“A wonderful surprise”: Peter Sís on designing his first stamp for Náprstek anniversary
This month saw the release of the first postage stamp designed by the multi-award-winning illustrator and writer Peter Sís. The Česká pošta stamp marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Vojtěch Náprstek, a Czech patriot and politician who was also a pioneering Czech language journalist in America. Peter Sís says the fact he himself lives in America may explain why he got the commission.
“As a wonderful surprise, they asked if I would consider designing a stamp for Vojta Náprstek.
“Náprstek lived for 10 years or more in Wisconsin and they somehow put that together [with me].
“I did some doodles and drawings and research, and it all came together in this stamp.
“So that was very, very fortunate for me.”
I know you’re an admirer of Vojta Náprstek – what is it that you admire about him?
“As a little boy, my father went to Tibet – I did a book about that.
“He was gone for two years. And when he and the cameraman he went to Tibet with came back, they had an exhibition of their photographs and objects that they brought back with them in 1956 at the Náprstek Museum, which is a beautiful building on Betlémské náměstí in Prague.
“As a little boy I went with my father on a tour of the building and they had these cellars full of objects from the far north and Africa: canoes and spears.
“It was just magic, because all these things were just, like, tossed in there.
“So I always lived under the impression that the Náprstek Museum is the most magical place in Prague, full of mysteries.
“The second thing is I knew he was part of the nationalist movement in the 19th century, but I didn’t know the details.
“And then in 2000 I was teaching at the University of Wisconsin and I found traces of him there.
“The University of Wisconsin was a community with strong German roots, with these old halls painted with German signs – and Náprstek was part of that, because he was writing for a German-language newspaper.
“But then he also had a bookstore and he was a person who brought education and life to the community there.
“So I knew that, but I didn’t know the whole background about him participating in the uprising in 1848 in Vienna.
“His mother, who was an amazing, influential woman, got him to emigrate for 10 years, so he wouldn’t be in trouble with the Austrian government.
“So he stayed away – didn’t get in trouble, didn’t get in prison – and when he went back he became this intellectual, soft power who brought in all of this information.
“Especially with Czech women – he gave them information about washing machines and cookers and whatever existed in the 1850s or 1860s.
“He said women should go out and enjoy art and walks, and not be in the kitchen all day.
“I was very impressed that we in the Czech Republic have this amazing role model and person who we really didn’t celebrate that much, especially when I was young.
“So I was very happy to be involved with that stamp.”
This is your first ever postage stamp. What does it mean for you to be entering people’s lives in this way?
“It is very meaningful.
“I collected stamps as a boy. They had lots of the magic of faraway places.
“Now when I visit schools or talk to our own children, I see that people don’t even know what stamps are or what envelopes are or what post offices are, because they’re closing one after another.
“I’m so glad to be part of this.
“Some people might consider stamps to be things of the past, but they’re so romantic.
“It might be my first and last, but it’s such a wonderful theme – and I’m very, very happy about it.”
