Stamp Art

Monday, September 7, 2015

Jean De Bast [1st Part (Belgium 1919/1940) ]

[Belgium] (b 1883/d 1975)

After a very complete artistic training (drawing, painting, engraving), he joined in 1907 the National Postage Stamps Printing-house in Mechelen. Going up step by step in the hierarchy, he finished there his career in 1945, as a senior foreman.In 1926, the Belgian sovereigns realized the artist’s value, following the issue of a stamp for the benefit of the fight against tuberculosis. In accordance with the wish of the King, a competition was organized between four Prix de Rome and De Bast, who was the winner. From that time on, the direction of the Postal Services stopped to appeal to foreign artists, and De Bast became its appointed engraver. While keeping his office at the Postage Stamps Printing-house, De Bast worked then as a free engraver, realizing works of very high quality. He put an end to his engraver’s career in 1967, at the age of 84. In 1964 and 1965, two of his stamps received a golden medal in Paris

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Biography
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Belgium 1919/1920 "King Albert I" (14,1) [Engr (Henri Cheffer)][Recess] Sc(124,...,137)

Belgium 1923/1931 "Railway Parcels" (34,2) [Typo] Sc(Q139,...,Q172)

Belgium 1926 "War Tuberculosis Fund" (5,2,2) [Typo (Malines) 5c...50c][Recess [Enschedé) >1F.50] Sc(B59,...,B63)

Belgium 1929/1930 "Parcel Post" (4,1) [Recess] Sc(Q176,...,Q179)

Belgium 1929 "Anti tuberculosis Fund" (6,6,6) [Recess] Sc(B93,...,B98) [ images credit of StampWorld ]

Belgium 1930 "Centenary of the Independence" (3,3,3) [Des (after paintings of Jeff Lempoels and Lievin De Winne)][Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(218,...,220)

Belgium 1930 "International Philatelic Exhibition, Antwerp" (1) [Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(221)

Belgium 1930 "Anti Tuberculosis Fund" (7,7,5) [Engr (Jean De Bast) > 25c][Recess >25c][Photo <= 25c] Sc(B101,...,B105) [ images credit of StampWorld ]

Belgium 1931/1932 "King Albert" (10,3,3) [Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess > 1F][Photo <=1F] Sc(227,...,236)

Belgium 1931 "Anti Tuberculosis Fund" (7,1) [Engr (Jean De Bast][Recess] Sc(B107,...,B113)

Belgium 1932 "Auguste Piccard's Balloon" (3,1) [Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(251,...,253)

Belgium 1935 "Brussels Philatelic Exhibition" (1) [Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(B169) [ images credit of StampWorld ]

Belgium 1935 "Railway Parcels / Belgian Railway Centenary" (24,2,2) [Engr (Jean De Bast)][Recess] Sc(Q184,...,Q207)

Belgium 1939 "Railway Parcels / International Railway congress, Brussels" (5,1) [Engr (G. Devreese)][Recess] Sc(Q211,...,Q215)

Andrew Hopewell Hepburn

[USA] (b 1880/d 1967)

Andrew Hepburn graduated from MIT in 1904. After serving as a draftsman for several years ,he opened his own office in 1910. In 1921, he joined with Thomas Mott Shaw in the firm of Shaw and Hepburn and about 1922, William Graves Perry had joined the firm, which became Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn. Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn were retained by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to oversee the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg (the work being led by William Graves Perry). Their work also included Wellesley High School, Buifinch Hall in Andover, the Jordan Marsh store in Boston, and St. Stephen’s Church in the South End. Andrew Hepburn was a designer for the Industrial Village at Bridgeport, Connecticut, consulting atchitect to the Subsistence Homelands Division of the US Department of Interior, and director of Small House Architects Associates of Boston. His drawing of the US Constitution was selected by the post office as the design of the 3-cent commemorative stamp issued in 1947.

Biography ("Back Bay Houses")

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Photo ("Designers of Beauty : Williamsburg's Architectural Restoration")

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Image "Log Lines (The USS Constitution Museum)"

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USA 1947 "150th Anniversary of the Launching of US Frigate 'Constitution' " (1) [Engr (M.D. Fenton)][Recess] Sc(951)

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Yannis Kefallinos

[Greece] (b 1894/d 1957)

Yannis Kefallinos received his primary education in Alexandria, and was sent by his family in 1912 to study engineering at Ghent in Belgium. Despite his abilities in mathematics, he decided to leave his studies in Ghent and went to Paris to study Art history and Painting in the School of Fine Arts . After WWI he returned to Paris to continue his Engraving studies and became known in France as Jean Kefalinos, after some well succeeded Book Illustrations..in 1930 Konstantinos Dimitriadis invited him to head the department of engraving at the Athens' School. (..) The art of engraving and its teaching, as well as the Art of illustrating books at the time were almost unknown in the country. (..) Yannis Kefallinos was a staunch pacifist , but after the beginning of the Greek-Italian war in 1940, he mobilized his "workshop" for the release of the students patriotic posters and propaganda content. These posters have received nation-wide fame, and contributed to the Greek victory, which was the first victory of the anti-fascist coalition . (..) In the postwar years Yannis Kefallinos openly in support of Cyprus for its independence from the British. In the period 1950 - 1954 he engaged in the project of stamps commissioned by the Hellenic Post.

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Biography and Photo

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Greece 1950 "75th Anniversary of UPU" (1) [Recess] Sc(524)

Greece 1951 "19 Centenary of St. Paul's Travels in Greece" (4,4,4) [Recess] Sc(535,...,538)

Greece 1951 "Marshall Plan" (6,6,6) [Recess] Sc(539,...,544) [ images credit of StampWorld ]

Greece 1953 "National Products" (7,7,6) [Recess] Sc(549,...,555) [ images credit of StampWorld ]

Greece 1954 "Ancient Art (1st Series)" (12,12,12) [Litho] Sc(556,...,567) [ some of these designs were used again in other future series] [ images credit of StampWorld ]