Engravers of Postage Stamps and Bank Notes Deserved Recognition

by Gene Hessler

PHILATELI-GRAPHICS QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE

GRAPHICS PHILATELY ASSOCIATION ISSN 9739-6198 Volume 28, Number 4 ● Whole Number 113 ● October 2006 Affiliate 133 Study Unit

With the exception of the Czech Republic, Slo-vakia, and on occasion Sweden, we seldom see engraved postage stamps today. Most consumers and some collectors are satisfied with images printed in vivid if not gaudy colors, all by the least expensive method of surface printing. Soft im-ages created by hand, the lines of which are raised and may be felt have all but disappeared from postage stamps. Before someone corrects my “vivid if not gaudy colors” statement, I ad-mit that some recent engraved postage stamps from the Slovak Republic border on being a little over the top in the use of color. Neverthe-less, I’ll compromise if the images are en-graved. Bank notes (paper money), for security pur-poses, continue to be engraved. Computer programs, however, are replacing the artists who spent eight to ten years as an apprentice before they engraved a portrait that was placed on a piece of paper money. While gathering biographies for The Interna-tional Engraver’s Line, I discovered that some engravers had been dismissed from their posi-tions even though they were two decades away from retirement. Their specialized artistry was no longer needed. Some were given a choice: learn a computer program or retire. One en-graver told me that, due to his age and tenure with the company, he could have remained if he would learn the company’s computer pro-gram. He didn’t think that was the appropri-ate way to end his career; he retired.

The art of intaglio engraving can be traced to the 15th cen-tury with Albrecht Dürer, Lu-cas van Leyden, and Marcan-tonio Raimondi as the best practitioners. This art form developed into the best method to make security in-struments, including paper money and postage stamps, difficult to counterfeit. Some engravers, who were consid-ered paragons, included Charles Burt (1823-1892), G.F.C. Smillie (1854-1924), Robert Savage (1868-1943), and Charles Brooks (1905-1993) in the United States; in

England, J.A.C. Harrison (1872-1955); from Austria, Ferdinand Schirnböck (1859-1930); and from Japan, Sukeichi Ōyama (1858-1922). It was the portrait engravers who preceded these artists and those who followed who cut lines of varying lengths and depths into soft steel plates that were hardened by immersion. Then, under tons of pressure, a soft steel roll was moved back and forth to pick up the in-cised lines. This process, called siderography, created a roll with raised images. Once the roll was hardened it could be used to make multi-ple plates that were precisely the same. More recently photoengraving of engraved copper plates has been used to save time and money. From these plates, plastic molds are made that are nickel plated. After going from basso to alto to basso, final plates are joined together to make one large plate, which is chrome plated Today the trend is toward engraving by com-puter graphics. “A scanned image is created by placing a bitmap of the subject on the screen and then working it over by laying down stra-

Dürer on Germany, Sc2377

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tegic lines following the surface. These lines are placed where ever there is a change of plane or direction. The computer then fills the spaces in between these lines with the operator’s choice of division and texture. All of this is editable, and the thickness of the line is changed simply by ‘stroking’ the line with the mouse. High-tech printers make automatic adjustments when necessary; thus fewer press operators are required, and time and costs are saved.”1 With the exception of postage stamps from some European countries that print the names on the stamp, there is no indication of who designed or engraved a particular postage stamp. The paper money of Hungary and some for Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, and the early French colonies bear the names of

designer and engraver. The name in tiny letters most often on the left is that of the designer; the name most often on the right identifies the engraver. After the name of the latter you will see “sc” (sculpt) meaning he or she engraved it. Not-withstanding, these names are most often ignored and when some-thing is written about a particular stamp it is the designer who is ac-knowledged, seldom, if ever the en-graver. But now that engraved postage stamps are seldom pro-duced, there is no engraver to ac-knowledge unless reference is made to older engraved stamps. British engraver Joseph Lawrence Keen (1919-2004) told me that he remembered being recognized in

print only once. After he engraved the UNESCO 3- and 8-cent stamps, Scott A18, a UN repre-sentative asked the British firm of Thomas De La Rue, the printer, to identify the designer and engraver. Without the expertise of the engraver a post-age stamp design that is intended to be en-graved is a picture. To transform a sketch, drawing or painting into a postage stamp or bank note engraving requires talent that only members of a small, specialized fraternity pos-sess. In addition to engraving a small image for a postage stamp or bank note, everything is done in reverse. Prior to the invention of the camera, newspa-per and magazine illustrations were done by engravers of wood or copper plates. That tech-nique and style, however, is totally different

Between 1963 and 1985, the Greenland Postal Administra-tion Authorities commissioned Czeslaw Slania to engrave 43

postage stamps. Queen Margarete II appears on a set issued between 1973 and 1979 (Sc 86-97). The engraving for this set shown here clearly demonstrates the “sophisticated

lines, crosshatching and dots within the crossed lines” employed by a master engraver to create an image.

Greenland Sc91

PHILATELI-GRAPHICS Vol. 28, No. 4 (October 2006) Page 43

from what is required for postage stamps and paper money. In illustrative engraving, one doesn’t see the variety of sophisticated lines, crosshatching and dots within the crossed lines. At a social gathering an art dealer showed me a large engraving approximately 2½ x 2½ feet of a Rembrandt painting. My eyes imme-diately went to the bottom border to see who engraved it. It was a marvelous engraving, but the art dealer saw it only as a Rem-brandt. My view is that once an engraver ap-plies his or her artistry, the piece of art be-came more than a Rembrandt painting. Dif-ferent colors, shadows, skin tones and other facial features, especially the eyes, are trans-formed into lines and dots, and yet the en-graver remains true to the original. Based on the size of the engraving I saw, it took the en-graver much longer to engrave the Rem-brandt painting that it did for the artist to paint it. Czechoslovakia not only issues engraved postage stamps periodically, this country is-sued postage stamps to honor these engrav-ers and some are illustrated here. A few other countries have honored their engravers on postage stamps; here, however, I will recog-nize only Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Re-public. The name of the engraver of each stamp is in the stamp border. The biogra-phies are condensed from those in The Inter-national Engraver’s Line (2005): Eduard Karel (1861-1950), Sc2391. Karel attended the Goldsmith School in Prague, later named the High School of Applied Arts. In 1881, he began metal engraving studies

with Prof. Unger and wood engraving with Prof. Hecht at the High School of Applied Arts in Vienna. In 1899, Karel returned to Czecho-slovakia. Karl Friedrich Seizinger (1889-1978), Sc 2492. Seizinger was born in Germany and died in the Netherlands. After his apprenticeship as an engraver, he worked at the Cartographic Institute in Berlin. After World War I Seisinger engraved in Finland and then Czechoslovakia. From 1924-1929 he studied with Max Svabin-sky at the Academy of Graphic Arts in Prague. Seizinger fled Czechoslovakia to avoid the ap-proaching Germans during World War II and moved to Yugoslavia, where he engraved post-age stamps. He moved to Croatia and unti-mately to the Netherlands where he engraved postage stamps and bank notes for Joh. En-schede and Sons.

Bohumil Heinz (1894-1940), Sc2541. Heinz studied drawing under J. Benda, V.H. Brun-ner, J. Schusser, A. Jakesch, and F. Kysela in Prague. He engraved postage stamps for Czechoslovakia, Great Britain and her colo-nies, Greece, and Sweden and bank notes for 16 countries.

Karel on Czechoslovakia Sc2391

Seizinger on Czechoslovakia Sc2492

Heinz on Czechoslovakia Sc2541

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Jaroslav Goldschmeid (1890-1977), Sc2442. His postage stamp engraving was probably limited to Czechoslovakia.

Bohdan Roule (1921-1960), Sc2591. Roule studied under F. Tichy and K. Vodak and en-graved 54 postage stamps for Czechoslova-kia.

Jindra Schmidt (1897-1984), Sc 2876. Schmidt worked with K. Kabelka at one of the last woodcutting workshops in Prague. From 1914 to 1917 he attended the High School of Applied Art in Prague where he studied under Prof. Hofbauer. Schmidt is one of the most prolific engravers of Czech post-age stamps. He also engraved stamps for Bulgaria, Ethiopia, and Iraq. I was fortunate to have had indirect con-tact with Jindra Schmidt a few years before he died. I am delighted to have some of his work that bears his signature, including a self portrait with a personalized dedication.

(at right). Bedrich Housa (b. 1926) engraved the stamp portraits of Bohumil Heinz, J. Goldschmeid, and Jindra Schmidt. Housa studied at the Graphic Art Academy with Prof. V. Silovsky and worked at the Czech Graphic Un-ion with Jaroslav Goldschmeid. Ladislav Jirka (1914-1986) engraved the stamp portrait of E. Karel and B. Roule. Jirka engraved plates for maps during his military service that began in 1936. In addition to post-age stamps and bank notes for Czechoslovakia, Mr. Jirka engraved bank notes for Cuba. Milos Ondracek (b. 1936) engraved the stamp portrait of Jindra Schmidt. Following studies at a technical school in Turnov, Jirka studied pri-vately with Professors Pipal and Emler. Mr. Ondracek has engraved both postage stamps and bank notes.

Endnote

1. Gene Hessler, The International Engraver’s Line

(Port Clinton, OH: BNR Press, 2005), page 5.

Goldschmeid on Czechoslovakia Sc2442

Roule on Czechoslovakia Sc2591

Schmidt on Czechoslovakia Sc2876