COVER N. 495 - CZECH REPUBLIC

Postmark: Joachim Barrande . 225. Výroči Narození Jince 08.08.2024

Posted on the 8th July; Received in (?) August 2024

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Joachim Barrande.... Once again stamps and postmarks make me learn something, and that can only be good. Děkuju mockrát, Ivan, for a  very fine cover.

Joachim Barrande (1799 - 1883) was a French engineer who ended up becoming a well respected palaeontologist, and this because he, at one point in his long life, became the tutor of the grandson of France's sovereign, Charles X.

When Charles X abdicated in 1830, Joachim in his capacity of tutor of Henri d'Artois, accompanied the former king in exile, first in England then in Scotland and finally in Prague.

There, working as an engineer, he developed an interest for fossils of the Palaeozoic, found in the rocks of Bohemia, during the  construction works for a railroad.

Over the years he would amass an immense collection of fossils and during his life time he would publish 21 volumes of text and plates of his fundamental work "Système silurien du centre de la Bohême", dedicated to trilobites of several species.

Barrande, a critic of Darwin's evolutionism theory, died in Austria, but conform to his testament, his extensive collection of fossils was donated to Prague, where they are now kept at the National Museum.

Celebrating the 225th anniversary of his birth, Czech Post issued the commemorative postmark illustrated with his effigy, which can be seen on the cover.

The 20 Koruna stamp featuring a family of Orix (Orix gazella gazella)  and another of Lions (Panthera leo leo) is part of a mini-sheet issued on 07SEP2006, dedicated to "Zoos of the Czech Republic"   containing four stamps (16,20,24 and 27 Koruna) and two vignettes, all lavishly illustrated with great images of animals, as is also the frame of the sheet, whose section on the cover includes a Black-tip reef shark (Charcaminus melanopterus), a King vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) and a Ring-tailed lemur (lemur catta).

Over the years Czech Post has issued several of these very beautiful mini-sheets dedicated to fauna and flora and they are all a pleasure to behold.

In 2020 and 2021, Czech Post issued two definitive sets of two stamps each featuring butterflies. The 2021 set (23 and 1 Koruna) was used on the cover,  the stamps being illustrated  with an image of an Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines), a member of the Pieridae family which can be found all over Europe (1 Kč), an of a  Peacock  butterfly (Aglais io), also a common European sight, for the 23 Kč stamp.