Why this time such a simple stamp on a joint issue of Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands (designer M. Mörck). Simply because I am – after some research – impressed by the engraver Czeslaw Slania. Slania is known around the world for his artistic achievements and craftsmanship. He has engraved more than 1,000 (!) stamps for 32 different countries at a breathtaking rate. Less than one month is said to have been needed by him for a steel engraving pattern for a stamp.
He was born in Poland in 1921 (died in 2005 there) and has already shown great skills in creating small artistic formats as a child. In 1947, he began his studies at the Academy of Arts in Krakow and was then working in the State Printing Office of Poland. In 1951 his first stamp was issued (General Jaroslaw Dabronski, Poland 1951). In 1956 he moved to Sweden, where three years later he also engraved stamps for the Swedish Post Office. He was appointed court engraver in Sweden, Denmark, and Monaco. In addition, he also had many other countries around the world as permanent stamp customers but also as a designer of banknotes.
For Denmark alone, Czesław Słania engraved 241 stamps. For Greenland he engraved 80 stamps and for the Faroe Islands a whole of 100 stamps. No wonder, that on his 100th birthday this joint issue was published and that Czeslaw Slania’s stamps represent a philatelic collecting field on its own.
