Another Flight Cover Question (C12 FDC)

Can anybody identify the cachet maker for this C12 FDC?



It is not in Planty. The envelop was made by Roessler, but that doesn't necessarily mean the cachet is his. But does anybody know one way or the other? FWIW, the exact same cover is currently listed on ebay, right down to the addressee:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/201208638558?lpid=82

Which I guess raises the question, is the name "A. F. Witmer" significant in any way? (My google-fu comes back clueless.)

TIA.

Basil

I do not know. Your guesses of Roessler or Witmer sound like reasonable possibilities, though I might lean towards Witmer since in my experience Roessler was much more savvy in his cachets by having them be more aviation oriented and tied into the flights. This is just a simple eagle that does not have anything to do with the stamp as far as I can tell.

A.F. Witmer was a maker of "generic" cachets of which the scanned example is apparently one of several varieties. A similar cachet was used on this example of a different US issue:

http://thesaltysailor.com/rhodeisla...tenary44.htm

In fact, here's another different cachet but still "generic" enough to be used for most any issue. Note in this example, the cachetmaker A.F. Witmer is located in Lancaster, PA in 1939:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/852-3c-GOLD...047675.l2557

Mention of the A(lbert) F. Witmer Generic Cachets was included in the July 15, 2010 edition of First Days and is excerpted below:



If you want to read the entire article on "Pioneers who Created Generic FDC Cachets" by Ralph H. Nafziger, it is available at this link, beginning on page 35:

http://www.afdcs.org/July15FirstDays.pdf

Incidentally, the gravesite for Albert F. Witmer (1892-1989) is listed here:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...Rid=34960239

Excellent! I'll look into that "First Days" article. Coincidentally, just yesterday I received a CD (DVD?) of the digital archive of "First Days." I've been collecting covers--mostly first day, some early first flight, especially Lindbergh covers--for some time, and am just getting around to doing serious research on some of them. I figured that "First Days" might come in handy for that. I also have ordered a couple of books focused on the covers of Crosby and Roessler. But I still might have to use the "wt1 SCF research service" from time to time.

Kimo, your intuition about the generic aspect of the cachet was spot on.