What Kind Of Cancel Is This?

Favor cancel? Or something else?

It is on a registered mail cover with no other markings (except the registered mail marking) on the front side, but has circular registered mail cancellations on the back side.

Basil

It looks completely homemade to me and could have been added to this piece anytime between 1941 when this aircraft was first introduced until yesterday. It is a bit crude but it seems to be trying to be a silhouette of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft.

Kimo, the cover is postmarked on the back in 1946, so it could well be a P-38 silhouette. You are probably right that it is with a homemade stamp. Is there any special term to describe self-applied cancels like this? Could it be appropriately described as a favor cancel?

Could have been a fancy cancel that a local postmaster had made and used for registered mail.

I'm not sure of the conventions here, but if it was a "fancy cancel" I think there would be multiple uses or instances of it. If a one off design by a collector, then I think it would be a "favor cancel." I have not seen any other examples of this cancel (though that doesn't prove they do not exist).

Basil, why not show the entire cover - or the specific question - what city?
Loso & deWindt's "20th Century U.S. Fancy Cancelations" revised ed, 1987, shows a similar cancel used at Airport Station of Oakland, CA on registered mail in 1947.

It could be something some local post office clerk with too much spare time made up to use in which case perhaps a term like "favor cancel" might be as good as any. Though it could also be something some collector made up to make this covers more interesting in which case I think the term "Privately made Philatelic Phantasy" might be a good term. Without finding more examples it would be unlikely to be able to tell which of these is the correct answer.

John,

You may have "nailed it." Here's the backside of the cover, with the registration cancels:
Same originating location. Roy Votaw was a philatelist specializing in getting autographs on his covers, especially of aviation pioneers. This cover has Hap Arnold's signature on the front. Does the resource you site just document the cancels or does it show the full covers? It would be interesting to know whether the cancel it documents was from a Votaw cover. I'm guessing that Votaw chose to post it from the Oakland location because of the "Airport Station" on the cancel, to tie it into the aviation theme he wanted for the cover.

I'd be interested in how he got Arnold's signature. (I have a display exhibit on the life and times of Arnold, hence my interest.) He settled in Valley of the Moon, CA, not that far from Mill Valley, after the war. But I think he was still in Washington at the time this cover was sent to his brother in Massachusetts. His brother was a Captain in the Army at the time, but not in an assignment where he likely would have had easy access to Arnold. So maybe he sent the cover back to Votaw, who got the signature after Arnold settled in Valley of the Moon.

IAC, thanks for the reference. It helps a lot to understanding the background to this cover

Basil

Added: I just took a look at sources for the book you reference. Nothing turns up at Amazon, Abebooks, or BookFinder.Com. There is a copy of the 1952 edition on ebay for $85 but that's a bit too much to risk not knowing if this cancel is documented in the earlier version. Might you do one of two things for me? If possible, just scan the section documenting the cancel, or if that's not possible then tell me what page it is on and I will see if I can get it from APRL. Here's the front cover, BTW:
TIA.

Book shows tracings only. Scans of 2 pages sent off-line.

At first I thought it might be a C-119 "flying boxcar". Which was used also for mail, among other things. The cancel has booms like the P38 but back end of the fuselage is a bit rounded like the C-119.

However, the C-119 wasn't in service until November of 1947 so it must be a P38, one of the coolest planes to grace the sky in my opinion.



I would also agree that it was probably a 'one of' from a local postmaster that also liked the plane. It would be interesting to find more on covers from that time and place.

That's a great find!


Jeff