philb

02 Oct 2016
09:18:41am

Although i have 70 some classic Dutch Indies covers and postcards,,,i realized i did not have any of the Scott C-6 /C10 woodcut engraved designs on cover ! I had to remedy this,and found two in my price range. The first was from an ebay seller in the U.S.

 
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re: This weeks philatelic arrivalsj

Interesting I understand the engraving process but were the wooden carved stamp of the Netherlands unique?

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philb

02 Oct 2016
11:30:02am

re: This weeks philatelic arrivalsj

Heres what i have on the wood carvings...The five new stamps share the same design,by the artist ,illustrator ,woodcut carver and engraver Fokko Alting Mees (1887-1968) Mees was born in Batavia but studied and worked in Amsterdam,The Hague and various places in France and Italy. The Scott Classic Specialized catalog 1840-1940 describes the stamps as "Planes over Temples", but the other catalogs call it the "native motif issue" or an "allegorical image".The British weekly magazine Stamp Collecting Dec 15, 1928 mockingly called the vignette a "crude design(the work of Fokko Mees) in the center a Minangkabau house flanked by a Bali temple door,with what is meant to be a volcanic mountain in the background,and on the right a Javanese tower. Three monoplanes in flight above and the beholder in fright no doubt! The design is not "crude" to the eye of anyone familiar with woodcuts (a specialty of Mees) and Indonesian motifs (such as batik patterns) Mees or any other artist faced a stamp design challenge in trying to depict multiple elements of the various indigenous peoples of the Netherlands Indies, these include but are not limited to ,Balinese,Javanese and Malay .

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