Czesław Słania (22 October 1921 Czeladź; 17 March 2005

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

) was a Polish

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

and

banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...

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.

Life

Słania was born in Czeladź, Poland, and was the son of a miner."The Slania I Knew" by Otto Hornung in '' Gibbons Stamp Monthly'', June 2005, p.90. During the German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

and outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1939, he was a student of a gymnasium in

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

. During the subsequent German occupation he forged German money and documents for the Polish resistance, and in the later part of the war he became a soldier of the Second Polish Army. After the war, as a demobilized lieutenant, he settled in 1945 in Pisarzowice. Unwilling to become a farmer, he entered the Kraków School of Fine Arts, a renowned graphics arts centre, that same year. While still a student, Słania was employed by the Polish Stamp Printing Works in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, where he learned to engrave in steel. His first stamp was issued in Poland on 24 March 1951. In 1956, Słania moved to Sweden, where he began employment with the Swedish postal authorities in 1959. 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

philatelist Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible ...

s, and some specialize in collecting his work. He was the Royal Court Engraver of Sweden since 1972. In 2000, his 1000th stamp was issued in Sweden, and his 1001st stamp was issued in Poland. His last work was a stamp in 2005 to commemorate the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly. 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: * Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland 1999 * Order of Saint Charles * Knight of the

Order of the Dannebrog The Order of the Dannebrog () is a Denmark, Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V of Denmark, Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the Order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single cla ...

(Denmark) * Order Mérite Culturel (Monaco) * Robert Stolz Music Prize (Sweden 1983) * Rowland Hill Award 2002

References

Bibliography

External links

Collecting the Works of Czeslaw Slania by Chuck MatlackForging Nazi Documents and Drawing for Kings: Czesław Słania’s Story
from Culture.pl {{DEFAULTSORT:Slania, Czeslaw 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