O2402

Great Lakes Lighthouses

St. Joseph, Lake Michigan

Collins Cover Announcement 

St. Joseph's Lighthouse

St. Joseph's Lighthouse was built in 1832 making it the second oldest on Lake Michigan. Its claim to fame is a pier-light system that utilizes both towers and catwalks. It is one of only two such systems still in existence. My hand-painted "entire" cachet depicts a sailoat enjoying a brisk wind as it darts over small waves. The swells form miniature white-topped breakers as they near the shallow water of an unseen beach. In the foreground, a gull has secured a bit of food and flies with the tiny morsel in its beak.

The expansive waters are a dark blue and contrast nicely with the colorful hull of the sailboat and the brightly attired crew of two -- parent and child. A pair of gulls flies over the sails in the opposite direction and away from a sloping green bluff that rises to form a distant shore. Looking straight out, there is nothing but water as far as the eye can see until it eventually reaches the cloud filled sky at the horizon. St. Joseph's Lighthouse stamp. Lake Michigan vista cachet. Item #O2402. $10.75.

Autumn 2022 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 21 O2401 to O2405 — Great Lakes Lighthouses (6/17/95)

This set of five lighthouses sold out quite quickly after I first offered them in 1995. The "entire" hand painted cachets all express a feeling of exhilaration in the great outdoors. For Lake Superior, I did a family of three in a canoe hugging the shoreline. Note the large rising sun, the trio of loons, and the squirrel in the white birch cluster. Split Rock Light is the stamp. For Lake Michigan, a small sailboat navigates the breaking waves. A gull has just caught a minnow, and two more hover overhead. Saint Joseph's is the Light for Lake Huron. I show a freighter passing under the bridge as two white-tailed deer look on. The sky is aglow! Spectacle Reef is the Light for Lake Erie. A family in period dress enjoys kite flying on the windy shore. Two sailboats pass in the distance. Marblehead Light stands nearby. For Lake Ontario I show a raccoon at twilight scavenging the shoreline. The setting sun frames a Great Lakes freighter. If you look closely, you'll see the raccoon's mate peering out of a hollow stump. Thirty Mile Point is the Light stamp.