E3002

Love

Victorian Heart - “Sea of Love” Cachet

Subscriber-Only Edition

Summer 2025 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 30 E3002 — Victorian Love — "Sea of Love" — a Subscriber-Only FDC — 1/28/99 plus a free Lovebirds FDC 

This very detailed Love cover has several very special features. The two "heart-shaped" stamps (a Postal Service first) are tied to the cover with an excellent black hand cancel from Valentine Station, Loveland, Colorado. Of special interest, and adding much appeal to the envelope, is a postal rubber stamp cachet from Loveland in a soft magenta ink. Its color is a nice match with the border of the lower stamp. This unique cachet has a Valentine verse and a globe on which, if examined carefully, you will find the location of Loveland, Colorado marked. You had to be there in person to secure these crisp and beautiful postal "Valentine" markings.

The hand painted cachet is superb. In Victorian times, boats of various sizes were often used on Valentines. Perhaps they were a symbol of the distance over which messages of the heart traveled. Speaking of hearts, that is the cargo which the boat carries and also the ribbon-bound cluster that a cupid holds in the foreground. A black and white kitten joins two cherubs in the rowboat sailing amid the white-capped waves on the "Sea of Love."

Also included with the special "Victorian Love cover" will be "Lovebirds Cachet." It was produced at the same time with the special shaped stamps, same Loveland cancel, and the identical postal rubber stamp cachet. This cover is still available, but I would like you to have it free as it complements the E3002 so well. First time in one of my mail sales — a limited-edition dual FDC with a unique postal cachet plus a free coordinated cover. Linda and I are on a 61-year voyage on "The Sea of Love" with no land in sight.