100701 | CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Zdeněk Michael František Burian silver Medal.

100701 | CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Zdeněk Michael František Burian silver Medal. Issued 1984. Commemorating the Life of the Famous Painter, Illustrator, and Palaeoartist (39mm, 31.65 g, 12h). By L. Havelka.

 

1905 + 81 Z • BURIAN, bare head right / Tyrannosaurus Rex advancing right, head left. Edge: Plain.

 

Gem Mint State. Highly lustrous, with some cobalt and burnt sienna toning on the obverse, and a fairly argent nature on the reverse; a few very light hairlines on the reverse are noted.

 

Born in 1905 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Zdeněk Burian would come to play an important role in the development of palaeontological art and reconstruction. Through the government run Czechoslovakian publishing house, Artia, his work, especially on dinosaurs, reached a western audience beginning in the 1950's and 1960's, and offered a vivid, lifelike picture into the prehistoric world. It's hard to imagine the dinosaur "craze" of the 1980's and 1990's without him.