Jean de Bast

Jean De Bast (Brussels, 1883–1975) is a Belgian postage stamps draughtsman and engraver.

After a very complete artistic training (drawing, painting, engraving ...), he joined in 1907 the National Postage Stamps Printing-house in Mechelen. Going up step by step in the hierarchy, he finished there his career in 1945, as a senior foreman.

His first works in philately are, in 1919, the drawing of the famous series “Helmeted King” and, in 1922, the engraving of King Albert I’s effigy (“Houyoux” type).

In 1926, the Belgian sovereigns realized the artist’s value, following the issue of a stamp for the benefit of the fight against tuberculosis. In accordance with the wish of the King, a competition was organized between four Prix de Rome and De Bast, who was the winner. From that time onwards, the direction of the Postal Services stopped to appeal to foreign artists, and De Bast became its appointed engraver.

While keeping his office at the Postage Stamps Printing-house, De Bast worked then as a free engraver, realizing works of very high quality.

In 1952, he had a disagreement with the direction of the Postal Services, which had retouched without his agreement the original matrix of a stamp bearing the effigy of King Baudouin. The stamp so issued was so mediocre that it received a bad appreciation from the press and was rapidly withdrawn from sale.

Being in bad terms with the Postal Service, De Bast waited for several years before being entrusted again with stamp engraving. He put an end to his engraver’s career in 1967, at the age of 84. In 1964 and 1965, two of his stamps received a golden medal in Paris: “Infant Christ with John the Baptist and two angels” (after Peter Paul Rubens) and “The daughters of the painter Cornelis De Vos”.

On the whole, between 1926 and 1967, he engraved more than one hundred postage stamps, ten or a dozen stamps for the Railways, and 5 fiscal stamps for the Ministry of Finance.

This master engraver, who, by his exceptional expertise, raised his work to the level of Art, obtained numerous distinctions both for his work and his behaviour as a patriot during the war. Ten years after his death, on the occasion of the “Journée du timbre” (Stamp’s day), the Postal Service paid homage to him by issuing a stamp showing him at work.