Czesław Słania
Czesław Słania (22 October 1921 Czeladź; 17 March 2005 Kraków)<ref name="sweden">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was a Polish postage stamp and banknote engraver, living in Sweden from 1956. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Słania was the most skilled and prolific of all stamp engravers, with over 1000 stamps to his credit. His 1000th engraved stamp, based on the 17th-century painting "Great Deeds by Swedish Kings" by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl (2000), is in the Guinness Book as the largest engraved stamp ever issued.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Life
Słania was born in Czeladź, Poland, and was the son of a miner.<ref name=gsm>"The Slania I Knew" by Otto Hornung in Gibbons Stamp Monthly, June 2005, p.90.</ref>Template:Sfn During the German invasion of Poland and outbreak of World War II in 1939, he was a student of a gymnasium in Lublin.Template:Sfn During the subsequent German occupation he forged German money and documents for the Polish resistance,<ref name=gsm/> and in the later part of the war he became a soldier of the Second Polish Army.Template:Sfn After the war, as a demobilized lieutenant, he settled in 1945 in Pisarzowice.Template:Sfn Unwilling to become a farmer, he entered the Kraków School of Fine Arts, a renowned graphics arts centre, that same year.Template:Sfn<ref name="artdaily">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> While still a student, Słania was employed by the Polish Stamp Printing Works in Łódź and Warsaw,Template:Sfn where he learned to engrave in steel. His first stamp was issued in Poland on 24 March 1951.<ref name=artdaily/>
In 1956, Słania moved to Sweden, where he began employment with the Swedish postal authorities in 1959.<ref name=sweden/> He produced stamps for Sweden and 30 other countries. His work was of such recognized quality and detail that he is one of the very few "household names" among philatelists, and some specialize in collecting his work.<ref name="exponet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
He was the Royal Court Engraver of Sweden since 1972.<ref name=artdaily/>
In 2000, his 1000th stamp was issued in Sweden, and his 1001st stamp was issued in Poland.Template:Sfn His last work was a stamp in 2005 to commemorate the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly.<ref name=sweden/>
He was also very productive in designing and engraving banknotes for numerous countries in six out of seven continents.
Awards
Czesław Słania received many awards during his life, including:<ref name=artdaily/>
- Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland 1999
- Order of Saint Charles
- Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark)
- Order Mérite Culturel (Monaco)
- Robert Stolz Music Prize (Sweden 1983)
- Rowland Hill Award 2002<ref name=gsm/>
References
Bibliography
External links
- People from Czeladź
- 1921 births
- 2005 deaths
- 20th-century Polish engravers
- 21st-century Polish engravers
- Polish stamp designers
- Polish expatriates in Sweden
- Polish resistance members of World War II
- Polish soldiers
- Burials at Rakowicki Cemetery
- Philately of Poland
- Philately of Sweden
- Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
- Recipients of the Order of Saint-Charles
- Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog
- Polish plastic artists