Stamp engraving of Czeslaw Slania

[Marrinan]

Okay, Here is the deal svenska konungars beromliga bedrifter is a Swedish Poem- the translator laughed at me it would not translate. Can any of our Scandinavian speaking members lend a hand. I really want to know what this is a picture of-Fred

 

[John B.]

Fred M,
In order to not detract from the almost unbelievable skill of some of the banknote engravers and have some people think there is an easy way in lieu of skill I offer the following for consideration.
Two of the most talented contemporary burin banknote engraver that I have had the privilege of studying under and/or watch working, our own Robert Swatley and Belgium’s Alain Lovenberg use nothing but a burin graver to produce the dots, interrupted lines.
That is not to say that that some engravers did not use the tool you mention on some production work and I have a couple of them somewhere hiding from me.
They are just small wheels with spaced teeth and mounted on an axle.
They come in different sizes as you know. But they tend to make regularly spaced and equal size dots.
Looking at hand cut work you can see that the artist varied the depth, spacing and the length of the dots, actually interrupted lines to suit the degree of shading and contour required.
Best regards.

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

I suppose this is done without microscope use and none of us can do it that way.
Okay, and if none of us know how this is done, we all are equal again, no Masters and novice, we all are just amateurs again. :big grin:

thanks for showing this out of space engraving Sam.

arnaud

 

[John B.]

In Sam's second picture, an enlargement it is easy to see that the "dots" are individually cut to both shade and contour the face. See where the arrow is pointing.
In that part and it shows that the cuts vary in depth and length to follow a contour. And just as importantly they are placed so that the negative space between them forms a secondary contour in another direction giving additional modeling to the face.
Really worth study, as they say, the devil is in the details.
NOTE> This is easier to see in Sam's original enlargement post than in my little attachment.

 

[Marrinan]

John and other readers, I was in no way distracting from the incredible skill in hand engraving carried out by this or any other engravers of bank note engraving. In discussing this type of engraving with the late Terry Wallace he told of the tool and its use on the contour lines. He described in detail how the tool was used to establish spacing (came in various dot dash patterns and numbers of rows. Told me that in the development of these plates they, the engravers, used not only the wheel tool but acid, bruins, stamping and anything else to render the the picture as fast as possible. These type engravings were used in the print industry and had to be ready to use within hours sometimes (newspapers). He explained that any tool they could come up with to speed process was used. Sorry for the slandering of any artist. I engraved Washington portrait from the Tom White transfer sample. Even with all the lines on there it was very difficult to cut them as perfect as on the bill itself. My hat is off to those ladies and gentlemen who produced these now works of art then just printing plates. Fred

 

[John B.]

Hi Fred,
No problem, I was just pointing out that art quality banknote engraving is a highly skilled artform that is almost always individually cut single lines cut with a burin.
A few modern engravers do employ air assisted handpieces to create parts of their great work. See Phil Coggan's statement in the Lindsay advertisement in issue 86 of the Engraver. I also know other engravers that use various other air assisted tools for some parts of their banknote or bulino work.
What you say is true when it came to commercial banknote style engraving, especially done for magazine, newspaper and advertising printing. They used what they could to get the job done.
Roller tools and etching in combination with some hand cut lines were often employed.

The late Terry Wallace was also a friend of mine. He received most of his early instruction from Robert "Bob" Swartley while he was still working as a warehouse manager for Sears and Roebuck.

I did not think it was your intention to belittle or slander the banknote artist’s skill.
I just wanted to make clear to some newer engravers those two different products.
Just as the liner is considered a production tool in some types of engraving it is considered and is a major artistic part of design as used by the great bright cut engravers. Again, two different things.
Best.