CAST BRONZE. Ø 9 CM
Karel Mraz was a handsome, jovial, sociable and kind man, a wonderful moulder and caster, I was so lucky that he was moulding my medals. His workshop was in the very center of Prague, where to the friends came to drink a glass of "panaka" (plum brandy), and where he organized his " Christmas Meetings". I was also very pleased and honoured to have been invited to those meetings. Karel contrived that every year somebody from the medalists would make a New Year PF - medal for him. One can choose the theme for it freely, but under one condition that the medal would have the following inscription: "Karel Mraz, PF and the coming year". To my great pity, I made my two last PF-medals in Karel’s life... In the first medal I have chosen the 660th anniversary of Saint Wenceslaus’s famous crown as the basic theme and made an inscription on the medal - " Karel Mraz, the Master by the grace of God". But he was a very modest man and could not accept such a definition. Besides, as Karel explained to me later on, in Czech these words could be referred to the King only. Hence I made the second variant and timed it to coincide with the anniversary of the Charles Bridge.
I will always cherish the memory of Karel Mraz in my heart, and I believe it will stay in the hearts of all the people who used to know him.
