Profile: Lapel Pins – 1988 European Championships, Prague, Czechoslovakia

By 1988, it had been 40 years since a European Figure Skating Championships had taken place in Prague, Czechoslovakia, a city known for the magnificent cathedral spires that define its skyline—and from which it earns the nickname “City of a Hundred Spires.” Although the collectible lapel pins made to commemorate the 1988 European Figure Skating Championships are not nearly as architecturally complex or intricately designed as those spirals, they marked the occasion with a bit of cultural flair just the same.

There are two main logo pins from the event, similarly designed but featuring different wording: the smaller of the two with the event name in Czech, and the second with the name in Czech (although abbreviated) and English. The smaller logo pin, on a gold-color base metal, measures approximately 5/8″ x 3/4″ (1.6 cm x 1.9 cm) and has gracefully rounded corners. At the center is a charming illustration of a female figure skater in traditional costume, with calf-high skating boots and pigtails flowing freely. A true peek into the Czech culture. The skater appears to be full of joy and with boundless freedom, which is quite a contrast when set against the restrictive life behind the Iron Curtain. Perhaps the jubilation seen in the skater was the illustrator’s way of incorporating a mood that thousands of people must have longed to experience. Along the top of the pin is the event name: “Mistrovství Evropy v Krasobruslení.” To the right of the skater are the event location and year: “Praha 88.” The interconnected “88” is designed to be reminiscent of blade tracings left on the ice. All lettering is in gold, with the skater in a dark red–orange color.

The second logo pin, larger in size at approximately 1″ x 1‑1/2″ (2.5 cm x 3.8 cm), is also on a gold-color base metal but features more squared corners. The pin is the same design, differing only in the wording at the top, with the Czech abbreviated on this version but also including the event name in English: “ME v Krasobruslení / European Figure Skating Championships.”

At the center of the 1988 European Figure Skating Championships pin is a charming illustration of a female figure skater in traditional costume, with calf-high skating boots and pigtails flowing freely.

The final two pins in the gallery are the largest of those known from the championship and are equally sized. Likely produced in limited quantity and given selectively, these two pins employ all the same elements and design as the second logo pin but are done in a palette of muted colors. The first shows the female figure skater, hair filled in black, in a yellow costume on a light-colored, blue–green background. A border of dark yellow nicely frames the pin, which is done on a gold-color base metal with a flat epoxy coating. The lettering and the outlining of the artwork and the year are also in gold. Like the logo pins, the center spaces of the “88” are filled, but in this case with red (the center fill is actually nearly indiscernible in the smaller of the two logo pins, with the gold outline somewhat bleeding together). The second of the two larger pins is identical to the first except for the color of the skater’s costume, which is filled in orange. Each of the pins measures approximately 1‑1/4″ x 1‑11/16″ (3.2 cm x 4.3 cm).

Eleven years later, the European Championships would return to Prague. As the folklore goes, a pin was not produced for the 1999 Europeans, but The Curator of The Netropolitan Museum of Figure Skating Pins has, in fact, seen a pin from that championship.

Enjoy this week’s figure skating pins blog: 1988 European Figure Skating Championships Pins: Of Spires and Spirals. And be sure to read the museum story for more information about figure skating pins.

Pins Gallery: 1988 European Figure Skating Championships

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