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The night between Wednesday 16 and Thursday March 17 one of the greatest engraver ever lived, Czeslaw Slania passed away in Krakow, Poland at the age of 83.
Czeslaw Slania
was born in Czeladz, near Katowice Poland in October 22nd,
1921. As a young boy Czeslaw Slania was making sketches all the time, and most of all he liked to make miniatures. He could reproduce in a natural way what he saw. He amused friends by sketching banknotes where he replaced old men's faces with girl friends faces.
When the Second
World War broke out the 18 year old Czeslaw Slania became a partisan and
was actively participating in the struggle against the German occupying
power. After the war end 1945 This settles his choice of special studies at the Academy. He studied engraving technique, etching and copper plate engraving. After finishing the studies Czeslaw Slania was offered work as a stamps engraver at the Polish Government Press-House. Already in 1950 Czeslaw Slania start engraving and he had so much to do that he didn't have time to finish his diploma work until 1953.
He decided to
reproduce a historical painting of battle scenes in the size of a stamp.
Czeslaw Slania chose
a painting by a popular Polish artist, Jan Matjeko
(1853-1893), "The Battle of Grünwald" in 1410. During this time he worked for the Polish Post Office, first in Lodz and then in Warsaw, where he learnt the difficult art of engraving in steel, a technique that has higher demands than engraving in copper plates. During the years 1951-56 he engraved 23 stamps for Poland Post Office.
In August 1956
Czeslaw Slania left Poland. He came to Sweden and a great man in Swedish
stamp production, Sven Ewert were impressed by the engraving works of
Czeslaw Slania. He got some small tasks for the Post Office. He engraved "Post Saving Bank notes" and a radio license "stamp". and he also worked with retouches. In order to get more money he worked, as many other immigrants, with jobs such as dishing. He was employed at the Central Station Post Office Restaurant in Stockholm. During this time he looked for, and did get, a job in Canada. At the same time Sven Ewert was ill and Czeslaw Slania became a deputy and stayed in Stockholm. In April 1960 he started as an employee at the Swedish Post Office. Since then he was a part of the Swedish stamp history. All together Czeslaw Slania made stamps for 31 countries and the United Nations. Czeslaw Slania has not only been working with engravings. He sketched and painted originals to stamps and bank-notes. He has, among other things engraved bank-notes for 10 countries. He has reproduced personalities like Queen Elisabeth II of England and Queen Silvia of Sweden, movie stars like Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe and others. He did all Heavy Weight Champions of the World in boxing up to and include Cassius Clay, politicians like John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill and others. Even well-known Poles like J. Pilsudzki, General W. Anders and the composer Frederic Chopin were included in the work of the master engraver. He did great engravings of his mother and sister and also a couple of self portrait. Furthermore he did a fantastic portrait of the recently passed away Pope John Paul II. Of course Czeslaw Slania has been rewarded with more distinctions than anybody else. In 1972 the Swedish King Gustaf VI Adolf appointed him as Court Engraver. He was also a Knight of the Danish "Dannebrogenorden" and was honoured by Prince Rainier III of Monaco. He has several times been awarded for "the most beautiful stamp of the year". The most beautiful sport stamp 1954 was a Polish stamp elected in Rimini, Italy.
The stamp "Ballet" from Sweden received prize in India as the Worlds most beautiful stamp in 1979 and the "Fiddler", painted by Anders Zorn, was appointed "The Robert Stolz-Trophy" in 1984 as the most beautiful music stamp of the year. He has even been mentioned in The Guinness Book of Records.
Czeslaw Slania has used many different methods by the engraving of the stamps. He has always looked for new methods and being amused of overcome difficulties, like when he combined etching and steel engraving. For Czeslaw Slania the work was funnier the harder it was. The "art philosophy" of Czeslaw Slania was - "if it is difficult and hard to do then I shall do it!" He was also a great joker. What matters is that you need to have a good magnifying glass, and then you can discover original amusing remarks. He performed conjuring tricks, not visible for the naked eye, names or portraits into the engravings. For example in the Swedish long ski-racing stamp "Vasaloppet" from 1973 the engraver himself is in the front line together with two colleagues. The work of Czeslaw Slania is so great that it is valuable to study and collect his stamps. That is why clubs and study groups come up in order to study the life and work of the engraver. Sweden was first with “Czeslaw Slania Samfundet” in Stockholm (Czeslaw Slania Association). It started already in 1981 in connection with the 60th birthday of Czeslaw Slania. "Czeslaw Slania Study Group" started in 1985 in Milwaukee USA. There are also a Danish club called “Danpolphil” in Copenhagen and one in Jelenia Gora Poland called “Stowarzyszenie Czeslawa Slani”. The last months of his life Czeslaw Slania was ill. He passed away at a hospital in Krakow, Poland on Thursday March 17 this year at the age of 83 years and almost 5 month. On the very same date exactly 5 years ago (March 17, 2000) the famous Swedish 50 kr stamp, his 1000th stamp, was issued.
Czeslaw Slania was buried in Krakow on March 24th, 2005. According to Czeslaw Slania’s own will he did not want a big funeral. From his family came daughter Olivia and sister Leokadia. As Czeslaw Slania was a citizen of honour in his birth place Czeladz, the mayor and some other authority persons from that city were participating. Some persons from the Polish Philatelic Society and friends were also at the funeral. From Sweden came Jerzy Krysiak, who was a very close and dear friend to Czeslaw Slania. All together there were some 50 people at the ceremony. Even if the great master has put his graving-tools down and no more masterpieces will astonish the world’s all philatelists, and others as well, we are all very grateful to what Czeslaw Slania did. His work will never die. We are many who every day can find joy in looking and study the small paper pieces at the corner of an envelope or in our albums where we collect them.
Our thoughts will also go to
Czeslaw
Slania's daughter Olivia, We, the philatelists and friends all over the world thank you for what you did. Rest in peace |
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March 29th,
2005 |
