Published by courtesy of the copyright holder Paul Rak.

My name is Paul Rak and I am a recently new Amphora collector, having started collecting Amphora in early 2004 when my wife and I met many of the American Amphora members at the last Amphora Convention which was held in New Jersey.
We caught the Amphora collecting bug right away, and just 2 years later, we own over 80 pieces already, with 22 of them being purchased from the recent Jan Dorland auction in July 2005. We have no children yet, which is why we have been able to spend so much money in such a short time, but we do have a daughter due at the end of February, so the buying might slow down after she arrives. Also, I have included a photo of 4 of my favourite most recently acquired Amphora pieces.

The Land That Begat Amphora

Although we reside in Canada, just 1 hour east of Toronto, I am originally Czech. I was born in 1964 in Litomìøice, the town where the Amphora companies had to register their businesses. In fact, I am currently looking to find in the city archives the 1892 original registration of the RStK Amphora company, with the hope that I can find the signatures of the founders Riessner, Stellmacher & Kessel on that document. It would be exciting to see this document. Fortunately I have one relative in Litomìøice that works in a government position and she is helping to point me to the right archives.

I asked to write an article for the Amphora periodical to discuss a few key points that I feel will give Amphora collectors a deeper appreciation for the history of the region, thereby enhancing the provenance of their Amphora collections. As well, I wanted to tackle an issue that I very much feel needs to be clarified. That issue is whether it is correct to say that Amphora was made in Austria by Austrians. The topics are interrelated and will follow this order: A history of Bohemia that clarifies the ethnicity of the Bohemian people
* Misconceptions/ Czech National Revival/ Are Czechs German or Austrian?
* Was Amphora really made in Austria?
* Tips for anyone wishing to visit the Czech Republic

In The Beginning

A fascinating part of my background is that being born in Litomìøice and living in the small village of Hrdly just south of Litomìøice, I was able to see every day the mythic birthplace of the Czech people, a lone and tall hill known as Øíp Mountain.
This hill is east of where we lived and I remember my father often pointing out Øíp Mountain and telling me the legend of Forefather Cech. The legend is that nearly 1600 years ago, two brother princes Cech and Lech journeyed from the east with their tribes and after much hardship crossed one by one the rivers Oder, Elbe and then Vltava, arriving at last in a region known since Roman times as Bohemia.
There at Øíp Mountain, which is only 30 minutes southeast as the crow flies from Teplice (Teplitz), Cech climbed the mount and looked out across the fertile plain saying “This land is filled with game and birds, flowing with sweet milk and honey.” Deciding to rest a while, Cech meditated for 3 days and on the last day went to his people and spoke “This is the land that I have often promised you, a land subject to no one. Our wanderings are over for good”.
Thus Cech and his people stayed in the region and became the Czech people of today while Lech and his tribe, not being content, chose to continue further north, where they were to become the nation of Polish people
What surprised me about this legend is that there is historical mention of the forefather Cech as far back as the 11 Century when the Bohemian priest Cosmas wrote about Cech’s arrival to Bohemia in his famous Chronica Boëmorum (Chronicle of Bohemians).

Also, this legend has its basis in actual history. Several different people lived in the region. First there were the Boii (500BC) and then the Teutonic tribes (100BC) who were later expelled by the Romans around 400AD. Then the history books are silent for about 100 years about the region.
Scholars unanimously agree that around 500 AD the Slavs did actually come from the East from an area north of the Carpathian Mountains, between Ukraine and Romania. And in a sense they did find “a land subject to no one”, as the Romans did not settle the region after expelling the Teutons. So even if the story about Cech and his tribe is legend, it is symbolic of the actual arrival of the Slav people that were to become the Czechs of today.

Czech Rule From 500 to 1526

From the arrival of the Czechs, we enter a 700 year period from 800 AD to 1526 AD where the Czechs ruled Bohemia. Just read aloud some of the names of the Czech rulers during this period to gain an appreciation for the ancestry of Bohemia: Mojmír (800AD), Rostislav (850-870), Svatopluk (871-894), Boleslav II (967-99). Pøemysl Otakar I (1198-1230), Vaclav (1378-1419), Ladislas (1437 to 1457), Vladislav II (1471-1485). They are all names of Czech rulers.
During this period, the Czech language was dominant in the region, replacing even Latin among the clergy. Protestantism took strong root, the Charles University was built in Prague, and Bohemia became an economic and military power. As well, the region of Bohemia as seen on maps today including the areas around Teplice and Litomìøice were defined in this period such that they have not changed in 600 years. So not only had the Czech people an extensive historical and national consciousness by the 16th Century, they also had established long-term borders to defend.

Germanic Colonization

From1526 to 1867, Bohemia came under the incredibly oppressive rule of the Habsburg Empire, which blatantly worked to erase the national identity of the Czechs.
The Habsburgs stripped Czech nobility of their class, replaced them with German nobility, declared all lands the property of the Habsburg Empire and placed the entire educational system under Jesuit control.
As well, they began implementing a colonization policy whereby German speaking people were encouraged to settle and dominate Czech lands. This policy was promoted for over 300 years but fortunately never succeeded in making the Germanic people more than a minority among the Czechs.

Misconceptions

Conquerors rewrite history and I believe the Austrians and Germanic groups sought to rewrite Czech history. The effects of this are still evident today.
For example, I find it very disturbing to hear North Americans often refer to Czechs as being German or Austrian. Just last week while watching the Antiques Roadshow, I saw one appraiser from the American Midwest examining a Moravian ceramic fish from the mid 1800’s. He said to the fish’s owner, “Moravians were German.” I jumped off the couch in a fury! Moravians and Bohemians are not German or Austrian. Moravians were a second wave of Slavs out of the East shortly after the Czech Slavs. Moravians and Bohemians both speak West Slavic and have since the 12th Century shared the same history (Alfons Mucha and the first Czechoslovakian president were both from Moravia, but they are always referred to as being Czech).

Of course German was the language of commerce and government in the 1800’s. Just examine the back of one of the many invoices I have found from Ernst Wahliss’ business from an Austrian dealer this last year. I have invoices from 1896 to 1916, and they are all in German. But that does not make the people of the region German. Some people have even suggested to me that the German and Czech languages must be similar. A few everyday words show the extreme difference (English-German-Czech):
bread – brot – chleba
life – leben – zivot
house – haus – dùm
It is obvious that German and Czech share nothing in common, despite Czech and German speaking people living side by side for centuries.
But during the 1800’s events were taking place that would allow the Czech language to regain its position and for the Czech Bohemians to once again be free citizens with full rights and self-government.
As well, the stage was being prepared for the creation of the Amphora companies. Would they owe their existence to the Austria-Hungary Empire or would their origin be open to other influences?
Stay Tuned for Part II of The Land of Amphora.