CHAT: Happy Birthday, Mr Housa!

Today is a momentous day for it is the day we celebrate the 90th (!!!) birthday of one of the finest stamp engravers in the whole world: Bedrich Housa. And what better way to do so then to look again at some of his most beautiful stamps?!


While it is hard to choose with so many wonderful stamps he's engraved, I think the 1969 Horses set issued in Czechoslovakia comes very close to being the best of the best, so here they are.


The first four values are Housa's engravings of engravings.


The original works were by Goltzius (30h), Merian (80h), Hollar (1k60) and Dürer (1k80).


The 2k40 stamp is the odd one out in that it is not printed in monochrome. However, the reason for that is that this was not an engraving, but a painting, by Ridinger, so you sort of understand why they opted for this multi-coloured soulution.


I think the Dürer stamp, depicting his 'Large Horse' of 1505, is my favourite. for some reason I'm always attracted to Dürer's work and it's fascinating to see how other engravers re-interpret his work. Just blow up the image and look at the details on the horse's head. If you compare it to Dürer's work you see how beautifully well Housa has managed to create the stamp image. Now that would be my choice for a block of stamps with Housa's signature on! If only...


:-)
Adrian