As philatelists, we love the artistry of our stamps. Belgium loved the artistry on it’s early issues enough to honor the engraver. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The-Philatelist.
This is the second time we have featured a stamp honoring the art of stamp engraving. See https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/03/paying-extra-to-celebrate-the-art-of-stamp-designing/. Both stamps were issued in relation to a stamp show. While Argentina shows off bold colors and a vigorous young but generic artist. Belgium takes a different tact. A simple grey stamp displaying Mr. De Bast as a seasoned professional. Visually I will go with the Argentina stamp but I rather like how each stamp displays something of each nation’s character.
The stamp today is issue A513, a 12 Franc stamp issued by the Kingdom of Belgium on April 22nd, 1985. It was a single stamp issue relating to a stamp show. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
Jean De Bast had a long fruitful career in the postal office from 1907 through his first engraving in 1921 through to his last one in 1967. By then he was in his eighties. He only worked on Belgian stamps also this includes stamps for airmail. the railroad, the revenue department and a single issue for the Belgian Congo. A gallery of Mr. De Bast work is here. https://web.archive.org/web/20131218082333/https://picasaweb.google.com/Dan.Voitu/JeanDeBastTimbres
The ruling family of Belgium had seen what a great job De Bast was doing depicting them on the stamp issues. By the mid twenties they had seen to it that the postal authority would no longer seek out foreign engravers. It was a time when the Royals were depicted in a deeply reverential fashion. De Bast style fit that well but would not work so well on a modern stamp offering, except perhaps for Vatican City. There were also a far greater number of long ago historical figures on Belgian stamps, and they benefited from Mr. De Bast’s treatment.
I find myself torn on the style of stamp on the De Bast issue of 1985. Since his last stamp 18 years before, the technology and color palate possible had widened greatly. It might have been interesting to use all the advancements in the fullest while still using the style of Mr. De Bast. That could have been great or just not have worked at all.
Well my drink is empty, so I will pour another to toast Mr. De Bast and all the other stamp engravers we don’t know. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.