These pages show some of my favorite trial color proofs and artist's proofs. They were chosen for the quality of the engraving and vividness of the colors. There is also a selection of trial color proof sheets and images of entire artist's proofs (not just the central stamp portion, as shown on the gallery pages).
The color galleries contain examples of up to 32 different trial colors of some of the most attractive trial color proofs from Afars & Issas and New Caledonia, as well as additional trial color proofs from FSAT and St. Pierre that are not included in the trial color proof galleries.
These pages show a selection of full sheets of 10 or 25 trial color proofs to give an idea of the color arrangement, hand-written color codes, and serial numbers.
These pages show a selection of enlarged images of entire artist's proofs. The images of artist's proofs in the galleries show only the central (stamp portion) of the proof to permit a larger image and to allow fitting several different colors side by side on the same page for comparison.
These pages feature a selection of some of my favorite topical artist's proofs, including Concorde, animals, and famous people. Topical collections of artist's proofs of French art, French Europa, ships and trains can be found in the topicals section.
Artist's proofs of the engravings for official philatelic documents (documents philateliques officiels) are seldom seen, so I have included a selection here. The engravings feature a topic related to the issued stamp and are usually much larger than stamps.
I have also included a selection of artist's proofs of special engraved versions of French stamps that were originally printed by offset or heliogravure. These special engravings were used on the official philatelic documents along with the larger engravings of related topics.