COVER N. 319 - SLOVAKIA

Postmark: Martin Činovský  Magister čiar - Banská Bystrica 1 20.07.2023 / 96611 Trnavá Hora 19.09.2023

Posted on the 19th September; received on the 24th September 2023

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Engravers... in their eyes, hands and tools, all equally sharp, lies the responsibility of transferring into the tiny surface of a stamp a work of art.

A singular - in both acceptions of the word - job, calling on concentration, talent and  skill, in order to perform, much like a surgeon does on our bodies,  delicate operations on a sheet of metal, so that we can later enjoy the beauty of  a mirrored image finally printed onto a little piece of paper, so humble that we aren't even afraid of considering it disrespectful to lick its back and paste it onto an envelope.

Often they are also illustrators, painters, graphic artists. But most of all their are  Masters of Lines, Magisteri čiar, in Slovak. 

Much like Martin Činovský, to whom the exhibition thus entitled that ran in Banská Bystrica from 20.7 to the day before yesterday, the past 26th, was dedicated, and whose commemorative postmark features on the cover, for which I heartedly thank Michal.

Martin Činovský was born in 1953 in Levoča, in what was then Czechoslovakia and is now Slovakia. Educated in arts in his home country, he further pursued his studies in France at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, where he specialised in stamp design.

His were the first Slovak stamps after the independence of the country, as well as a further 150 stamps he produced, either as the stamp designer or engraver or both, over the following years unto the present. The outstanding quality of his work is well acknowledged internationally and in 2011, one of his engraving works  - the miniature sheet celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Žilina Synod, issued in 2010 - was considered to be the most beautiful European stamp of the year.

 I, being new to the hobby, was not aware of his name or of his work, but the quality of engraved Slovak stamps is something that has caught my eye a number of times...

The two stamps on the cover, though, are not produced from engraved masters, but are either offset (on the left corner), or offset and serigraphed (on the the right corner).

Left:

As well as a gifted painter, Peter Michal Bohúň (1822 – 1879) was an ardent defender of Slovak autonomy, as proved by his active participation in the Slovak uprising of 1848, which aimed at improving the national standing of Slovaks within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

As an artist he would become known for portrait works, although he also painted landscapes and religious scenes, such as the one from which the detail on the stamp issued by Slovak Post in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth was taken, and transferred to a 0,65€ stamp, issued on my own birthday :-) 04MAR2022. 

Right:

Hiking as an organised sport in Slovakia goes back to the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when the Hungarian Carpathian Association (UKS) was founded in Kežmarok (Slovakia). on 8th August 1873.

Its present day successor, The Slovak Tourist Club, carries on the flag of promoting Hiking, either by forming instructors of by representing the interests of hikers or by establishing and marking new hiking itineraries.

The 150th Anniversary of Organised Hiking Trips in Slovakia was celebrated by the Slovak Post with a T2 tariff (0,90 €) stamp issued on 14JUL2023, illustrated with a classic image of a Hiking route marking on the trunk of a tree.

The regular postmark on the cover was issued at Trnavá Hora, a town in the Banská Bystrica in the centre-west of Slovakia.