Postage Engraving

[kevinalta]

To all
I’m looking to identify this piece. I believe it’s an early step of engraving process to create transfer dies for postage stamps. If Im incorrect, what else may it be? If it is what I believe, any clue as to who the engraver was and the year time frame?

 

[BCan]

Hello friend,

I may be incorrect, (I often am), however the images you’ve shown may be wood-backed zinc and copper printing plates.

Back in the early 1970’s, I worked at Brown Engraving in Nashville, Tennessee. During that time, there was still a modest demand for copper plate printing of so-called ‘hand engraved’ wedding announcements and invitations.

During my apprenticeship, Mr. Brown had us etching zinc and copper plates with Aqua regia, or sometimes Nitric acid. It was tedious, and for a novice, a process of trial and error.

The metal plate was covered with a substance called ‘the ground.’ a black colored wax-like substance which protected the plate from the action of the acid. Through this ‘ground,’ lines were drawn with a scribe or pantograph, laying bare the metal. Acid was then applied to eat, or ‘bite,’ into the metal. At a certain point, (the trial-and-error part), the action of the acid was stopped. After that, the apprentices would ‘clean up’ the plates with gravers.

When Mr. Brown passed, tons of copper and zinc plates were sold to Steiner-Liff Scrap Metals, along with several fantastic intaglio and other flat-plate presses. Remnants from a bygone era. More information than you’d care to know however, a great flashback for me. Thanks.

 

[kevinalta]

Thank you very much. Is it possible that these engravings were also made for philately ? Reason I ask, these silhouettes are found on two specific stamps.
I could be wrong, my thought was that it was early engravings, incomplete. Let me know, thank you so much

 

[kevinalta]

https://www.upss.org/assets/images/pdf/star%20die%20exhibit.pdf

 

[kevinalta]

Let me know what you think of this. I’m just curious if the engraver had inherited an older engravers collection, and there were some newer ones involved with it as well.

 

[BCan]

Hello again,

Based on the resolution of the photos you've supplied; it does appear that the silhouette cuttings are intaglio style. Also, the wooden backing on at least two of those items seems to be a ply of some kind. The other three have what appear to be solid wood grain, and one looks like mahogany.

With that said, most of the early Franklin stamps were 3/4 profile and contained more detail. This is often true of other early stramps such as ones portraying George Washington. In both cases, Franklin and Washington had, (as Jimmy Durante might say), a big Schnozzola. The images in your photos seem to portray a person with a more delicate nose.

Here are links to sites which may help you in your quest to determine the origin of your find.
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibit...t-creating-america’s-stamps/classic-engraving
https://stamps.org/news/c/collectin...c-printing-methods-and-how-to-tell-them-apart

Good luck and thank you for the opportunity to harken back to my early days of intaglio work.