1952 John Hay "Experimental Essays" pair Independence Hall Philadelphia

Description: 1952 John Hay "Experimental Essays" pair Independence Hall Philadelphia Please check my other auctions, as I combine shipping. Thanks for looking! John Hay “Experimental” Essays and Proofsby BARBARA R. MUELLEREssay Proof Journal 1988 Proof prints of stamp-like images made by independent and/or free-lance designers andengravers often show up on the philatelic market as “rare essays.” Such has been the casewith the varied products of H.L. Peckmore, as periodically reported in this Journal. Anotherartist who has often been outside the security printing establishment is John Hay. His lifeand work were described in Journal 125, Winter 1975 issue. As of this writing, Hay is still alivebut inactive due to ill health and old age. Born in 1908 in Britain, he received most of his technicaland fine arts education in Canada. He served a five-year apprenticeship with the CanadianBank Note Co., where he perfected his engraving skills. His bent for experimentation in graphicsprocesses is related to his inventive skills in engineering. Just before World War II he establishedhis own company for the manufacturing of optical instruments and related equipment for variousarmaments and radar installations. During the war period he studied, on the side, castings andmolds, another skill he eventually used to create fine silver and gold chalices.Because of financial dislocations after the war, he returned to Canada, where betweenperiods of mining quartz and fishing in the muskeg, he painted in a variety of media. In 1945, hebought a home in Larchmont, New York, evidently transferring for some time to the AmericanBank Note Co. While engraving he also worked on the development of a solenoid printing pressand a pressureless (electrostatic) printing system. In 1962, he became vice-president of the UnitedStates Banknote Corp. in charge of research and development; he also supplied USB with engravingsfor stamps and securities. Despite suffering two strokes, he continued with this workuntil his retirement in 1973. Among the stamps Hay designed and engraved are Canada nos. 247, 249, 250, 251, 260,276, 284-288, and 320. He also engraved Costa Rica C452 through C471 and Haiti type RA9.Hay became well known among collectors for his backward or mirror-image signature. Itseems that he was quite ambidextrous during his working years and developed the knack of signinghis name in the usual manner with his right hand as well as using his left hand to sign “backwards”(perhaps because of stroke-related problems?). Dr. Glenn Jackson, president emeritus ofEPS, recalls being with Hay at a time when the artist was signing a great many proof impressions.He complained that his right hand was getting tired and switched to the left. When Dr. Jacksonsaw the unusual results, he advised Hay to adopt the strange signature as a sort of trademark,which he subsequently did. However, he must have been signing one of the prints shown here strictly for record purposes,writing “April 6/52 J. Hay” conventionally in a top margin. These Independence Halldesigns illustrated from photocopies courtesy of J. Leonard Diamond are typical of the many differentsimulations developed for use in the artist’s ongoing experiments with engraving andintaglio printing processes. He labeled some of them “Specimen.” Perhaps a more suitable philatelicterm for his work and that of other artists engaged in similar exercises would be “experimentalessays” and “prints,” for that is what they are—personal experimental not ordered by orsubmitted to any printer for use on government-ordered postage stamps. The term would alsoeliminate some of the fanciful descriptions given the material by over-enthusiastic vendors andforestall confusion over its true status.For example, the Independence Hall experimentals have been described as “1952 essay forunissued engraved Independence Hall, Philadelphia, design, vert, strip of 5 in light blue, single inultramarine, and another in ultramarine, orange and green signed by the engraver APRIL 6/52 JHay, mostly f-vf, some staining on the strip, scarce, est. $150.” At a Jan. 8, 1988 Roger Koerber sale was offered the Pope Pius XII design shown here, too,with this description: “1954 essay for unissued engraved Pius XII design, insc. SPECIMEN, vert,strip of 4 in black, red orange and blue on india in various stages of completion, vf. est. $100.”Although Hay’s signature does not appear on the strip, the progression of design developmentand the style of lettering used for SPECIMEN are good indicators that he made these experimentals,too. However, there is no evidence to connect them with any official Vatican City issue.Actual examination of the Independence Hall experimentals yields these corrections and additionalinformation to the auctioneer’s description: The strip of five actually consists of a topstrip of three glued to a bottom strip of two. The single in ultramarine has another impression onthe back; both are the same. The multi-colored single has the additional border also seen on thethird impression from the top of the strip. A soft, mostly yellowish paper was used for all the impressions.All individual impressions measure 25x25 mm. except for the top two of the strip,which are 23 x 23mm.Inspection of the various proof impressions shows a progressive development of the designmost noticeable in the details of the building and its left and right ends as well as in the degree of completion of the trees at either side of the building. Some of the impressions are marred by blueink blots and rust stains, another indication of their personal, expendable nature.Late in 1987, the Bank Note Printers’ Designers’ Engravers’ Siderographers’ Guild of NewYork issued another of its souvenir cards to demonstrate and publicize their arts. This particularone was intended to mark the recent merger of the previous Bank Note Engravers Guild of NewYork and the New York Plate Printers Union. The central vignette appears to be an enlarged andfinished version of the Independence Hall design captioned “State House” in a more verticalformat, 37 x 58mm.

Price: 99.99 USD

Location: Zirconia, North Carolina

End Time: 2023-11-07T05:12:57.000Z

Shipping Cost: 3.5 USD