Readers' responses

It's always exciting to hear from you, my faithful readers, whether it's to hear what you think of the site or (even better!) with answers to the many questions I pose here. And it's so easy. You can either post a comment through the Comments section below each and every post, or you can just send me an email (rerrick at btopenworld dot com).

And so it's about time I gather some of your responses together here to update you all on recent discoveries, comments and what have you. So here goes.

KENNEDY

In my post on Georg Wimmer's composers (see here), I wrote about Wimmer having done a number of 'stamp essays' portraying Kennedy. Glenn from the UK has been in touch to say that these Kennedy items are not recess-printed! As this site (and my collecting interests) is based on hand-engraved, recess-printed items only, this means I can happily forget about the Kennedy items. Which is great because there's plenty to collect when it comes to Wimmer's composer essays which are all recess-printed.


Nevertheless I will show you some of the Kennedy items, again thanks to Glenn for sending me the image, if only because the photograph below them is of Wimmer working on his Beethoven engraving. Wie schön ist das Leben!


Remains to find out whether his scouting essays are recess-printed. Does anyone know?

MARIANNE DE DULAC

It's about time the ongoing saga of the Marianne de Dulac stamp was put to rest. Remember the situation? According to the one and only site which gave any information regarding the engraving of this stamp, all values were engraved by Leonard Vincent Phillips and Edmund Dulac, except the 1f50 value which was engraved by Phillips only. You can read the complete story here. John from Australia even produced a great GIF for the site, making it easier to compare the engravings, which you'll find here.


Peter from Australia has been in touch. He told me that in the De La Rue archives, Dulac is only mentioned as the designer and Phillips as the only engraver. Furthermore, an article in the France and Colonies Journal also confirms that Phillips was the only engraver. Although it actually stated that Phillips only engraved the portrait with the frame probably done by an in-house engraver.

I think we may conclude that Dulac never engraved this stamp. He is not known as an engraver anyway, and if he had engraved parts of this stamp, it would surely have been noted in the De La Rue archives, being such a prominent figure.


So I'm very much leaning towards dismissing the info from the French site (I did contact them as well, but they've not come back to me) and will hereby conclude that the stamp can be attributed to Mr Phillips, with the added note that he engraved the portrait only. Dulac's entry on this site will therefore be deleted.

NEW SITE

Aforementioned John from Australia has just started a new database site on engraved stamps. Although still a work in progress (I know the feeling!), it's very much worth a look and will be a great database, lavishly illustrated and with loads of information. You'll find his site here.

Right, that's all for me this week. Next week we'll have more responses so make sure you come back!

:-)
Adrian