Libor Trakal

I can say that I have been healing stoves for more than 25 years. Initially, I learned the trade of a stuccoworker and since also my ancestors had various arts education, I have always had a really close relationship to everything old and beautiful. The beginnings of my work date back to the communist Czechoslovakia, when, at one Prague´s attic, I found my very fist rusty stove that I restored. Step by step, I started collecting and restoring various types of cast iron stoves. After 1989 and the downfall of communism, I was able to devote myself fully to this passion. Throughout all these years, I have gathered a substantial volume not only of spare parts but also period documentation which is absolutely inevitable to carry out the restoration in required quality. Unlike a big number of pseudo-conservators, I guarantee that all the stoves that I restored are fully functional. At the same time, I place an immense emphasis on preservation of originality and genuinness.

The workshop, warehouse of original stoves and spare parts and the shop in Karmelitská street in Prague 1 serve the first-rate and respectable running of my business. I cooperate with the best and absolutely subject devoted specialists.

I feel that all, even though seemingly inanimate, old stoves have in them years and stories of people with whom they had shared their lives, good and bad times. I try to give the stoves back their original beauty and save them for future generations. To me, this activity is very creative and completely satisfying.

I am glad that, with a bit of exaggeration, I can think of myself as of a stove doctor.