During this time period, around 30 billion Australian stamps were printed by intaglio. While Slania hailed from Poland, Australia also produced several highly skilled stamp engravers of its own, who for years (specifically, from the 1930s to the 1970s) engraved the original steel dies used to print stamps via the traditional intaglio method, although sometimes part of the design was engraved using machinery. Slania also engraved four Australian stamps in 1994 Aviation Feats, which depicted the achievements of early Australian aviators. The stamp theme honours the 18th-century Swedish botanist, Daniel Solander, who accompanied Captain Cook on the Endeavour (1768–71). The issue, a joint issue between Australia and Sweden, was engraved by legendary stamp engraver Czeslaw Slania, who passed away in 2005 after a 55-year career. The last time Australia Post released an engraved stamp issue, in this case hand-engraved and printed wholly in intaglio, was in 2001.
The evidence of Mörck’s intricate work is present in the beautiful line work visible throughout the designs. The printing process was the responsibility of renowned specialty stamp printing company, Cartor, France. The drawing was then scanned and transferred directly to the laser CTP machine. It took longer for the stamp world to progress to this technology, but now most postal administrations adopt this approach to intaglio printing, with France and Monaco being notable exceptions.įor this stamp issue, Martin Mörck began with small-sized drawings for the design, before producing a set of large-scale pen and ink drawings, to meet the requirements in relation to the line widths and spacing of the digital engraving. This then progressed to all line work being drawn digitally on a screen by the artist, before being sent directly to a laser machine (a CTP machine, which translates to “computer to plate”), to produce the engraved printing plate. This meant that a precisely rendered pen and ink line drawing (that would have previously been produced by a burin on a steel die), was digitally scanned and sent to a laser engraving machine, which would cut the lines directly into the printing cylinder.
More than a decade ago, banknote engraving became digitalised. Today, however, production techniques have evolved. The plate is forced against the paper under considerable pressure, the ink being sucked out of the grooves and onto the paper. The printing cylinder plate is then inked, and then the excess ink wiped off, with the remaining ink filling the recessed grooves. The hardened die is then transferred, in stages, to a steel printing cylinder plate of multiple images. Traditional intaglio involves printing an image made up of lines and dots that have been etched or engraved, by hand, onto a softened steel die using a tool known as a burin. He also works internationally in the field of banknote engraving. Mörck has produced more than 900 stamps, which contain more than 670 engravings, for numerous postal administrations in his 45-year career.
The stamps and minisheet have been illustrated and engraved by Norwegian artist Martin Mörck (pictured in the banner, above), and printed using a combination of traditional intaglio techniques and offset printing.