Bob Jones Covers

I wanted to show a few Bob Jones covers that I found fascinating, and I was going to do so in a more general thread. But after some research and a bit of thought, I realized that the subject of Bob Jones really deserves its own discussion. I don't know as much about this cover maker as I would like, so I'm hoping someone here might be able to share some information.

What I do know so far is that Bob (Robert) L. Jones was an editor/writer for Linn's Stamp News back in the 1960's. Apparently he wrote a column on page 6 of the weekly magazine/journal. I've read that he really only made his covers for himself, and in small numbers. Also, it seems that Bob Jones made his covers oriented with the envelop flap at the bottom. His cachets are not add-ons as they have been tied into the cancellation.

From examining his covers, it seems that he had several approaches to making his covers. Many of his covers include photographs as cachets. Sometimes his covers are a real enigma, challenging the observer to puzzle out the meaning behind his interesting 'photo cachets' & stamp combinations. Other times his photo cachets simply showed the actual painting and/or the artist behind the stamp's artwork.

If anyone has more information about Bob Jones, I would really appreciate knowing more about him.

Since I'm primarily collecting space themed covers, my own examples of Bob Jones covers will be related to space themed stamps. This first one features a pasted on black & white photograph cachet of the painting by Paul Calle, used for the C76 'First Man on the Moon' stamp.

http://spacecovers.com/pricelists/p..._fdcc76a.htm

An often asked question about the Apollo 11 First Day Covers....
Why does it have two dates in the postmark: July 20 and Sept. 9, 1969?

The master printing die for the Apollo 11 stamp was carried to and from the moon in July, 1969. When the printing die returned to earth it then it was used to make the printing plates for the postage stamps that were issued by the Post Office and used on these first day covers.
These postage stamps were not ready to be released to the public until September 9, 1969, and this is the date of first issue that appears in the postmark.
This Sept. 9 postmark also reproduces the July 20, 1969 cancel of the first moon mail which was used to cancel a proof of the 10¢ First Man on the Moon stamp cancelled on the moon, this is the commemorative part of the Sept. 9, 1969 cancel.
The 10¢ First Man on the Moon stamp was designed by artist Paul Calle and this postage stamp is the first jumbo-size commemorative issue. This Apollo 11 first day cover was the most popular ever issued with a record 8,743,070 postmarked at Washington, D.C., the official city of release.

I found this comment on another website....

"I remember reading Bob Jones's columns in Linn's of the 1960's and early 1970's. He illustrated these unusual FDC's quite often and always described the reasoning or tie-in behind each of the stamps."


So it sounds like he often discussed his custom covers in his articles. Does anyone happen to have access to 1960's issues of Linn's Stamp News?

This allows one to remove the stiffener with less aesthetic impact than opening the cover along the top edge.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

itviking,

I think I could count on one hand the number of forum members here who have a strong interest in FDC's. By far the greater interest is in commercial or postal history covers. But I'm an avid FDC collector, at least for the stamps that interest me topically. That includes air mail stamps, so I do have some FDC's for the moon landing stamp in my collection. I must confess, though, that I'm more drawn to FDC's with cachets that exhibit artistic talent than FDC's that merely copy a photograph, like this one (doubly nice, to me, for the dual cancellation):


I do make exceptions though:


I try to get as many FDC's with plate blocks for the stamps I collect, and this one had the added attraction of having the designer's signature.

On your quest for back copies of Linn's, are you an APS member? The people in their research library would probably be happy to locate the articles you are looking for and copy them and send them to you (charging on for the copying). It is one of the best reasons to belong to APS, IMO.

Basil

Thanks ikeyPikey & Basil.

I think what interests me the most about Bob Jone's covers is that some of them demand some careful thought, while others are a special nod to the creation of the stamp itself, as opposed to the event.

For instance, the cover above has a photograph of the actual artwork used in the creation of the stamp, cancelled on the day of issue of the stamp. How many other FDCs created that day featured custom designed material, possibly one of a kind creations, that honored the painting or the artist instead of the historical event? Not many I would guess. In a sea of perhaps millions of FDCs celebrating the first manned lunar landing, something custom made has its own natural appeal.

I think real art is properly measured by how it impacts the viewer, and that there are more ways to do that than by simple appearance. So that's really very subjective to the collector. Looking through many space topical covers available online, there are plenty of hand painted/drawn caches that just don't do anything for me personally from an artistic perspective, and some of those are add-ons, particularly where the older space related stamps are concerned. Probably the biggest example being the 'secret' 4 cent mercury stamp.

These are the reason these Bob Jones covers appeal to me as a collector. It won't bother me if no one else shares my interest in them; though I am certain a few will.

"On your quest for back copies of Linn's, are you an APS member? The people in their research library would probably be happy to locate the articles you are looking for and copy them and send them to you (charging on for the copying). It is one of the best reasons to belong to APS, IMO."

APS? I've never heard of it before. I'd definitely like to look into it. Do you have a web link? Thanks!

Remind me again why Linn's does not offer this service?

Of course, the first trick is to check the back issues index to identify in which issue of Linn's an article might have appeared.

Uh ... there's an index, right?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Well, "APS" is http://stamps.org/Home, aka "American Philatelic Society". Link to their library page: http://stamps.org/About-the-Library . A benefit of membership is that they will loan to members books in the library, or copy articles from publications. Were you a member, and not sure of what issues of Linn's you need, you could email them, given them a range of dates, and tell them you are looking for "Bob Jones" columns. They might give you a list of columns, or be able to specifically identify which column discusses the moon stamp. They are very helpful that way. I've used them a couple of times and have always been impressed with how helpful they try to be. Most stamp collectors don't think APS membership is worth it. But I think having access to their library makes it worth it, to me.

viking, I was disappointed to see that you are not receiving e-mail messages. I have a link I`d like to send, one that our forum doesn`t seem to allow. It is for another stamp collecting forum.

I'm sure that must be a setting that I can change, right? Let me explore and see if I can figure out how to change that setting.

I found the setting and adjusted it. So I can accept emails now. Thanks for pointing that out.

ikeypikey, Linn's is not a public service organization. I would imagine that explains why it doesn't offer the service. I don't know, are indexes available? That can be helpful. The Jack Knight Air Log of the AAMS is available, and when I was researching the Transport Series airmail stamps I found a series of articles in the index, and the APRL copied them and sent them to me. Sometimes we just work with the hands we are dealt.

viking, link sent!

Bob Jones was well known for his combo FDCs. I remember seeing in Linn's in the late 1960s a combo cover he made for the $5.00 John Bassett Moore definitive. He included all the $5.00 stamps issued up to that time including the $5.00 Columbian. His secret: he used no gum stamps or stamps with thins.

Nothing says they have to offer it for free.

Thank guys. I seem to recall seeing something on the Linn's site that mentioned an archive, but it didn't go back into the 60's, if I am recalling correctly.

I may join an organization at some point, but I guess for now, since I am just starting back into the hobby, I'm going to continue to focus on starting my collection and just enjoy doing my own online research for now. I am finding that digging up info/clues myself is gratifying in itself.

Back to some more Bob Jones covers.

For this custom cover featuring a photograph cachet, Bob Jones went back to an old Popular Mechanics article from a 1913 edition (54 years earlier). The article was entitled something like "It Didn't Go Up" and talks about a man from NY or NJ who attempted to launch himself in rocket loaded with black powder, but who instead blew himself up. For me, it demonstrates that the idea of travelling into space had been around for quite some time, but that it would take much more than the desire and a quickly put together scheme to achieve such a feat.

The cover itself doesn't reveal much on its own about the story. A few of his other custom covers from the same series includes the name of the article, and a quick google search brought up the archived Popular Mechanics article from 1913. The photo cachet is of the same image used in the article.

This is what I love about these covers. Bob Jones was clearly a smart guy, made commentaries with his cover creations, and left clues for others to contemplate.