Golden Book

AUTHORS, MATERIALS, AND TECHNOLOGY

The collection “The Men of the 28th of October“ is the result of unique cooperation of tens of top Czech craftsmen and artists. During the production, specific details were considered. Laborious and complicated traditional technologies were used which are no longer used nowadays. These features make “The Men of the 28th of October” publication an exceptional work. The author of the publication to commemorative medals is the historian Pavel Černý.

Handmade paper

Was produced in the Hand Papermill Velké losiny manufactory, whose history dates to the 16th century. During the traditional handcraft, logos of the collections Heritage Collection and The Men of the 28th of October were embedded in individual sheets using the ancient watermark method.

French bookbinding

Comes from the workshop of the Bookbindery Žamberk which specializes in handcrafted bookbinding. Whole French bookbinding was applied in the case of “The Men of the 28th of October“, a very time-consuming method connecting the work with pre-made boards. This method guarantees exceptional resilience and durability of the binding. At present, it is used practically only for reconstruction of old books and for bibliophiles. The spine of the jacket is made of the leather of Moroccan goats living in local deserts’ oases. It’s the first-rate material that can be used for this type of binding.

Wooden and golden book cover

It is made of massive seasoned Czech oak. The wood was packed in special films before processing to prevent the action of humidity and mechanic damage. To carve the graphic motive “The Men of the 28th of October“ into the oak jacket, a very slow method of gradual “detracting” of the wood per 0.008 mm was chosen. As a result, this meant a long 8 hours of work on one plastic, however, because of this method, the Lamastone studio achieved the greatest plasticity and the most accurate representation of all details.

The book’s jacket is set with ornamental horns from pure gold-plated silver or pure gold. The ironwork in the upper and lower quarter of the jacket’s height is made similarly.

It is possible to complement the jacket’s decoration with gemstones, Czech garnets, and moldavites at the customer’s request. These are unique objects even in this case. The gemstones come exclusively from the archives or goldstmiths and antiquaries’ collections from the First Republic peridod. At present, these stones are no longer mined in Bohemia and are no longer available at the market.

Printing by traditional methods

Classic polygraphic craft methods techniques were used to print this exceptional book. The emphasis was put on hundreds of years of proven “medieval“ printing methods. So the printing office REPRESS used the confluence of the classic printing techniques to print the book – letterpress, offset, screen and digital technique. Blind printing, cut, hot stamping or plastic relief printing are represented in the letterpress. All printing materials for this publication, such as printing blocks, printing die, matrix, and patrix, were made especially for this unique printing only.

Golden medals with deep relief

Medals with portraits of The Men of the 28th of October of 24-carat gold are minted with so-called deep relief. This traditional technology which shows all the portrayals to the smallest details is almost no longer used for minting due to its high demands at present. It requires special equipment for minting which already belongs to the past. Modern devices are faster, less energetically expensive, but also have less power of pressure so that they are unable to make these medals. To highlight even the smallest graphic details, classic but lengthy methods of individual preparation of plaster models and printing die and matrix then was used. The commemorative medals are made of pure 24-carat gold, with the fineness of Au999/1000, weighing one troy ounce. Just the gold used for making five coins (into every book) was worth more than 150 000 CZK in the year of the book’s publication – 2018. You will find many interesting graphic details in the obverse and the reverse. 360 notches on its edge are worth noticing. Slavomír Primák designed and made the set of medals.

Exclusive stamps

A significant part of the collection is comprised of exclusive postage stamps which were designed by Slavomír Primák and issued by the Czech Post only for this single occasion. The sheet includes five stamps with portraits of “The Men of the 28th of October“ and three other stamps with motifs proceeding from the edition’s graphic. The stamps were printed in the Poštovní tiskárna cenin Praha. They were issued by the Czech Post in the form of stamp booklets in limited edition and are valid postal stamps. A total of 100 booklets, each with a relevant numbered certificate of authenticity, are placed in the “gold” commemorative books. The stamps will engage interest by using micro-prints with the motif of “Heritage Collection“.

Leather briefcase for protection

The whole collection is placed in a special, handmade briefcase. It’s upholstered by fine calfskin of blue color, top quality. The inside of the briefcase matches the coloring of the Czechoslovakian tricolor – red inner sock placed in a corpus covered with blue leather is complemented by white upholstery with logos of the edition in the lid of the briefcase.

 

Besides the book with medals, stamp booklets, and relevant certificates, the whole edition is supplemented with magnifying glass and gloves, necessary tools for researching and gentle handling. The magnifying glass of cut glass is a quality Czech product that enables to research of all the precise details of medals and stamps in detail. The solitaire is also white gloves of prime lamb leather with stamped logos on the wrists from the glove-making J. K. Trade in Dobříš. The gloves are made of high-quality Ethiopian lamb leather which is processed in one of the best Italian tannery. The gloves are made by the traditional technique of hand forming and cut.