What Was In Your Mailbox Today??

Well-spotted!

Anyone passing thru NYC should not miss the Tiffany Lamp exhibit at the NYHS.

https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitio...iffany-lamps

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (who has walked visitors thru that exhibit, uh, more than once)

Thanks ikeyPikey,

I will someday have to take a look at the NYHS. Thank you for that link.

Down in the Philadelphia area I often escort visitors to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the First white house site, which are the usual sites along with the Betsy Ross house. But I do like to stroll down two blocks from Independence Hall to the Curtis Building and show off The Dream Garden, a 100,000 piece, 15 ft. x 49 ft. mosaic collaboration between Tiffany and Maxfield Parrish.

It is extremely hard to photograph in a way that would convey how wonderfully luminous it is. I find that Freeman's does the best:
https://www.freemansauction.com/new...hia-landmark. One of the best free art experiences in Philadelphia.

-Jonathan

Thank you, Jonathan!

I've added The Dream Garden to The Travel List, which is composed of both broader destinations (walk around Barcelona, Santa Fe, etc) as well as singularities not to be missed along the way (the Coal Harbour seaplane base in Vancouver BC CA, or the life-size dolls of Nagoro JP).

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I recently purchased a US Sc. 407 which I have posted in the recent purchases thread as it seemed to be going unused the last two weeks. Along with the 407, the seller threw in two unidentified freebies. I suspect he is clearing out unsold used stock. These provided some amusement.

The first was a rather well centered Shermack type III private perf. which proved to have a double watermark making it a Sc.344. A year ago I received a Schermack type III Sc. 482 on a cover as a freebie from another dealer. Building a free Schermack collection is certainly unexpected fun.



The second giveaway was the following. It matches the vermilion of a 183 I have, but the paper does not exhibit nearly as many nor as long fibrous threads at the perforations which I see on the 183 American Bank Note issue. The freebie has a crisper sound when flicked and is just not as supple feeling as the 183. Also more translucent, so I tend to believe this newcomer is on the harder paper and thus a 178. http://www.stampsmarter.com/1847usa...Note02c.html with the link to paper types is helpful, as is the extensive run down of all these issues at http://www.stampsmarter.com/Learnin...eIssues.html

First the probable #178 and below is my old #183.

Today I recieved a number of patriotic covers from the WW2 era USA.

Some I have already been able to find some information on and some still need some work.

Shown are the patriotic messages on the cover.

I haven't actually received this yet, but bought it for my Art Deco collection. It's a stamp that I was previously unaware of. So far my strategy for finding material for inclusion in the collection (actually I have divided the collection into two sub-collections, one for conventional stamps, covers, cachets, and cancellations, and one for Cinderellas) has been to put the words Art Deco into the search line for the general heading "stamps" in ebay, and very rarely does anything new crop up, but today I decided to go to topicals and look there, and this beauty popped up, a commemorative honoring the Austrian architect Josef Hoffman, issued shortly after his death in 1956. Hoffman designed buildings and furniture in the Art Deco style, and the stamp includes Art Deco motifs in the borders on either side of the portrait.

My first Proof for the 1851-57 Three Cent collection.

I was disappointed by the plain cover of my stimulus check. After the way the media was complaining about Trumps' name on the check, I was hoping for a full color cachet of the president with a cornucopia under his arm.

The check itself has the presidents' name printed on it but no signature as advertised. The only signature is Vera Robinson. Anyone ever heard of her?

2 arrivals today.

First:

A French 1924 Olympic Games Carte Postale used.
Although simular in catalogue value, I find a used one far more difficult to find then an unused one.



Second:

A few more Patriotic covers WW2 era. Shown is the Patriotic message part.

Q/ How many people would have declared it lost, framed their souvenir, and ordered a replacement?

Q/ And what would that have cost the taxpayers?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

My penchant for pumpkins persists...

An addition to my Denmark collection: the very elusive Scott 51c, with the wider crown watermark, #113, and inverted frame. For some reason I've not been able to find a single of this stamp before. I'm now only missing 2 stamps listed on Steiner pages for all of the regular Denmark issues up until the year 2000. For some strange reason, and I've seen one other example in my Denmark collection, Scott lists this stamp for a lower price on cover than for the loose stamp: $240 for the loose stamp, $175 on cover. In nearly every other example I could find where Scott lists a separate price for on cover, the on cover is anywhere from about 10% more than the loose stamp to up to ten times as much. Facit is more sensible, they list the stamp at 2000 Swedish kroner for the loose stamp and 2500 SKR on cover. It's not a great copy, the cancellation is smudgy and obliterates the 50 ore value more than I would like but, the perfs are OK and the centering isn't too bad, and it's such an elusive stamp that I'll take it, and most of all it fills a hole in my collection that I've been trying to fill for years.

With the help of a trusted Indian States dealer, I was able to fill in the holes of a number of first issue broken sets.

Tranvancore-Cochin 1-6


Wadhwan 1


Hyderabad 1-3


Jind 1-4


Poonch 1


Rajpeepla 1-3


Las Bela 1-3


Cochin 1-3

Today arrived a collection of 50 US revenue related documents.
I will have fun going through them and educate myself.

Here are a few of the battleship issue.

2 cents Documentary. well centered



10 cents Documentary. 5 on the front and 3 more are on the back.



50 cents Documentary. 5 times on Warranty Deed.




If I can find some, time I will post a few more in the next days.

In addition to yesterdays post.

Some Revenue Stamped Paper examples. Online I have seen the number of designs, colors, text etc.

Typical case of first read all about it and then start Looking on what
you have.