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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

on December 25, 2018

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Thanks to Ed Wolk for this festive collage!

Ed Wolk

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The Two Masters

I have felt for some time, in fact ever since the Czech Republic abandoned the idea of high quality engraved stamps, that my interest in stamp engravings and engravers has sort of run its course. The vast majority of new issues may have some hand-engraving at the core, but the actual stamps are really just computer generated, and only by collecting die proofs can one still hold a piece of craftmanship in one's hands. So I've decided to call it a day and end this blog on this special day. And it is a special day, because today we celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of that great master Czeslaw Slania. So what better way to see this adventure off than with a stamp honouring a Master Engraver, engraved by that other Master Engraver, Martin Mörck! I want to thank you all for the many years you've spent with me, all your kind comments, and the joy we all felt while walking together through this world of art. Take care Adrian

Pierre Gandon: An artist outwith fashion (part 1)

The phone rang just as his statuette of the Virgin Lady took a direct hit from a German bullet. It was the head of the French Post. “Quick, Pierre, General de Gaulle is coming to Paris tomorrow morning and he needs to choose the new French definitive design. There are four of you in the frame: Cheffer, Mazelin, Piel and you. Better get a design ready. Make haste, make haste!” And so, in August 1944, while French and German soldiers were fighting all around him, Pierre Gandon sat down in his ravaged studio at Place de Furstenberg in Paris, and worked all night on his Marianne. He modelled her after his wife Jacqueline. This stamp, once chosen by De Gaulle, would revive his career as a stamp engraver. And his career badly needed reinvigorating, because Gandon had been blacklisted for three months, for having engraved the French Tricolour Legion stamps back in 1942, and one of a number of non-postal labels associated with this issue. Those issues had become a symbol for the hated Vichy re...

DATABASE: Martin Mörck

STAMPS 1977 Sweden, Definitive Sweden, Public transport 1978 Sweden, Definitive Sweden, Europa Sweden, Northern arrow Sweden, Christmas 1979 Sweden, Bandy Sweden, Year of the child Sweden, Sundsvall strike Sweden, Costumes and jewellery 1981 Sweden, Norse mythology Sweden, Year of disabled persons Sweden, Sailing boats Sweden, Guest of reality Sweden, Business mail 1982 Sweden, Museum of cultural history Sweden, Buoyage system Sweden, Nobel prize winners 1983 Sweden, Postal co-operation Sweden, Europa Sweden, Hjalmar Bergman Sweden, Return of Riksdag Sweden, Nobel prize winners 1984 Sweden, Mountain world Sweden, Fredrika Bremer association Sweden, Viking satellite Sweden, Nobel prize winners 1985 Sweden, Touring club Sweden, Trade signs Sweden, Board games Sweden, Birth centenaries Sweden, Nobel prize winners 1986 Sweden, Water birds Sweden, Peace year Sweden, Nobel prize winners 1987 Aland Islands, 1m bridge definitive Icel...

DATABASE: Czeslaw Slania

STAMPS 1951 Poland, Paris commune Poland, Mining Poland, People's republic 1952 Poland, General Swierczewski Poland, Air Poland, Nikolai Gogol Poland, Proletariat party Poland, Avicenna Poland, Victor Hugo Poland, Sienkiewicz Poland, Car workers fund 1953 Poland, Renaissance 1954 Poland, Air Poland, Second republic Poland, Return of Pomerania Poland, Kosciuszko's insurrection Poland, Protected animals 1955 Poland, Chopin piano competition Poland, Warsaw monuments 1956 Poland, Warsaw monuments Poland, Olympics 1960 Sweden, Anders Zorn Sweden, Refugee year Sweden, Shooting organisation Sweden, Fröding Sweden, Europa Sweden, Branting 1961 Sweden, Definitives Sweden, Alströmer Sweden, Library regulation 1962 Denmark, Dansk Fredning (two issues) Denmark, Under-developed countries Denmark, Selandia Denmark, Value on 1k20, 1k25 and 1k50 Small Arms definitive (2) Sweden, Local mail delivery service Sweden, Monuments 1963 ...

BIOGRAPHY: Czeslaw Slania

“Engraving is a matter of light and shadows” If there is one name synonymous with the art of stamp engraving, it must be that of Czeslaw Slania (1921-2005). During his career, spanning over fifty years, his more than 1,000 engraved stamps have attracted at least as many superlatives. Born near Katowice, Poland, on 22 October 1921, it was clear from an early age that Slania had a special talent for drawing and apparently he was fond of miniatures. Although it has to be said that he had some trouble finding a proper outlet for it. Slania started out young by selling his drawings to fellow pupils at school so they could get good marks. He later got found out for having perfectly forged the headmaster’s signature. As early as then, it was generally thought Slania would become an important artist. But that was not before he could once again execute his forging techniques, in the Second World War, by copying identity cards and other documents for the Polish underground forces. After ...

BIOGRAPHY: Martin Mörck

Martin Mörck (born 1955) was raised in a family of artists and from a young age was emerged in the world of artists such as Dürer. Moreover, Martin’s father was a graphic artist and a stamp collector and as such the first to plant the seeds of love of both graphic art and philately in his son. It clearly worked for Mörck sees stamps as unique pieces of art, appreciating the artistic value of each and every one. What he loves about his work as an engraver is that ideas in your head end up on paper via your hands. He has a reputation as being insatiable and regularly spends a minimum of 60 hours a week on his engravings. Mörck was never officially trained to become an engraver. He got his first engraving tools when he was 15, and soon got the hang of it, but felt he needed a bit more guidance. So, at 16, he went to a general art course which opened up the possibility of becoming the apprentice of an engraver, which happened to be the stamp engraver Arne Wallhorn . This led to Mörc...

BIOGRAPHY: Karl Bickel

Karl Bickel was born on 13 February 1886, in Zürich-Hirslanden, Switzerland. He lost his father when he was only four and was then raised mainly by his mother, even though she did remarry after a while. Karl enjoyed a free upbringing and spent his time dreaming of various careers, ranging from entering a monastery to something to do with machines, and everything in between. It was quite a coincidence that he entered the lithography business. After having applied for various apprenticeships in 1900, Paul Bleuler’s well-known graphic art company was the first to react, offering him a position to learn the art of lithography. Karl Bickel stayed for four years during which time he occupied himself mainly with designing and drawing picture postcards. After his apprenticeship, Bickel was employed by the graphic art company Hüttner where he soon made it to technical head. Again, Bickel created picture postcards, but also fashion and other catalogues. ...

BIOGRAPHY: Ferdinand Schirnbock

Ferdinand Schirnböck is synonymous with the engraved stamps of Austria. In an era dominated by letterpress printing, he visualised the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in intaglio, and went on to produce many of the early issues of its successor republic. But Schirnböck’s output encompassed 14 other countries too, and indeed his career started on the other side of the world. Born in Hollabrunn, north of Vienna, on 27 August 1859, Schirnböck trained at the Vienna Academy’s school for engravers, after having been a couple of years at the Vienna Professional School, where F. Laufberger was his teacher. When he graduated at the age of 27, his first full-time job took him all the way to Argentina, where he joined the South American Bank Note Company in Buenos Aires. In his five years there, from 1887-92, he engraved most of the stamps issued by Argentina, notably an array of definitives portraying historic figures. Schirnböck started by engraving all values of ...

BIOGRAPHY: Georges Bétemps

Georges Bétemps was born in Paris, France on 19 February 1921. He was a student at the Ecole Estienne, the Parisian School of Arts where so many famous French stamp engravers got their diploma. He also studied at the School of Arts in Bordeaux. In 1941, Bétemps interrupted his studies to become part of the French Resistance. Georges Bétemps started engraving stamps in 1946. His first issue were a number of values of a new definitive set issued in Cameroun. He engraved the ‘Native Head’ design of the 15f, 20f and 25f values, all from 1946, and the ‘Aeroplane, African and mask’ design which was used for the top value, issued in 1947. Georges Bétemps’ first French stamp did not appear until 1961. That year, he engraved the 45c+10c value from the Red Cross Fund issue, portraying the caricaturist Honoré Daumier. Though not contributing to it every year, Bétemps' stamps for the annual Tourism series show how he was adept at engraving land and townscapes. From his f...

BIOGRAPHY: John Carmichael

There is some confusion over various biographical details concerning John Carmichael. Some say he was born in 1811, others, like Karen Eaton in an authoritative article in the November 2015 issue of Australiana, come up with a specific date: 27 December 1803. Being deaf and dumb, he went to the Edinburgh Deaf and Dumb Institution where he became known for his storytelling in sign language. His drawing talent was also obvious from an early age. Thanks to the encouragement from the institute, Carmichael became an apprenctive of the Edinburgh engraver John Horsburgh. In 1825, Carmichael emigrated on his own to Sydney, Australia, acquiring fame for being the first signing deaf immigrant to arrive in that country. Through advertisements placed in local papers, Carmichael soon found plenty of employ, engraving maps and prints. In 1829, a book was published, ‘Select views of Sydney’, which featured his own artwork. In 1838, another book appeared, this time by James Maclehose,...

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