Kamil Lhoták

In the lottery on our last club meeting we had the stamp block from Czechoslovakia as a prize, with an image of a painting made by Kamil Lhoták. Our member Ad van Tiel sent me the information below about this artist:

Kamil Lhoták (1912 - 1990) was a painter, graphic artist and illustrator.
Many of the works of Kamil Lhoták have been issued on stamps, amongst which motorcycles from Czechoslovakia (1975) and the stamp with the tricar (1987).

Kamil Lhoták behind his drawing desk

Also on many drawings of Kamil Lhoták motorcycles have been depicted:

On November 18th 1987 a series of 5 sheets with 4 stamps each was issued. On the stamps images from pieces of art from the National Gallery. On one of the stamps a picture made by Kamil Lhoták has been depicted. On the stamp we see, amongst other things, a tricar:

The loose stamp

The block of 4

A tricar is a 3-wheeled vehicle.
In the early years of motoring it was not yet clear which kind of vehicle was to be preferred, the 4-wheeled automobile, the 3-wheeled tricar, the also 3-wheeled tricycle or the 2-wheeled motorcycle.
In general tricars had 2 wheels in the front and 1 rear wheel. And although they appeared to have a similar lay-out as forecars, the last had a headstock and motorcycle handlebars and thus not hub centered steering. A famous manufacturer of tricars was Léon Bollée, who called his vehicles voiturette ("little car" in French). Although the tricar became forgotten, trikes are becoming popular again nowadays.

The image on the stamp is not the complete painting by Kamil Lhoták. Next to the tricar there is also a motorcycle depicted:

The series Czech motorcycles from 1975, with images drawn by Kamil Lhótak:

Ad van Tiel

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