The Czech EUROPA stamp features pike, perch and great crested newt

The authors chose the pike – the queen of the Czech ponds – from the huge number of fish that move under the surface of the Czech waters. To it they added the beautifully coloured perch, a frequent prey of the pike. From amphibians they captured the great crested newt, from crustaceans the mud crayfish. From the class of bivalves, a typical representative of Czech ponds – the pond clam and the gastropod mollusc. And finally, a representative of water beetles – a diver. The flora is represented by the ornament of Czech ponds, the white water lily, accompanied by the aquatic grass, the caneflower.

The theme of the FDC, which was printed in an edition of 2,300, is the scaly carp and the smooth carp. For a splash of colour, the authors have added rainbow trout, recently successfully introduced into colder carp ponds and dams.

Issued in 72,000 pieces, the stamp is marked with the letter “E”, which corresponds to the price of an ordinary shipment to European countries and is now worth CZK 44 (2 EUR).

Mr. and Mrs. Knotek have been an inseparable artistic couple for many years and are among the leading specialists in depicting flora and fauna in a global context. They are the authors of a number of picture books, but especially of many popular motifs of Czech postage stamps.

Their stamp sheet European Owls was voted the second most beautiful stamp in the world in the prestigious Grand Prix de l’Exposition WIPA competition in Vienna in 2015, and the stamp with the motif of the Czech Crown Jewels won the competition for the most beautiful Czech stamp in 2017.

You can meet the artists Jaromír and Libuše Knotek in person at the autumn Sberatel fair in Prague (6 -7 September 2024), where they will hold a big autograph session.

jj, photo: Czech Post

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