René Cottet was born in Paris, France on 25 November 1902. From 1916 to 1920, Cottet studied at the Ecole Estienne,
where he was a pupil of the stamp engraver Antoine Dezarrois. In 1934 Cottet became a teacher himself. He taught some of the later
stamps engravers active in France. In the late 1950s he taught Yves Beaujard at
the Ecole Estienne. Much later, still at the Ecole Estienne, Claude Andreotto
was his pupil.
In 1937, René started engraving stamps, for the French
territories, followed in 1941 by his first French stamp.
During the war, Cottet contributed two engravings to the
annual souvenir sheets which were sold at the Paris stamp exhibitions, in aid
of various good causes. For the Paris 1942 sheet, with Parisian sights as its theme, Cottet engraved a label depicting a mosque, and for the Paris 1944 sheet the engraved a scene from the opera Faust, for the sheet in aid of France's musicians.
Another Parisian scene was engraved for the series of booklets called 'Ceux qui créent nos timbres', or 'Those who create our stamps'. For the fourth volume, issued in 1957, Cottet engraved a view of the Notre Dame.
Cottet preferred to engrave landscapes, portraits and animals.
René Cottet passed away in Rousset les Vignes, France, on 25 April
1992.
You will find René Cottet's database HERE.