M2902

American Art - 1700s

“Rubens Peale with a Geranium,” by Rembrandt Peale, “Long-billed Curlew, Numenius Longrostris,” by John James Audubon, “Kindred Sprits,” by Asher Vane B. Durand, "Music and Literature,” by William Harnett

Collins Cover Announcement 

Four Centuries of American Art

As a Collins collector, you will be delighted with this mini-set of five hand-painted First Day Covers that feature all twenty of the new "Four Centuries of American Art" stamps. All five of these covers (the two presented now and the three that will follow shortly) are absolutely stunning, and I'm personally very anxious for you to see them. They are truly superb FDCs!

Let me tell you how, after much thought, I decided to approach this project. First, I quickly concluded that I did not want to do a twenty-cover set for individual stamps. Although about half would have yielded excellent cachets, the other half, in my opinion, would have been difficult to deal with. Hence, I decided to do five cachets that were inspired by the broad century time frames from 1600 to 2000. It is important for me to state that, except for the Audubon cover, my cachet art subjects relate loosely to the time periods rather than the specific paintings or artists from the stamps. Because I needed to group four stamps per cover, not all of them are necessarily from the time frame of the cachet. I do think, however, that, given the fact that I had 20 specific stamp designs to deal with, they all fit in with their particular cover extremely well.

A couple of the paintings on the stamps were from the sixteen hundreds. The cachet that I chose to depict this century from our history was the historic day that the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. From this humble beginning, an American culture would develop on our eastern seaboard that would include artistic expression. For the seventeen hundreds, I chose to show one of John J. Audubon's birds as his "long-billed curlew" is the subject of one of the stamps, and I knew that the hand-painted owl would be a dynamic cachet. Both of these Collins Covers, with so many Classic American works of art plus my hand-painted cachets, are truly gorgeous.

So as not to detract from the impressive content and vibrant color on the face of each cover, I've done something different. Rather than put the text on the face of the envelope (which I found somewhat distracting), I printed it on the back instead. I think this has really contributed to the marvelous visual impact while, at the same time, still including the pertinent identifying text.

In the months and years ahead, collectors will be seeking these strikingly beautiful Collins FDCs on the , open market. I am proud to present them now for your collection. Four Centuries of American Art. "Pigrims at Plymouth Rock" - Collins number M2901. John J. Audubon's "Owl" - Collins number M2902. Four stamps on each coverat $13.75 each.