I Muse...On Display Conundrums

As my new France stamp sets slowly trickle in, I am faced with an ever increasing conundrum. The thing that perplexes me is this: how do I sort and display my engraved stamps?

As regular readers of my blogs will know, I am an avid collector of all things Albert Decaris. In fact, it was in the course of building my Decaris collection that I became more and more aware of many other supremely talented French stamp engravers out there. By simply collecting Decaris I didn't have any display conundrums rattling about in my brain. But, now that I have expanded my engraver collection to include all French engravers, I am unsure how to proceed.

As I see it I have two options:-

1. Display my French stamps by date of issue/year, thus mixing a bunch of engravers on one hagner page.
2. Display my stamps chronologically by engraver. 

Both options have pros and cons, hence the dilemma. If I were to choose option 1 I would need to dismantle my Decaris collection in order to insert stamps in their relative positions. It would also probably, over time, minimise the number of hagners required to house the collection.

Option 2 has, in my mind, several pros. One of which is that, by having all the stamps by one particular engraver set out in chronological order, I may then be able to study the changes and/or improvements in the engraver's style. This is something I really like to do. Also, perhaps a bit less importantly, this option would actually enable me to keep all my Decaris stamps as they are. Additionally, not all French stamps are engraved, especially as the years tick on. Therefore, the French year sets would actually not be full year sets. This is also, I guess, a consideration.

So what to do? In all honesty I have not found a solution yet. At present I have all my new stamps in their relevant years and I have left my Decaris collection as is for now. Ultimately, I guess whatever choice I make is not exactly irreversible, but I'd definitely prefer to choose the best solution for me the first time round - if possible.

How do you display your engraved stamps?

Until next time...