In 1985 Czechoslovakia celebrated the brief life of Bohan Roule (3 May 1921- 10 Dec1960) by issuing a stamp to his memory on Stamp Day. His skill combined both art and craft and is one that is little used on stamps today but is one of the joys of older stamps, engraving. To transform a sketch, drawing or painting in addition to engraving a small stamp image on wood or metal but then to do it in reverse is an amazing skill. What is today the Czech and Slovak Republics still occasionally issue engraved stamps and continue with the tradition of inscribing the designers name on the bottom left and the engravers name on the right. This particular stamp was designed by Karel Vodák and the portrait engraved by Ladislav Jiraka, their names however appear on the vertical right for of course Bohan Roules name is in the usual position on the interior reverse view of the stamp plate (under the birds foot). Roule was described as a "rising star" when he died at 39 having engraved 54 stamps for Czechoslovak post and 2 for Albania One of his engravings could be showing one of the ways post is carried
the female engine driver on one of the 1954 definitives.
If you were in Belgium then there would be a special railway stamp to carry parcels on trains. On the 1979 Stamp Day they commemorated 100 years with a stamp on a stamp.
The following year it was 50 years of airmail, those blue envelopes in the past kept families and friends in contact across the world and for the young philatelist the stamp often could be more exciting than the contents
This stamp for the 1965 "Philately for the Young" has been engraved from the detail of a mural by Van den Bussche of Sir Rowland Hill with young collectors.
The man who started it all when mail transport looked like this:-
The postmark on it is where I will be next week, I wonder what stamps I will find.
6 comments:
What a terrible tragedy that Bohan Roule died so young. You have a really great round-up of stamps about stamps here. I especially like the Belgian 1980 torn off stamp on a stamp.
Have a wonderful time in Antwerp!
I have got some lovely Czechoslavakian stamps, and I think what makes them so lovely- to a large degree - is the fact that they were etched. Thanks for sharing these and the details about this skilled craftsman. Very interesting.
A very interesting post. I've learnt a lot. Fine Czechoslavakian stamps.
I agree with Sheila - that torn off paper under the stamp is the reality for many of us. The US used to have the airmail mailers, in pale blue - I wonder if they are still available?
Thank you for participating.
the Belgian stamp with the torn off stamp made me laugh! How true.
This is a nice group of stamps on the topic. I still like the engraved stamps best.
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