Help Identify Signatures Pilots 1929, 3 Cover

Help identify signatures pilots 1929, 3 cover and value thank's Simone

As far as the first cover is concerned, the pilot is B.A. Carpenter. He is pictured (second row, second picture) in this poster from Life Magazine (1938):



Capt. B.A. Carpenter died in July 1943 in an American Airlines plane crash in Trammel, KY:

http://www3.gendisasters.com/kentuc...s,-july-1943

There is no signature that I can see on the second cover, and the flight is not listed in the AAMC catalog (which often records pilot's names).

I cannot identify the signature on the third cover.

I would estimate the value of these at $5-$10 each retail.

The middle cover is not a U.S. cover, but is Canadian.

Your first cover is catalog number CAM 29W1 and it is autographed by Bayard Arnold Carpenter who was one of the three pilots who flew this first flight. There was 147 pounds of mail flown which something like 2,000 to 3,000 covers which is a very large number. The catalog value without the autograph is only $3. Because Carpenter was not very famous and because he signed a great many covers his autograph only brings the value up to something around $5 to $7 for the cover.

Your second cover is not a first flight cover and so has no catalog number. This is one of many hundreds of different commemoration covers that were created by cities all across the US for days when Lindbergh stopped by on his celebratory tour around the US, or even just when he passed through without even stopping. This one has no pilot autograph on it, just a handwritten address of the person to whom it was mailed - likely the guy who prepared it. These are very inexpensive and tend to sell in the $1 range.

Your third cover is catalog number Canada 235o. It is autographed by W.J. Johnson but I am not sure who he was. The pilot for that leg of the flight was F. Roy Brown. Perhaps Johnson might have been a co-pilot, or possibly the postmaster at Medicine Hat or maybe some other luminary there. There were 4,308 covers flown from Medicine Hat on this flight making it a very common cover. Is there a backstamp on the back? If not then the value would be something like $1 to $3. If there is a backstamp of one of the Canadian cities on this new route then it might be something around #2 to $4.

thanks for the information, you are fantastic greetings Simone

Are you sure about that? I don't collect Canadian First Flights, but in looking up listings for the cover, the 235o is said to be Medicine Hat to Calgary; the 235w is Medicine Hat to Moose Jaw, which is the cover in question, I believe. The value for an unsigned cover is +/- $5.00 according to this listing:

http://www.aerodacious.com/Canada1930.HTM

This is probably the biographical sketch for the W.J. Johnson autograph on the cover (referenced in Archives of Canada):

Kimo, this cover is even less than a "commemoration cover...created...for...when Lindbergh [made] his celebratory {Guggenheim} tour around the US." It is two years later, thus a "commemoration of a commemoration" of sorts. I think actual Guggenheim covers would probably be worth a little more, don't you think?

Hi WT1. Yes you are correct, I did not pay enough attention to the cachet - this would be Canada 235w. There were 4,239 pieces of mail sent on this leg of the flight. The catalog value is listed as $1.50 but tht is from a number of years ago. Still, I am not sure that it has really changed given how common these covers are.

Your information on Wardin Johnson is great and I did not have that. So yes, this is a postmaster autograph and not a pilot autograph. As such it would not add any commercial value to the cover.

Hi blcjr. Your comment about the Lindbergh commemorative cover is spot on. I was trying to be gentle in saying this cover is of minimal value. During the years after Lindbergh's flight it seemed as if most every town in the country was trying to claim some kind of connection and dealers were coming up with any excuse to create another commemorative cover. It is similar to what went on with the US Zeppelins, the Akron and the the Macon. It seems like every time one of these Zeppelins came within a hundred miles of a town that the dealers and collectors were making commemorative cachets for covers for the so called "event".