Stamp Stories

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22317, 3 February 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

Stamp Stories

(By R. J. G. Collins)

At the beginning of last century when Jacob Perkins was making his discoveries that were to mean so much in the extension of intaglio printing, a further printing method was discovered. Aloys Senefelder, a German actor at Munich, found that a particular type of limestone, obtainable in that part of Germany. could be used for the reproduction of designs. The method of printing which he evolved was named lithography, from two Greek words meaning stone writing. In the early days of lithography, ink containing fat was used either in the drawing of a design direct on to the stone, or in making an original for transference to the stone. Water was then run over the surface and was absorbed by all portions of the stone, free from the drawing. While in the wet state, if a roller covered with a fatty ink were run over the surface, the ink became attached to the drawn portion of the stone and was repelled from the wet parts. If a sheet of paper were then placed on the stone and pressed down, the inked design became printed on the pacer. Lithography differs from both the line-engraving and the typographical processes in that there are neither sunken nor raised portions. The large blocks of limestone were rather cumbersome and a modern improvement has been the use of zinc plates. These have the rdded advantage that they may be treated so that a design may be photographically reproduced upon them.

la advertising la»el printed in 1306 in five colours by lithography by the Christchurch Press Co. Among New Zealand stamps, lithography has not been widely used. In 1925 printed copies of the N.Z. and Star device, which generally forms the watermark in our issues, were made on the paper by lithography. Then in the present pictorial issue, the first supplies of the 9d value with the curious Maori design were printed in London by this process. -» modern method of printing which is being used in New Zealand for the present supplies of the 9d stamp, is known as the offset process. In this method the printJnte. is not made direct from the plate. Instead of the paper being pressed unon the inked plate, the rubber roller takes up the Impression and transfers it to the paper. «« advantage ©JE this method is

PART lII—STAMP PRINTING Lithography and Embossing

that it is quick and as the wearing ol the plate is reduced to a minimum, it has longer life. While dealing with offset printing I might mention that instances have occurred of stamps showing the design in reverse on the back. This variety mav be due to the omission of a sheet of absorbent paper between freshly printed sheets, but it may also be caused by a fault in the feeding of the machine, in which case the roller takes up the impression from the inked plate and in the next sheet of paper to be run through, not only is there the correct normal impression on the front from the plate, but the ink on the roller also prints a reversed impression on the back. These varieties should not be confused with the rare items described in philatelic books as "printed on both sides.” In these instances the impression on the back is not in reverse.

An embossed stamp The last of the methods that have been used for the production of New Zealand stamps is known as embossing, and instances of this method are found among the stamped envelopes procurable at the post offices. In embossing, It is necessary to have two dies, one having the design in recess and the other in relief. Ink is applied only to the recess die and the paper is squeezed between the two dies, with the result Hi at the relief die forces part of the paper up from the surface, thus giving a cameo effect. Though photogravure has not yet been used for any New Zealand stamps, it is a modern method that has become widely used in stamp production: very beautiful examples of photogravure work are to be found among the modern issues of some of the European countries. In this method, the reproduction of the design upon the plate is done photographically but the plates themselves are of the intaglio type. A distinguishing characteristic of stamps printed by this method is that when viewed through a magnifying glass, the design is seen to be broken into a series of dots and curls in much the same way as are the half-tone blocks used for newspaper illustrations. Ranz ties Vaches Ranz dcs Vaches (pronounced Rauntz day Vache) is a Swiss herdsman’s melody played on the alpenhorn, ps S call tch SOWS*