1934 National Parks Series And 1935 Farley Reprints

I will be posting a continuing series of posts on this thread concerning the subject. I will try to keep each denomination, listed by Scott catalogue number, together before moving on to the next denomination/Scott listed item.


SCOTT 740



This is the 1934 one cent National Parks stamp. The following are the photographic essays for this issue and they are all of the known issues. All five can be found in Max Johl's The Commemorative Stamps of the United States, Volume I.

I have included a mint example of the issued stamp to for comparison against the essays.














I scanned these on the original pages on which the essays were mounted. This is why there is a hand drawn border around the essays.

The following two pages are those pages which these essays were originally mounted on. The first image is the production facts provided for the issue.






Although not mentioned in the auction catalogue, it turns out these - as well as the other essays you will see in coming posts - came from the estate of Alvin Hall, who was the Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing from 1924 through 1956.

I had called the auction house to ask if anyone there knew why these were all stamp-sized, as the law clearly states that images of stamps from this period either have to be three-quarter sized or one and half times or larger in size. The answer fits; the only entity which did not have to observe this law was the one which printed the stamps to begin with.

Next, is the source photo for the design. There are a handful of these around; I have one for each denomination and each is noted in heavy pencil at the top with the denomination for which it was intended.




One of the areas which would become wildly popular during the 1930's was the newly emerging field of cacheted First Day Covers. The following are a small sampling of these.

The first is a hand colored printed cachet created for this issue by Albert Parsons. Although untint covers are common, those which are hand tinted are much harder to find.



The next cacheted cover is by Clara H. Fawcett. Although this is the artist credited on the covers, it is believed it was actually her husband, James, who did these. I'm not so sure about this fact, as the letter which was enclosed tends to refute this idea. This particular FDC was sent to a friend of the artists' with the note which accompanies, stating in part, that the President (FDR) had chosen her design series from several which were presented to him.









Next up is another cacheted and colored FDC, created by Weil.




The last cover I'll leave you with for this section is what is known as a general purpose design, meaning that it doesn't have any significant ties to the individual stamp being issued. Again, it is a hand tinted cover created by J.A. Burnett.



I'll discuss the imperforate Scott 740 along with the other stamps in the original series in a few days. Please understand this is not a typo and yes, I do mean IMPERFORATE 740, not to be confused with the Farley Reissue, Scott 756. More to come...

Very nice I can't wait for more!

Willie

Thank you, it is very interesting.

Great post. Keep 'em coming!

Thanks for sharing this information!

One note to keep in mind as I continue posting to this thread is the information shown on the production pages from the BEP. You'll see that each issue had seven imperforate sheets, some gummed and some not gummed. This will become and important factor when the thread transitions to the Farley Reprints.

Scott 741

The second denomination, the 2 cent Grand Canyon stamp, is listed as being red. Personally, I feel this is the same color as the 9 cent Glacier National Park stamp which is listed in orange-red. The differences, if any, are minuscule. Here are the two stamps side by side; these are both typical for the color:







There were only two essays created for the Grand Canyon National Parks stamp. Both of these were in the Director, Bureau of Engraving and Printing collection:







As mentioned in the posting for Scott 740, the black outline is from the album page these are still attached to. The production page and page with both essays are next. The finished design is already loaded earlier in this post.







Another important piece of the puzzle is the source photograph for the design. This is marked in the top corner and bottom center with the value for which the design would ultimately be used:





Plate blocks are another area for this series which are of interest. The plate blocks of the time were found at the top, with the "F" designation in front of the plate number or without, and without any designation at the bottom. A complete set of plate blocks for one of the plate numbers would then consist of three plates. Each plate block should also be found in a block of six. The following three examples illustrate the types:









First Day Covers are always popular and the following are examples of this issue on FDC.

The first is a hand tinted Parsons FDC.






Next is the Clara H. Fawcett cover for this issue. Although not hand tinted, it is still an attractive design:





The last FDC I'll share today is the General Purpose cachet created by J.A. Burnett. Compare this one with the same cachet in the post for Scott 740 to see the differences in hand tinting:





Coming soon will be the longer information on Scott 742, the 3 cent issue.

Very nice!

Very nice indeed, this is great history!


-Willie

Scott 742


This is the finished design for Scott 742.



The three cent stamp from the National Parks series was the workhorse of the series, meeting as it did the prevailing first class rate. There are eight different plates used in regular production and one which was used for trial production at the 1934 APS Convention in Atlantic City, NJ.

The source of the design was a photograph provided by the National Parks Service through the Department of the Interior. Here is that photo:






The design for this photo was used to produce only one model, the essay for which is shown here. There is a second essay, which is incomplete, showing the tablet blank and on the left side of the stamp. It is a black and white photographic essay and not in my collection (yet...)






As mentioned in the posting for Scott 740, the black outline is from the album page these are still attached to. The production page and page with both essays are next. The finished design is already loaded earlier in this post.







One of the key items in a collection of this material is the large die proofs. Not all denominations are known to have a large die proof and the following is believed to be the only one in collector's hands.





Several of the issues have imperforate between errors. Here's an example of the three cent imperforate between error:





As I explained with the two cent Grand Canyon issue, and mentioned earlier, there were eight different plates used to print this stamp and plate blocks are top, top with "F" registration and bottom. While these eight plates produced 94,894,466 stamps and an additional seven imperforate sheets, Plate Number 21332 was not part of the regular production process. This is not recognized in the Durland Plate Number catalog, though, as it has the same base price as the other plate blocks of this issue.

All eight of those plates went to press. According to the exhibit notes to the three cent issues created by an unknown collector, one of the plates became defective and Plate number 21332 created.
Several (unknown quantity) sheets were produced for study by the BEP while at the APS Convention in Atlantic City, NJ in 1934. A few of these plate blocks managed to get into collector hands and the remainder of the stamps and sheets were destroyed. I have only ever seen this one example of Plate Block 21332. If anyone else has one, I would love to hear about and see a scan!






Here are some First Day Covers for the issue. The first is a Parsons cachet which has been hand tinted.





Next is the Clara H. Fawcett FDC, again, hand tinted.







The last I'll give you today is the A. A. Heller photo cachet on this FDC.





I have mentioned this was the workhorse of the series, so it wouldn't be right to end without an example of that use. The following is a naval cover, using the three cent stamp. This would considered a "late" use since it was used in 1940. Interesting cover!








Next time, I'll bring you the information on Scott 743, the four cent issue of the National Parks Series.

Very nice! Those National park photos are great.

Interesting cover.

These stamps are fantastic!
I just picked up an imperforate set which I think are quite unusual, looking for an excellent perforated set to go with them!
I really like your covers too!

Cheers

Informative and beauties.

Scott 743

The next stamp in the series is the four cent brown, featuring Mesa Verde National Park as its theme.

The image below is the source photo for the stamp design:





There is only one essay for this design. The following is the essay. An example of the issued stamp is provided for comparison.







The essay came from the collection of the Direction, Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The pages for this issue, as they appeared in the Director's collection are next.








There is one known error. Vertical pairs, imperforate between horizontally, exist. Unfortunately, that is still on my wish list.

The following are a trio of interesting FDC's for the issue.

The first is a hand tinted Clara H. Fawcett cover.





Next is the Linprint FDC. Note the bars across the top and bottom of the blue "stamp image" in the cachet. This had to be done because the post office was refusing to allow that image as it too closely resembled a stamp. George Linn's answer was the bars added to the cachet.





The last is an example of what is called an "add-on" cachet. For the period, many cachets were added after the cover was already canceled. This appears to be a much later "add-on" by an artist known only as "Mox."





Next will be the five cent, Scott 744.

Is anyone interest in this thread to continue it? I've noticed a waning of interest since I started it.

I believe you should continue with this - all the way!

Peter