Emil Schneegass

1868 - 1958

Schneegass was born in Atlanta in 1868, lived in St. Louis, and retired in Texas.  He worked for 2 different pencil companies during his life.  In the 1930s, Emil Scheegass began a lifetime hobby of creating amazing mosaic “paintings” with postage stamps and currency.  Each canceled stamp was cut into 8-10 pieces based on the color range.  To obtain his supply of stamps, he collected what he could find and was assisted materially by friends who were interested in his work.  When these means failed to bring him a sufficient supply, Schneegass went to stamp dealers and got as many as they could get for him.  Schneegass painstakingly cut postage stamps into tiny pieces, separated them by color, and then applied them to sketches that he did only using the tools of a pot of glue and a brush.   He produced religious and historical pieces including this work below of Palm Sunday.  He often typically worked only 4 hours a day and the works could take months to complete.