The Hradčany Dr. František Kubát

Transcription

1 Czechoslovakian Postage Stamps of the First Republic Essays from the Monografie The Hradčany Dr. František Kubát Monografie Československých Známek Díl I Pages Translated for The Society for Czechoslovak Philately by Mark Wilson KNIHTISK Winchester Virginia 2006

2 This seminal volume of The Monographs on Czechoslovakian Stamps aroused my appetite for translating Czech philatelic literature. While my skills in Czech are most meager, my hope is that over time other more knowledgeable commentators will repair any damage I may have done to the original meaning of the text. In the meantime, I have done my best and hope that other collectors of Czechoslovakian stamps will find this translation useful. Although the linguistic domains of Czech and English differ vastly, their textual representations occupy nearly the same area, thus permitting me to imitate, nearly page for page, the appearance and sequence of the original, but a table of contents and a list of tables has been added to improve rapid access to vital information. One should be able to leaf through this translation and the Monografie simultaneously and note that the layouts are nearly identical. Some changes have been made. For instance, in the original, captions for the illustrations were collected at the back of the book; here they appear, whenever possible, with the illustration itself. Also, some small corrections have been made: those that appeared in the errata section of the original, those that other collectors have brought to my attention, and the few that caught my eye as I worked through the text. In each instance where the author s text has been deliberately altered as opposed to the misrepresentations rooted in my lack of experience with Czech footnotes appear. Typographical corrections are italicized in brackets. Sometimes, and quite sparingly, captions on tables and illustrations have been edited in an attempt to provide English conventions for clarification apparently not required by Czech readers. Every reader must understand that I am not a Czech speaker nor have I ever been schooled in the language. My approach has been to treat Czech like the hieroglyphics of Egypt. I puzzle out the literal dictionary meaning of the text, then attempt to force some sense from it. On occasion, experienced Czech readers will find that I have misunderstood completely or have gone off at a peculiar angle. I do wish to thank Peter Hoffman of Sweden who has often guided me through the densest thickets of the language, but he need take no blame for my errors as I only asked for his assistance when the text was completely incomprehensible to me. Thus, you may find the most obscure bits translated properly simply because I could not understand them at all and so left their translation to Peter. On the other hand, I suspect I may have often confounded simpler statements through my ignorance. Czech stamps, especially the typographic issues, inexplicably caught my attention and adoration early on. Perhaps this translation will ensnare others as they explore what has to be one of the most elegant and complex postal issues of all time. Mark Wilson, Winchester, Virginia March 2006 Translation 2006 by Knihtisk. Original Dr. František Kubát, ii

3 Table of Contents Foreword I. The Origins of the First Czechoslovakian Stamp The Artist The Theme The Draft and Pattern The First Mucha Draft The Second Mucha Draft II. Printing The Technology of Printing Procedures Paste-up (Preliminary Setup) Auxiliary (Helping) Setup Fabricating the Printing Plate The Printing Form (Matrix) Research Material Forerunner and Collateral Prints Survey of Preliminary Printing III. Source Materials The Design Types, Removals and Retouches Colors and Shades Paper and Gum Perforations IV. Production Flaws Plate Flaws Printing Flaws V. Survey of the Actual Printings General Specialized VI. Special Printings Unissued Stamps Specimens Forgeries Reprints Survey of Special Printings VII. Postal Stationery Survey of Postal Stationery Plate Schematics Notes iii

4 List of Tables 7 Horizontal spacing between stamps of the Fifth Design Vertical spacing between stamps of the Fifth Design Time sequence of plates by value used for printing beyond the second plate The order of printing for each stamp Plate identifiers Perforation guide spots Characteristics of the individual designs a, 14 The succession of modifications to the design Forms of the numeral Forms of the numeral Forms of the numeral Forms of the numeral Forms of the numeral Forms of the numeral Occurrence of spiral types Spiral types ratio of distribution Identifying marks for uncommon Type I spirals Spiral types by plate number h numeral types Cropped numeral types Value tablet position types The tail s removal Removals on the tail Retouches Colors employed Perforations...168, cont. on Releases of individual perforations Notable variations in the rays Fogs Splotches Ministerial perforations Specimens iv

5 Foreword We eagerly anticipated the first issue of Czechoslovakian stamps through which the master artist Alfons Mucha voiced the entire nation s feelings about the beginning of a new and better life. We love the Hradčany issue, for it signifies our dawn. Their rush into print caused a frailty and inadequacy which we readily forgive. They remain for us our classical issue; they provide exactly the same research possibilities as do the older classical stamps. Classical research supported this detailed study, which was assembled surrounded by all the beauty of our first issue. For fifty years they have been the source of memories of the first pioneers, especially the chronicler J. Lešetick, who stood by their cradle and noted many facts, and Friedrich Leitenberg, who promoted the study of printing plates and Austro- Hungarian postal cancellations that came under Czechoslovakian postal management, and much more. This especially pertains to J. Frantov of Prague, who gladly assisted in supplementing and verifying chapters of this publication of The Hradčany. I. The Origins of the First Czechoslovakian Stamp When on October 28, 1918, Czechoslovakia became independent, there were no experienced artists, printing houses or printers able to produce postage stamps; for up until then only Austrian stamps printed in Vienna were valid in the Czech territories, while Hungarian stamps printed in Budapest were used in Slovakia. And in addition, there was in truth as a consequence of the end of the war a great shortage of all kinds of printing material of the appropriate quality. As a consequence of these conditions, the first Czechoslovakian stamp with a drawing of Hradčany was printed by typography and initially released imperforate. Their production was attended by haste and constant experimentation, such as their three productions methods, six sequential designs, and variations in the quality and type of paper, colors, gums, and perforations. This beginning begat many printing deficiencies of all kinds. It is clear, however, that the conditions surrounding this issue created the most interesting part of collecting and researching Czechoslovakian postage stamps. 77

6 The Artist Alphonse Mucha was born on July 24, 1860 in Moravian Ivančice. He attended the Slovak High School in Brno. Although he was interested in painting as a youth, he was not successful in his application for admission to the Prague Painting Academy. Accordingly, he at first went to Vienna, where he worked in the painting workshop of the Vienna State Opera, and from there to Munich and later on to Paris. There he worked as a drawing teacher in the Collaro Academy, and as a matter of fact, later on founded his own school. He illustrated stories and poems, created posters, and designed scenery for the actress Sarah Bernhardt, in whom he found a great supporter. Later he exhibited his work in Vienna and Prague. In 1903, he left for The United States of America, where he taught at art academies in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. His idea and plan for beginning a series on Slavic life occurred in New York. Upon returning to his homeland, Mucha worked on it for the years in Zbiro. When it was finished, he donated twenty drawings from the series called Slav Epic to the Main museum in Prague. Alphonse Mucha was a long-time philatelist. In 1907, in the periodical American Boy, he drew boy-philatelists challenging each other for a popular stamp. In addition to the design for the Hradčany stamp, Mucha designed the newspaper, postagedue, and express stamps for the years , and he also designed the Husite Priest with Chalice released in Alphonse Mucha died in Prague on July 14, 1939 and is memorialized in Slovak in Prague s Vyšehrad graveyard. 78

7 The Theme The Czechoslovakian Postal Administration served also as the judges beginning to review artists designs in a public contest for the first Czechoslovakian postage stamps. However, since judging the competition would take too much time, as a safeguard, the Postmaster General charged the Board s Secretary Jaroslav Lešetický with the design of a provisional stamp. He had originally considered overprinting Austrian stamps with the inscription Provisional Government The overprint was abandoned, however, and Lešetick put it aside in order to arrange for an appropriate design and printing venue for the new stamp. The negotiations took place between October 30 th and November 3 rd. Jaroslav Lešetický called upon the master artist Alphonse Mucha for a design, since he had a studio close to the Postal Authority. The rapid and somewhat secretive creation of the first Czechoslovakian postage stamp resulted in some distortion of the artist s memories. Although for him the details were fading, he did his best to facilitate their recall. For example, according to a snippet from his diary, which still preserved a rough sketch of the first Czechoslovakian stamp, they were conceived as early as April 1918, but this may have been the result of his subsequently reusing an old diary page, as is the custom for many painters. Ten years after the release of the first Czechoslovakian stamps, Alphonse Mucha responded to questioning that the periodical Česky filatelista recorded and published in issue Number 12 on December 15, Question: How did it come about that you designed the first Czechoslovakian stamp? Response: Because several days before the revolution I was asked in a letter by the late Mr. Jaroslav Šula if I would prepare a design of a postage stamp for a Czechoslovakian state. Immediately after the revolution Lešetický, a top official and representative of the Postal Administration, put in an appearance and asked if I could produce a design for a new stamp. Of course, I agreed to that with the greatest pleasure. I was more shocked the following day when he wanted to know when the design could be reproduced and if I had it ready. Question: Was Hradčany the first suggestion for the stamp? Response: I spoke to an associate about the subjects I designed as Freedom for the Homeland, but by chance I got back from Mr. Lešetický s office advice to simply picture Hradčany to design neither Hussite nor Sokol, nor anything resembling them because, I suppose, some aspect of them might discomfort or irritate the irresponsible meanwhile I had selected several different submissions: The Sokol, The Homeland, and perhaps some more things, I no longer remember. I took on the task of the Hradčany. In order to at least in some manner mention the notion of freedom, I put ascending from the cathedral the rays of a new radiance; it took on the form of the sun in the final rendition, which does, to be sure, set behind Hradčany. Originally, the radiance came from the time-honored and majestic Hradčany as the symbol of a new day, of lights in the darkness, and of subjugation giving way to freedom. Possibly people criticized the sun because it contradicted astronomical conclusions, that it does not rise in the West and go down in the East. Some also explain this as my rebuke of the Postal Administration s fixing on Hradčany when I wanted to symbolize the glory of our revival. In the twentieth year after the release of the Hradčany issue, the master A. Mucha said in an article by Jaroslav Orlick in Filatelistické revui Number 9/1938: Why I chose our memorable Hradčany for our first postage stamps? For me, there could not be any motive more sacred than our venerable Hradčany itself. We looked toward it wistfully during our time of subjugation, we saw only darkness around it. From the windows of Prague Castle, for a long time, no light shown on Prague, and the people stopped hoping that the famous 79

8 prophesy of our Jan Komensky would be fulfilled to our glory. The design s artist explained the significance of the details of the drawing: that the linden leaves symbolized the Slavs, representing our lands, Czech being the largest one in the middle, the doves represented faith and hope in the future, the hearts expressed an humanitarian love for peace and tolerance. The facts are that Jaroslav Lešetický asked the master artist Alphonse Mucha, around October 30, 1918, to create within three days designs for the new definitive issues, postage-dues, and express stamps. The design for the regular issues, however, from the aspect that they represented what the people most needed, were the first that were to be issued; that s why he had to have them worked out in twenty-four hours time. Besides a sketch with a drawing of the Hradčany, Mucha also submitted sketches with a Hussite and a Sokol motif, as well as a girl in costume as an allegory of emancipation; however, he was encouraged to use the drawing of the Hradčany, a politically neutral theme, as his final design. On the basis of the two sketches penciled on school drawing paper, Mucha subsequently worked out his final design. The first sketch (Fig. 101), 84 x 68 mm in size, had a heart-shaped value table with the numerals 25 and surrounded by reversed doves; below it was a half-finished detail of the upper left corner. After considering the nuisance of uniform positioning and three-figure values in the heart- Fig Mucha s second sketch. Fig Mucha s first sketch. Fig J. Schmidt s design. 80

9 shaped value tablet the artist had drawn, in a new sketch (Fig. 102), 68 x 68 mm in size, the value tablet was an oval form without value data and the doves were mirrored around the value tablet. The final design, sort of midway between both original sketches, Mucha was able to create in the given time. Independently, during the time Mucha s design work up was being prepared, twenty-year engraver Jindra Schmidt sketched postage stamps likewise, and oddly enough, a drawing of Hradčany surrounded by the crests of Czech, Moravia, Silesia, and Slovakia and placed it within two large box trees. He subsequently made prints from a woodcut in several colors on chalk paper, of which some were also perforated (Fig. 103). Once it was widely known that the implementation of our first stamp was officially commissioned to Alphonse Mucha, Schmidt did not continue his work. In 1948, the woodcut and first trial prints were presented to the Postal Museum in Prague. The Draft and Pattern The draft supports crucial decisions about the theme, is a basic template for the deliberate finalization of the postage stamp s appearance, and simultaneously starts its production. In essence, the pattern is the draft redrawn. Fig. 104.Reconstructed 1 st t Mucha draft Fig. 105.Reconstructed 1 st draft pattern. The First Mucha Draft The Indian ink sketch submitted was about four time the size of a stamp, 110 x 95 mm in size, on smooth drawing paper (Fig. 104); the pattern was about twice the size of the stamp. The motif of the design was a view of Hradčany with a small view of St Nicholas Cathedral in front and two clusters of shrubbery in the lower part of the cliché. The frame was formed from two sprigs of leaves and branches, with the value s data in an oval in the lower panel. The draft was determined not to be adequate for use as a pattern it is shown as a reconstruction that is why it was purposefully not completed in detail, but was abandoned for a modified design and the pattern adjusted into technically feasibility. Four designs continued the first Mucha design. 81

10 The First Design (I) For production, the printing house s implementation of the design in India ink was 58 x 49 mm in size on white pasteboard, and they altered the form of the letter T, drew in the sun, thinned the lines and arch, filled in the white area between the leaves in the upper corner, the center, the value tablet panel, and between the captions (Fig. 105). This design was used to print stamps in the 3, 5, 10, 20, 25, 30, and 40 haler 1 denominations. As it entered circulation as the first stamp, it was thought of as a provisional issue. Neither the public nor the printing house deemed it satisfactory, and so others designs progressively emerged. The Second Design (II) Apparently, before the circulation of each of the First [Second Tr] Design denominations, the draftsmen modified Mucha s initial design by filling in several areas, pasting over the negative text panels with positive versions of the text, and finally pasting the 100h denomination into the value tablet, thus implementing workroom changes in this way. To improve neatness, the left panel decorations were opened repeatedly; it is in this fashion that the pattern is archived in the Postal Museum (Fig. 106).. Fig Mucha s first draft partially modified by the printers. Fig Initial modification for the Second Design in an unissued value unfilled areas in the left, upper and middle panels. (Reduced). Trial prints for unissued stamps in the 20h denomination were made using this modified design, and also in the final version of the second design (Fig. 107), while for further trial prints the remaining areas in the left corner and center panel ornamentation were filled in (Fig. 108). It was used afterwards for the 100, 200 and 400h denominations by individually altering its initial appearance in the same way for each value, thus it is unlikely that these values would incur identical alterations, especially in their corners and in their center panel decorations. On both the 100 and 200h stamps, the bar within the pear shaped curve is cut open, but it is quite different on every 400h stamp, where it is entirely solid. The drawing of the spiral for all three of these denominations may be distinguished from one another, and most visibly in the shape of the little spirals in the lower right part of the panel ornamentation, actually an extra semicircle, in the 400h (Fig. 109). 1 For intelligibility, as well as for conciseness and economy, I will denote values using the abbreviation h. 82

11 Fig Final second design, modified from the previous one (those areas are filled in). Fig Variously modified corner decorations near the center panel edges. A 100h, left bar open, right spiral attached to wavy line. B 200h, bar open, spiral not attached. C 400h, bar closed, spiral with an extra semicircle. The Third Design (III) Hardly were the three Second Design denominations issued, having undergone alterations in the printing house s workroom, when A. Mucha evidently presented another design (Fig. 110) for printing the 1 and 50h denominations. The pattern was made as an ink drawing with a new border and, around a replica of the central motif from the initial design, a new upper and middle text panel cut into the lower panel and the bushes (which were also reduced in size), and in the redoing of the bottom panel, the white details were altered, with the more slender doves moved away from the side corners. The horizontal shading in the linden leaves, hearts, and doves was done afterwards when the replica of the primary pattern for the stamps in both denominations were issued in this design. Minor differences in the implementations bear witness to this. In setting up the primary pattern, they experimented with a hand drawn value in an unissued 300h denomination (Fig, 111). The differences in the additional shading in the linden leaves, hearts and doves between both denominations issued in the Third Designs consist of this: in the 50h value there are gaps in the shading in the left dove s neck and in the lower part of one of the right-hand hearts, whereas in the 1h value the shading lines are complete (Fig. 112). 83

12 Fig The initial pattern for the Third Design with the unissued value of 300h the linden leaves, hearts and doves are white. Fig The Third Design pattern reconstructed Fig Differences in the shading lines of the linden leaves, hearts, and doves. Upper 1h, the lines are complete. Lower 50h, incomplete lines. Fourth Design (IV) The pattern for this design was evidently made from a copy of the Third Design with alterations in the form of the letter T and a re-etching of the text in the central panel. These letters are thinner and the text somewhat enlarged. These modifications facilitated photo-enlargement of the design s central motif, as did the removal of the sun and shading in the white bushes (Fig 113). The 60, 80, 300, and 1000h denomination were released in the Fourth Design. 84

13 Fig Reconstructed pattern for the Fourth Design. Fig The Second Mucha draft, from the Spring of (Reduced). The Second Mucha Draft In the Spring of 1919, Mucha made a new India ink sketch, 111 x 93 mm in size, on drawing paper which served as the basis for a pattern in a new form, the Fifth Design. On it the artist omitted the shrubbery and sun, he combined the center of the first designs with the replaced text from the Fourth Design, he mottled the leaves and doves, he kept the hearts white, and he completely reshaped the side panels (Fig. 115). 2 But this draft could not at first be used in its initial form because of its light areas. It did become, however, the point of departure for several essays on the way to the definitive design. The First Modification of the Draft This design had white hearts, which had been enlarged and had thicker spiral decorations. It appeared as an essay in the unissued 80h denomination in an unused revision (Fig. 115) and later with additional modifications in the castle s foreground in a 300h denomination in a likewise unissued version (Fig. 116). Fig First modified draft. (White hearts, improved spirals). Fig With improved castle foreground. Fig Second modified draft. Fig Third modified draft. Fig 118a. Third modified draft. Fig Fourth modified draft. 2 The illustrations 116 and 119 appeared confused and have been rearranged here. See the original. Tr. 85

14 The Second Modification of the Draft In this version there were horizontal lines in the hearts and dark areas (Fig 117); trials appeared in the 5, 10, and 20h denominations in this unused design. The Third Modification of the Draft Here the printing house returned to the initial spiral shapes, with dotted hearts and doves moved back from the left and right corners as in the Third Design. For this version, essays appeared in the 20, 25, 40, and 100h denominations, the last two were never issued in this design (Fig. 118, 118a). The Fourth Modification of the Draft As in the previous, but has a different lower value panel and the doves reversed around the value oval. A 300h essay appeared for this otherwise unused design (Fig. 119). The Final Modification of the Draft (V Design) Further modifications to the draft were the inclusion of the doves from the Third Design and likewise the shading of the hearts. The spiral decorations as well as the letters in the center panel were markedly thinned and the upper left spiral redrawn in an open form (Fig. 120). This became the Fifth Design and in it the 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 75, 120, and 500h denominations were released. A further modified pattern (Va Fig. 121) was created by Caha Xylograph using a woodengraving, from which were obtained the necessary number of galvanized printing blocks to setup the printing plates for the 30h denomination. Stamps printed from them, while they had the same image, developed a rougher appearance which appeared as an effect of progressively divergent productions. Fig Final modification to the second draft. (Simplified spirals, decorations, and letters; open upper left spiral). Fig Pattern for the Fifth Design (reconstructed). 86