Czech Stamp Engravers

Unlike their French predecessors in the early 1960-ies where they had up to 6 colours - 3 direct recess and 3 indirect recess - the Prag Printers NEVER used indirect recess!

modernstamps - http://goscf.com/t/61374#530293 - Kamil Lhoták (1912-1990) was enchanted with the world of the pioneers in modern technology at the turn of the 20th century, especially vehicles, from bicycles and baloons to motorcycles, cars, and aircraft. He liked to depict such vehicles on the outskirts of cities, where wooden palings, sheds, and mysterious structures rising against the blue skies could be seen amid green grass and roads made of broken stones leading to new discoveries. A life-long keen cyclist and motocyclist, he said he had owned 20 different motorcycles, one after another, between 1930 and 1975, when he designed the stamps.

For more details, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamil_Lhot%C3%A1k
and Google his pictures.

Czech out the time!

Issued in 1979-18th.C.Clocks

Designed and engraved by :Bedrich Housa
Scott#2260-2264

Was sorting through some Czech stamps this evening and found these two from the mid 1980's dedicated to two engravers. Anybody know if there are more? Are there examples from other countries?

BrotherSquint - Here is a list of Czechoslovakian stamps honouring their engravers as well as featuring their portraits:

Eduard Karel (1861 - 1950) https://www.filaso.cz/katalog-znamk...tovni-znamky . See also http://www.kfturnov.cz/e_karel.html and use Google translator.

Jaroslav Goldschmied (1890 - 1977) https://www.filaso.cz/katalog-znamk...tovni-znamky

Karel Seizinger (1889 - 1978) https://www.filaso.cz/katalog-znamk...tovni-znamky

Bohumil Heinz (1894 - 1940) https://www.filaso.cz/katalog-znamk...tovni-znamky . For his work for De La Rue see also http://www.exponet.info/exhibit.php...=1082&lng=CZ

Bohdan Roule (1921 - 1960) https://www.filaso.cz/katalog-znamk...tovni-znamky

Jindøich / Jindra Schmidt (1897 - 1984) https://www.filaso.cz/katalog-znamk...tovni-znamky


As for examples from other countries, look for Austria, Belgium, France, Spain, and UNO.

Thanks for those links, I will definitely check those out. Very kind of you to pass them on.

The other day I received this beautiful souvenir sheet from a friend in Czechia.
It depicts the Feast of the Rose Garlands by Albrecht Dürer and
was issued in 1989.

Designer & engraver : Milos Ondracek

Print Process : multicolour engraving,
which means that
the engraver had to produce 5 separate dies one for each colour in sequence,
yellow, red, brown, blue and black being last
This process was and is still is being used by the Czech
Postal Printing House of Securities, Prague on their
diestamp print presses.

Scott 2743





Scott 2743a



Scott 2743b




Here is a comparison of the 1968 Scott 1555 Jiri Svengsbir engraving and the 1989 one by Milos Ondracek

Another Czechoslovakian souvenir sheet this time a painting by Titian
Flaying of Marsyas issued in 1978.

Designer & Engraver : Josef Hercik

Printing Process : multicolour engraving,which means that
the engraver had to produce 5 separate dies one for each colour in sequence,
yellow, red, brown, blue and black being last
This process was and is still is being used by the Czech
Postal Printing House of Securities, Prague on their
diestamp print presses.


Scott 2197





Scott 2197a



Scott 2197b

This Souvenir Sheet was issued in 1980 by Czechoslovakia
to commemorate the United Nations 35th Anniversary.

Designer : Josef Liesler

Engraver of the stamp : Milos Ondracek

Printing process : multicolour engraving, same as for the
souvenir sheets above.

Scott 2316



Scott 2316a



Engraver : Ladislav Jirka



Engraver : Jan Mracek

Czechoslovakian stamps portrayed a lot more than just religious and classical motives.
Here are a couple of sets issued to honour world cultural personalities of the 20th Century.
The first set of caricatures of these famous men was issued in 1968.

Designer : Adolf Hoffmeister

Engravers : Ladislav Jirka, Jindra Schmidt, Jan Mracek

Printing Process : Photogravure & recess combination

Scott 1582 - 1588


Ernest Hemingway, writer




Karel Capek, writer




George Bernard Shaw, poet, writer




Maxim Gorkij , poet, writer





Pablo Picasso , painter




Taikan Yokoyama , painter




Charlie Chaplin , actor

Czechoslovakia continued in 1969 with another set of World cultural personalities of the 20th Century

Designer : Adolf Hoffmeister

Engravers Jindra Schmidt, Josef Hercik, Jan Mracek

Printing Process : Photogravure & recess combination

Scott 1628 - 1633


Pavol Orszagh Hviezdoslav, writer



Gilbert Keith Chesterton, writer



Vladimír Majakovskij, poet



Henri Matisse, painter



Ales Hrdlicka, anthropologist




Franz Kafka, writer



Kafka is one of my favourite writers and I'm just now reading a biography about him,
Kafka, The Years Of Insight by Reiner Stach.

^This airmail set was issued in 1968 for
Stamp exhibition PRAGA 1968

Designer : Josef Liesler

Engraver : Jindra Schmidt

Printing process : multicolour engraving

Notice the diagonal engraved lines which give the appearance
of a solid background.

Czechoslovakia Scott C72-C74

Recently I received some stamps from a friend in the Czech Republic.

The two below were both issued in 2018.

The first is an engraving of the Spanish army commander Diego de Guzmán by
Paulus Pontius (1603–1658) a Flemish engraver.

Engraver : Martin Srb

Printing process : multicolour engraving from flat plates




Birds on Stage by the Czech painter Vladimir Komarek.

Engraver : Milos Ondracek

Printing process : combination flat plate engraving & offset.

The annual Art series for 1976 portrayed Paintings of Flowers.

Engravers : Jan Mracek (Scott 2090); Jindra Schmidt (Scott 2091)
Josef Hercik ( Scott 2092) Milos Ondracek ( Scott 2093)

lithograving - Much obliged for these fine scans.

As for the 1.40 Kès value in http://goscf.com/t/61374&whichpage=2#570487 , in 1944 while WWII was still raging in Europe, Cyril Bouda (1901-1984), remembering one of his early visits to the Florence of Renaissance art in Tuscany, Italy, painted a still life with oleander flowers in a richly decorated vase against the colourful panorama of the city and the black skies and with a love missive in the foreground quoting part of a verse of an old Tuscan folk song:

Passa que' colli e vieni allegramente,
Non te curar de tanta compagnia,
Vieni pensando a me segretamente,
Ch'io te accompagno per tutta la via.
/Io te accompagno per tutta la strada,
Ricordati de me, speranza cara./