I Found...An Excellent Tribute Essay

Yesterday I was once again perusing the Czeslaw Slania Study Group's newsletter Up Close. In it I stumbled across an excellent essay paying tribute to the work of Slania. I thought it would be really nice to share it on this blog. The essay was written by Alice Archie. It was printed in Vol. 1 No. 5 1986. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did...

Until next time...

Stay Slania Crazy!

I Muse...On Title Pages

For some time now I'm been pondering the idea of title pages for each country in my Slania collection. At present I use hagners to house my stamps, so for continuity purposes within the stamp folder I intend to use single strip hagners in which to place the title pages. That means the pages need to be designed to fit in this space...

This space is smaller than a regular A4 page, so I would need to add a border of these dimensions and cut the printed out page to fit. So far, so good.

Thinking about the design of the title pages, I don't want anything too busy. I want to try to convey simple clarity. I then had the idea to add a watermark to the page. At first I considered one of my favourite Slania stamps. I tried a few, but I found them too busy, making it difficult to read the text of the title. 

A few days ago it was the anniversary of Slania's death. While working on a tribute blog I came across a nice postcard image of Slania designed by Lars Sjööblom. I took the image and fiddled with it, turning it to gray-scale on Publisher and lightening it so it became a watermark. I then added a bit of text just to see what it would look like. This is what I have so far. It is by no means complete, but I like the look of it so far...

What do you think? Any thoughts? Ideas?

Until next time...

Stay Slania Crazy!

I Muse...On Czeslw Slania's Titles and Medals

Today is 17 March, which is the 11th Anniversary of the death of the stamp engraving virtuoso, Czeslaw Slania.

To commemorate this day, I was originally planning to do a bit of a biography of Slania. But then I thought, maybe it would be better to focus instead on the awards and titles he received during his amazing career. And there are plenty of them, let me tell you!

Below is a list of the awards and titles he received that I could find. I have no idea if it is complete, but even if it is, it is mightily impressive:

• He was appointed Court Engraver to King Gustav VI Adolph of Sweden.

• He was awarded the Order of the Dannebrog by Queen Margaret II of Denmark...

• He was awarded he King's Medal of the Eighth Size with Royal Blue Ribbon by King Karol XVI Gustav of Sweden...

• Order of Saint Charles awarded by Prince Rainier III of Monaco...

• The Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland awarded by President Aleksander Kwasniewski...

• Order of Saint Gregory awarded by Pope John Paul II...

• Guinness Book of Records for the largest ever engraved stamp, which was also his 1000th engraved stamp. Issued in Sweden on 17 March 2000, which I only just now realised is the same date as his death five years later.

***

His amazing stamp engraving career notwithstanding, Czeslaw Slania's awards and titles are truly something to be admired.

On 17 March 2005 the supremely talented artist, Czeslaw Slania, died at the age of 83 in Krakow and he was buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery. Your stunning visual legacy lives on and will continue do to so for, I hope, a long time to come. Your work has certainly touched and inspired me. You are a legend, Mr Slania!!

Until next time...

Stay Slania Crazy!

Sweden 1960 - Anders Zorn

I've always been a bit of a fan of discovering firsts. What was the first stamp for a particular country? What was the first decimal stamp for that country? And so on... In this blog I'm looking forward to studying Czeslaw Slania's first stamp for Sweden. As most Slania collectors out there probably already know, Slania emigrated from Poland and moved to Sweden in 1956. He lived in Sweden for three years before he was given a position with the Swedish Post Office after one of Sweden's premiere engravers, Sven Ewert took ill and needed replacing. The first stamp Slania engraved for Sweden was issued in 1960 in two values. Let's now take a look at the subject of the stamp, then the stamp itself...

***

Anders Zorn was an incredibly gifted Swedish artist. He was born 18 February 1860 on the farm of his grandparents in Yvraden in the parish of Morna, Dalarna. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts from 1875 to 1880. There he dazzled his teachers with his amazing talent. 

Zorn quickly became and international success, practising his art in places such as London, Spain, Paris, Italy and the United States. He is primarily known for his character-filled portraits. And he painted more than a few famous people, including three American Presidents, the King of Sweden, Oscar II, the Queen consort of Sweden and Norway, Queen Sophia, and Mrs Walter Bacon to name but a few. He was also an exceptionally talented landscape artist. In fact, it was one of his landscapes, Sommamoje, that fetched the highest sale price ever for a painting in Sweden. It sold for a whopping 26 million SEK on 3 June 2010. He also painted incredibly life-like nude portraits. Click HERE for some examples of his work. Anders Zorn died at the age of 60 on 22 August 1920.

***

On 18 February 1960, Sweden issued a commemortive stamp in two values, depicting the artist, Anders Zorn. The design was engraved by Czeslaw Slania. As mentioned above, this was his first full stamp engraving for Sweden.

The 30o value. From a vertical coil. This stamp was also printed in booklet format.

This is a lovely engraving of the artist, based on an etching produced by the artist. This image suggests to me the artist, Zorn, sitting and ruminating over a potential subject with pencil poised over an art pad ready to pounce the moment inspiration strikes. In the bottom left just above the country name is a reproduction of Zorn's signature, almost as if he had signed off on the work.

The 80o value. From a vertical coil...

As mentioned above, this stamp was based on an etched self-portrait by Zorn. I'd like to thank a couple of my followers for giving me this information. Here's what the etching looked like...

Until next time...

Stay Slania Crazy!