In 2012, the Czech Post issued a stamp (see
http://www.wnsstamps.ch/en/stamps/CZ029.12?lang=en ) to honour the traveller Alberto Vojtěch Frič (1882-1944) who had explored, between 1901 and 1912, South American territories along rivers such as the
Amazon, living with the local Amerindian tribes, collecting cacti and their seeds as well as ethnographic and linguistic material about the tribes, on whom he later published books and scientific papers.
To produce the stamp the detailed line-drawing of Jan Kavan's design was executed by the engraver Václav Fajt but then the design was not engraved, it was printed by offset using stochastic screening to preserve every detail of Fajt's line-drawing. Therefore, lovers of the beauties of engraved stamps, beware! Just a new way of printing stamps on the cheap and making them look engraved to unsuspecting beginners.
However, I have fond memories of the explorer Alberto Vojtěch Frič, the descriptions of his travels and, strangely enough, my early stamp collecting days.
A friend of mine, Vladimír Kovářík, born in 1927, ten years my senior, had an uncle in Prague who was Frič's friend and through him Vladimír got a travel book by Frič containing a handwritten dedication by the author to Vladimír, aged about 15 then.
Talking about the stamp collection of Vladimír's young days, he remembered the source of his former stamp treasures and showed me the Frič travel book, among whose pages he kept a cover sent from
Air Mail G.P.O. British Guiana on
1 JU 1939 (sent before the outbreak of WWII it did not bear any censorship marks or sender's name and address) and another cover with a couple of 40 c Venezuela airmails cancelled with a dater saying just
14 MAR 1941 applied somewhere in Venezuela and bearing a violet CDS
10 AM MAR 17 CARACAS on the back of it and a rubber stamp saying
POR AVION DESDE CARACAS HASTA ESTADOS UNIDOS, which translates "By air from Caracas to the United States" (in spite of the fact that the addressee's address contained the instruction "Via Natal /Brazil/ to Dakar /French West Africa/") plus U.S. and German censorship marks. The sender's name and address were given as F. Herbst, Rio Branco, Boa Vista, Amazonas, Brazil.
There were also two post-war cover fronts enclosed in the book: one with CDS
Lidgerwood, N. DAK., MAR 1, 1946, the other sent from
PEDRO MIGUEL, DEC 19, 1946, CANAL ZONE. Everything was addressed to Mrs. Milada Říhošková and Vladimír told me the following:
His uncle Jaroslav Říhošek married a divorced teacher Milada Herbst, who had been a wife of a Prague banker, Herbst, by whom she'd had a son, František (= Frank) Herbst, born about 1909.
In 1939, Frank left Czechoslovakia for British Guiana intending to travel following in the footsteps of Alberto Vojtěch Frič, his step-father's friend. Before the US entered the war, Frank Herbst sent letters addressed to his mother Milada Říhošková. Afterwards he was said to have joined the US armed forces and to have served in the Pacific theatre. After the war he wrote to his mother from Lidgerwood, North Dakota (March 1946) and the Canal Zone (December 1946). Traces of his were lost with the deaths of his mother and step-father in Prague.
Chances are that Frank Herbst could have given Czechoslovak stamps from his correspondence with his mother in Prague to a stamp collector in
Lidgerwood, N.DAK. who might still remember him. Thank you for any recollections, also on behalf of my friend Vladimír Kovařík, who will soon be 86.
Posted 07/10/2013 09:45 am
