudor
overtones on the background quilting. Super stuff.



I think this is the last marriage of Great Britain postage stamps
and Dulac.
Apart from the following lovely Recess issues
by Waterlow and De La Rue of the Castles, I think British stamp design, went rapidly down hill, culminating in the ghastly (for me) Battle of Britain issues.

To be continued.................

I am also a fan of Edmund Dulac designs.
One of my favourites is the 1/3d value of the 1953 Coronation Set.



Dulac's design was chosen as one of 4 from a short-list of nine submitted. The Queen was known not too favour Dulac's design and openly stated to the GPO that she was "not over happy" with it.
I personally feel the full-face portrait and Coronation robes adds a great feel of the spectacular to the whole set.

Sadly, Edmund Dulac died on May 25th 1953 and never saw his stamp issued.

It was discussed that a £1 value might be included on one of the designs, but after the adverse reaction to earlier high values and possible bad press for the Post Office, it was decided against it.

Times have changed however as the Post Office rakes in the money [especially from us collectors]. They had no such opposition voices when they re-issued Dulac's design for the 2000 Stamp Show Souvenir sheet as a £1 value and again in the Coronation Prestige Book of 2003 !





Londonbus1

Sorry Rod, I was typing while you were posting. Do you want me to change my post ???

Hell, No Londonbus
Quite the contrary, I welcome it.
That's what a forum is all about,
exchange of ideas and appreciations.

I wasn't aware she disapproved of that design,
we shall excuse her, due to her youth

Thanks for the images of new One Pound issues

Of course, if you write a book about letters,
what are you going to have on the cover?

A Dulac design of course.......

Rod, I am getting more and more into the design/engraving topic. Can you recommend any books? I think I might be at the start of a very long road....

G'day Stampgal,
It will be a lonely but satisfying journey
there aint many sources out there, and you have to dig
the web to get info, and when it's said and done, it
will only be your personal appreciation.
I have not studied design, I just go with what I feel.

I welcome any other literature, but the william finlay
book is the only one I have (scan attached)
I get hold of these old tomes at "save the children fund"
book sales in Australia, books salvaged from donated
and deceased estates.

I lined up last evening for their latest sale at the university
of western Australia, I queued for 2 hours before I got in,
and it was worth it, I nabbed a Stanley Phillips stamp
collecting book from 1932
If you come across any design literature yourself,
give me a holler

In conclusion,
so how do we take Dulac in the overall scheme of things ?
We all are aware of the difficulty in designing in miniature.

Today, we are consumed by fancy, simple designs in
photolithography, take a snap, reduce, and bung it on stamp.

What we have lost is the human element in design, the slip
of the burin, the mistakes, the re entries, the plating,
all that made philately what it was /is.

The first stamp I saw of Dulac, that socked me on the nose
was the Dulac Marianne of France, what a beauty! it was France,
it was Bridgitte Bardot, it was instantly my favourite.
In colours of the rainbow, one could easliy be forgiven
for perhaps considering it may have been the inspiration for
Arnold Machin to begin his Machin series! Have a closer look.

Even deeper, was Dulac inspired in turn by the Penny Black?..
I think so, the DNA helix filagree certainly has the
penny black livery, no matter how remote.



The design of Dulac, in the Marianne, was taken from Lea,
the wife of Dulac's friend Emile Rixens, and used on the Banknotes
of the New french republic in 1945 and printed in London by
De La Rue as a partnership to improve British Franco relationships

The Marianne Dulac:


Sometimes, we have to go out on a limb with stamp design,
and I am always reminded of the bravery of the stance
of the Australian Postmaster in keeping the Kangaroo and map
issue under extreme and intense public pressure.
Without such personal confidence we may have had an English
Monarch on our first stamps of Australia.

So what would have Britain possibly gained by giving Dulac
a free reign? well have a look at these stunning Bromide Essays
of Dulacs rejected work! sure Hermes is a tad effeminate, and the King looks ghastly, with what looks like a toupee, but given
these few misgivings, where may have English postage stamps
have gone?
I reckon Britain missed out big time.
....and thanks Mr. Edmund Dulac.
The end.

Thanks again, Rod

I think the silver jubilee design is a stunner. It is classical style brought bang up to date for the '30s. I especially like the shading and the font. I think it is a lot more "of its time" than many designs, and was perhaps too modern for the establishment?

I DO like the the Free French Colonials, but I love little boats, so its no contest there.

I am reminded of the expression, good design is timeless.

Thanks for the book ref. I went on Amazon and have bought a couple of second hand stamp design books. They'll come next week, and I'll post when I've had a good look at them. Your one was on there too, but a little pricy for me at the moment, and a couple of others also out of my price-range. So.. there is stuff out there...

Thanks again for the thread, look forward to more.
In the absence of a chocolate-munching smiley -

Thankyou Stampgal,
hey! good luck with your new books when they arrive,
if you have a scanner, please pass on images of the covers,
I'd very much like to see them.

Yes I think 30's-50s Great Britain, was still a place of reserve,
the Dulac designs would have been way over the top,
although I left England in the late fifties, my impression was
that royalty really never caught up with change, until
having to deal with Diana, princess of Wales.