Watch List notes:

France, Albert DECARIS (1901-1988), French medalist and book engraver and illustrator. 99mm. One of France's foremost engravers of the twentieth century, Albert Decaris began his formal art studies at the age of fourteen at the Ecole Estienne. Four years later he was accepted into the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and studied in the studios of Carmon and Leguillermie. Within Six months Decaris had won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome (Gravure en taille douce) and became the yougest student ever to win this prestigious honor. Between 1935 and 1985 Albert Decaris created more than six hundred stamps for France and its territories. Held in equally high esteem for his architectural, historical, landscape, portrait and figurative engravings, he became a full member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts in 1943 and was nominated its President in 1960. In 1962 Decaris was named the official painter of the Marine Française.