Karel Špánek

Life and work

Details of his places of birth and death and of his training could not be verified in the available sources. His work is the subject of Eduard Polívka's study The Engraver and Medallist Karel Špánek (1894–1965), published in Numismatické listy 1989/5–6, and of an article on Špánek and Konůpek in Zprávy ČNS Brno 1989, nos. 70–71. The documented commissions show an artist working for four decades for Prague societies, Sokol and numismatic organisations.

Coins and medals

Auction catalogues record his medals for Karel Pištora, chairman of a Prague guild (1923), for the 50th anniversary of Sokol Královské Vinohrady 1887–1937 (1937), a medal in memory of Bedřich Skrbek awarded by the numismatic society (1963), and a silver medal on the peace message of George of Poděbrady (1964, Ag 900, 28 mm). He also engraved a token for the 5th Numismatic Days of Silesia and north-eastern Moravia (1960) after a design by Hilar Šlosar, and New Year medals for Eduard Polívka (1963, 1964). His work represents the precise craftsman-engraver serving the world of societies and collectors.

From the work in the AUREA range

The AUREA range includes four pieces of his medal for the 500th anniversary of the coronation of George of Poděbrady and Kunštát as King of Bohemia of 1958, 29 mm: one in bronze and three in silver (Ag 900). The coronation commemorated by the medal took place in 1458 in St Vitus Cathedral in Prague. The subject anticipates his later medal on the same king's peace message.