A105 A

American Quilts

Addressed in New York City, NY

Collins Announcement 

Long before I embarked on my cachetmaking career in 1978, I had been a cover collector. lt started in 1957 with an event cover from my mother, but my interest was really reignited when my wife Linda gave me a subscription to the Postal Commemorative Society. I soon discovered the early first day covers of the pioneers and everyday collectors. Some early cachetmakers started adding hand-tinted or hand-painted cachets to the envelopes they would mail, and my appreciation for this philatelic artwork increased at a steady rate. One day in the late 1970s when Linda and I were talking about the possibility of cachetmaking, she said, "Why don't you give it a shot?" and the rest is history! I decided that the Quiltmaking set of four stamps issued on March 8, 1978 would become my first cover.

As I planned my first trip, I debated with myself at length over whether or not I should address the envelopes. Eventually I decided that I would not address them, although many of the first day covers at that time did bear hand addresses. To give you a little peek into the thinking of one of the major early cachetmakers at that time, I would refer you to Professor Earl Planty who was an eminent authority on FDCs and an avid columnist for First Days. I was subsequently privileged to have a number of lighthearted debates with Earl in the late 70s and early 80s. He championed addressed envelopes. Although I agreed with him in spirit and tradition, I believed the hobby had moved beyond that era and we were now in the age of expanded artistic expression in cachets requiring all available space. He was very complimentary of my covers and eventually validated my point of view. ln my book beginning on page 137, there is a large tribute to Earl who had a profound impact on the hobby.

I was very excited about this first step in my cachetmaking journey and embarked on my adventure to Charleston, West Virginia, the officia! first day city for the Quiltmaking issue. After

obtaining my Charleston cancels, I headed to the airport where I realized I had a little extra time and, on the spur of the moment, hand-addressed some envelopes to myself and mailed them. I

repeated the process at the Pittsburgh, PA airport during my layover enroute to my next stop, New York City, from which I mailed a final batch of covers. ln total, I hand-addressed and mailed 80 covers during my inaugural first day cover trip as follows:

  o 7 from Charleston, WV (Collins #A103)

  o 23 from Pittsburg, PA (Collins #A104)

  o 37 from New York City, NY {Collins #A105}

  o 13 from New York City, NY- bullseye cancel {Collins #A106)

Since I was focused on building my newly established business and did not intend to release these hand-addressed envelopes, I put them into a storage box. I subsequently hand-addressed and mailed a small number of my third cover (Lighthouse) and stored these in the same box. To be totally honest, those early hand-addressed covers faded completely from my memory, and that is why they were not entioned in my book about my first 20 years of cachetmaking. They did not see the light of day until a short time ago when I began tackling the large project of reorganizing my own cachets as well as my general collection of FDCs. When I discovered that box, I was stunned and could not believe my eyes! To be honest, I wasn't sure what to do with them and I contemplated just keeping them for my own personal collection. However, after some reflection, I came to the realization that the fact that these 80 Quiltmaking covers were actually sent through the mail-stream on the first day of issue for my first-ever cover makes them very important to the overall story of Collins First Day Covers.

l'm excited to offer my collectors the chance to obtain one of these hand-addressed Quiltmaking covers. ln order to be fair to all of my collectors, I am going to put ten A105 covers up for auction. There were only 37 made with this New York City cancel. The covers will be sold to the top 10 bidders, at one dollar over the 11th highest bid. lf you are interested in obtaining one of these unique covers, please submit your bid no later than Friday, August 23'd. l am only taking bids for the A105 at this time. lt is possible that some of the other hand-addressed covers will appear in future mail sales.

It's important to note that each of the 80 hand-addressed Quiltmaking covers had two of the four Quiltmaking stamps. Stamp variety and placement varies. The cancels are readable, but often faint. Many of the envelopes have some slight discoloration.

I realize that the unexpected discovery that I made over 40 years after the start of my cachetmaking journey will be as much of a surprise to you and the rest of my wonderful collectors as it was to me. However, I hope that you will be excited to learn the full story of the Quiltmaking saga leading up to the rediscovery of this treasure trove.

Thank you for your interest in Collins First Day Covers over the years.