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Dr. Magnus article about the Paris International Exhibition of 1867, in which his
name was spelled Duloz. Dr. Magnus had a number of inaccuracies in his article;33
perhaps the spelling is another of his mistakes. In any event at some early date his
name in the Turkish philatelic world became Duloz and remained so thereafter, with
only rare exceptions where is has been spelled with an “s.”
Hentschel’s article will seem surprising to philatelists in one respect – he was
entirely unaware that Dulos engraved stamps, let alone that he is of legendary stature
in the world of Turkish philately and that one of Turkey’s most interesting stamps
bears his name.
Although there is no mention of Turkish stamps, Hentschel does note that in January
1874, Dulos had contracted with Grant & Company of London to prepare the plates
for the engraved bonds of the Ottoman Railway.34 This leads to interesting questions:
Was there some connection between Dulos’ original 1865 stamp commission and
the later Ottoman Railway commission? How did Dulos get the original commission
anyway? Unfortunately, I have no answers.
It is also interesting that Hentschel, too, was frustrated by the elusiveness of Dulos’
given names:
Strangely enough, neither [the] city-almanac entries nor any other publications
describing Dulos’s noteworthy inventions and improvements in printing technique…
divulge his given names.35
One might speculate that Dulos indulged a bit of artistic ego similar to some
Renaissance artists. Finally, searching with the correct spelling led to the spring
2007 auction catalogue from David Feldman in which there was offered a collection
of French fiscal proofs and essays that had been awarded seven international gold
medals.36 Included in the collection were no less than “104 pièces de Dulos dont
épreuve unique, essais avec chiffres non retenus (rarissime)”(“104 Dulos items
including a unique proof and essays with unused values.”). Dulos indeed engraved
many revenue stamps and there is much material for an in depth study of his philatelic
productions.
I set out to identify Duloz’ first name; I was rewarded with three! – surprising
certainly. However, I was even more surprised to discover that the only name I did
know – or thought I knew – Duloz, was not correct. Duloz in fact is Pierre Edelestand
Stanislas Dulos.
In the course of preparing images for this article, I noticed something in the lower
left portion of the heraldic mantle or cloak on the Dimen-
sion stamps. There, in tiny capital letters less than a mil-
limeter high, is written DULOS. See Figure 7. The cor-
rect spelling of the engraver’s name, thus, has been right
in front of us all the time. Perhaps this is why, despite
Dr. Magnus’ error, Dulos’ name is spelled correctly in the
world of French philately.
Figure 7. French Dimension Acknowledgement
stamp detail. I received invaluable help in finding obscure references
for this article from Neil Coker formerly of the American
Philatelic Research Library, for which I am very grateful. I also owe thanks to Klaus
Hentschel, Gene Fricks and Robert Abensur for their assistance.
Collectors Club Philatelist Vol. 94 No. 2 March–April 2015 103