Stamp Stories

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22305, 20 January 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

Stamp Stories

The Line-Engraved Process

(By R. J. G. Collins)

Though it has been emphasised more than once in these columns that the young collector should neglect consideration of minor details.

it is nevertheless important that the well-equipped collector should know something of stamp production. Not only is this a very interesting subject, but a proper appreciation, of the beauties of some designs and the ability to keep a sense of proportion, come from a knowledge of the various processes used.

The most important method used for printing stamps, is known as the “line-engraved” or “intaglio” process. This was the original method used, and it is still , the one which gives the finest result. When the New Zealand pictorials were being discussed by the authorities, it was thought that a modern printing process. which will be discussed later, might be employed, but after experiments had been made it was found necessary to revert to the older method. The discovery of intaglio printing is attributed to a goldsmith of Florence, who. in the fifteenth century found that by rubbing a mixture of charcoal and oil into lines which he cut on a silver plate, he could transfer the design on to dampened paper. From this beginning Italian artists evolved the use of copper plates. Early in the nineteenth century, Jacob Perkins, an American, who later founded a celebrated British printing business, discovered a method of treating steel and it was this discovery that made possible the wide-spread use of line-engrav-ing for stamp production. The first step in the production of any stamp is the provision of a design. For many years this was entrusted to artists and draughtsmen, but latterly the photographer has also done his part. In line-engraving, the original design is handed over to a very skilled artist known as an engraver. He takes a small highly polished block of soft cteel. The tool which he uses is known aa a burin or graver, and it consists of a bar of hard steel with a sharp .point .and thus resembles a small chisel The graver’s point' is guided by the thumb and forefinger, while its wooden handle is pressed against the palm of the hand. The en-

STAMP PRODUCTION-PART I

graver proceeds to cut into the surface of the steel plate a series of lines and dots so as to reproduce the design.

When the original engraving on the Steel block is finished, we have what is called in philately “the original or mother die” and it is important

to note that the impression on such a die is the reverse of the original design; that is to say, the design on the die appears exactly as though the original drawing had been held before a mirror. The engraver must have unusual ability to work in reverse. When the die is considered satisfactory, it is then subjected to the Perkins process in which it is heated in a special furnace with charcoal and is thus annealed or hardened. The die is then placed in a machine by which great pressure can be exerted and in this machine the impression is transferred to the rim of a small soft steel wheel which is known as the transfer-roll. After the transfer-roll has in its turn been hardened, it is placed back into the transferpress and as many copies as may be required of the impression are then transferred to a large metal plate to produce the actual printing plate. Until recent times, stamp printing plates were flat and were made of copper, copper with nickel surface or of steel. In modern printing establishments, it is usual now to have plates curved so that they can fit on to a cylinder in the machine, in much the same way as the stereos that are used in the printing of “The Press Junior.” As the design of the original die is in reverse, it becomes in relief on the transfer-roller and is again in reverse on the printing plate. Ink is forced into the sunken dots and lines of the plate and all colour must be wiped from the surface. With the old, flat plates, after the ink had been forced into the cuts,

the printer used to dip his hands into chalk and then rub the surface of the plate clean. With the

Proof from the original die, with the value label blank. As the three stamps in the set differed only in value, secondary dies were laid down from the transfer-roll, and it was upon these that the value inscriptions were engraved

curved plates, the surface is wiped mechanically. (to be continued)

Ibn Batuta

Ibn Batuta set out from Tangier In 1324, on a pilgrimage to Mecca, making his way across North Africa. From Mecca he travelled down the Red Sea to Aden, and afterwards crossed Arabia and Persia, making his way over the Hindu Koosh and across the Indus to Delhi, Here he was received with honour by the Emperor, who sent Ibn on an embassy to China, where he saw “cooks as big as ostriches." He was greatly impressed by the beautiful Chinese paintings. Finding China the pleasantest place on earth, he returned to Tangier after 30 years of travel.