Hradčany Abstract Design: Initial Phase
The initial phase of the Abstract Design of the Hradcany issue passed through several design stages; examples of the designs not used exist and are illustrated in the Monografie.
It is likely that complete panes from at least three of the plates from inital phase of the Abstract Design no longer exist. Although stamps from those plates found their way into circulation, there is no evidence that the source panes still exist. For instance, the original printing of the 500h was done with a single plate and the paper rotated and inserted into the press twice to get two panes on a sheet. A second 500h plate was created specifically to be surcharged and overprinted for use as an air mail stamp.
The 5h and 15h stamps has stamps printed from plates that were cut up to be used for printing postal stationary. Indeed, these plates were only discovered relatively recently by collectors in the course of plating those two denominations.
Other panes have been cut up by collectors in pursuit of "paired types" — stamps next to one another showing differences in their rendition — so that over time panes that might have been in more plentiful supply did not survive but were instead cut up for a few positions of interest.
Knihtisk illustrates at least one printing of every plate except for a few here in the initial phase of the Abstract Design. Perhaps these elusive panes do exist and scans of them will one day find their way onto the website to aid in understanding this marvelous Hradcany issue.
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