JW_origins

John F. Weaver

INTRODUCTION

As with nearly every aspect of human endeavor, hobbies are influenced by the social and historical events of their times. Actually the entire era of the modern handdrawn/handpainted (HD/HP) cover came about as a direct result of such events. Hal Ansink, in his article "The World of Handdrawn & Handpainted First Day Covers … the first 50 years (1926-1976), points out that the FDC hobby underwent fundamental changes in the mid-1970's. There were underlying reasons for those changes, most of which can be traced to the social upheavals which occurred in American society just prior to that time.

Following the steep rise in consumer prices associated with the Second World War (an average of 11% per year for the period 1941-1948), the United States settled into a prosperous two decades during which inflation barely existed. From 1949 to 1968, the consumer price index averaged less than 2% per year. Even the Korean War did little more than cause a brief 4% rise between 1950 and 1952. Those twenty years represented a time of prosperity and growth for America, the likes of which the country had never seen. For the first time in American history, most kids had extra money to spend on hobbies.

For many of us, the period from the mid-1940's to the early 1960's represent the "golden years of collecting". As a boy growing up in that wonderful era, I collected baseball cards, marbles, comic books, stamps, Nabisco Shredded Wheat cards, and innumerable other interesting items. The key words were "variety" and "fun". At one time, I owned two full shoe boxes of baseball cards, representing all of the players from 1949-1955, inclusive. In 1955, I contracted Scarlet Fever and, because I'd been playing with the cards during quarantine, my parents were forced to burn the entire collection. Not too big a deal back then. I was upset, of course, but there was certainly no major financial loss.

With the onset of the Vietnam War, inflation began to increase again. What's worse is that just as the war was coming to an end, the so-called "Arab Oil Crisis" struck. In October of 1973 the Arabian oil-producing countries embargoed oil shipments to the western countries who'd supported Israel in the Arab-Israeli war. Although the cutbacks represented less than 10% of world oil supplies, the move created a disproportionate panic and drove prices to a level 8 to 10 times that of previous years. The situation gradually calmed, but not before high inflation had become a semi-permanent "norm". That oil crisis, and a similar one in 1979 and 1980, changed much about America -- including collecting.

During the subsequent decade and a half of high inflation, the hobbyist's ingrained passion for collecting remained, but most collectors became more sophisticated. Most of us learned that collecting the right things could provide a hedge against inflation, since rare commodities often keep their intrinsic worth against diminishing dollar values. The price of many collectibles began to skyrocket, including stamps. Look at Linn's U.S. stamp market index (Fig. 1) -- noting that at the end of the 1970's, stamp prices began increasing three to four time faster than ever before.

Also during this period collectors began to question what it was that represented "true rarity". Several debacles focused attention on that question. Take, for example, the "silver crisis" of the late 1970's during which speculators drove the price of common silver coins up to 25 or 30 times their face value. Tens of thousands of people lost small fortunes when prices fell back down to a more realistic 4-6 times face value. The truth was that silver wasn't really rare enough to support those artificial, double-digit levels.

It was against this backdrop -- where inflation had surpassed 10%, and collectors were becoming far more knowledgeable than ever before -- that the modern HD/HP cover was born. It was at this junction where my personal involvement increased dramatically and my ability to view the "big picture" vanishes.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE "MODERN" HANDPAINTED CACHETS

In the fall of 1978 I was living near Oklahoma City and spending Saturday mornings at Delmer Cox's Southwest Coin and Stamp. I loved the atmosphere and variety of philatelic material available. it seemed that every weekend I could find new stamps, or a cover, that I just couldn't live without. Plus, during that year, Delmer had made several purchases of handpainted cover material from the 1940's and 50's including many by Dorothy Knapp (he picked up a large batch for $7 each) and W.N. Wright (at, believe it or not, $2 each).

One Saturday morning, Delmer and I began to speculate on how wonderful it would be to be able to obtain high quality, handpainted FDCs for modern stamp issues -- covers produced with quality art, and in limited edition. My wife, Freda, is an artist whose specialty is high-detailed realism, so it seemed natural to ask her to produce a few for us. After much cajoling, she agreed to do so and in June of 1979 she began producing what turned out to be the most exquisite miniature watercolor paintings on envelopes that we'd ever seen. (Figs. 2 and 3). Thus, we convinced her to paint a few duplicates so we could sell them.

Figure 2. Weaver (1980) Figure 3. Weaver (1985)

There was one small hitch, however. Due to the tremendous amount of detail, Freda's first cover took 8 hours (per envelope) to paint. When she decided to ask $10 apiece, the furor was incredible! Inflation hadn't caught up with the FDC market yet and nearly every new cover was selling in the $2 - $4 range. Most cover collectors we contacted felt that $10 was outlandish. Nevertheless, Delmer and I decided to persevere. We were certain that somewhere there were collectors who would appreciate a modern HD/HP cover enough to pay a fair price for it (minimum wage at this time was roughly $2.25 per hour).

In the spring of 1980, Delmer and I were finally able to sell some of Freda's covers and find her several dedicated fans. A new business was on it's way. It took a couple of years more but soon Freda was marketing sold-out, signed and numbered, limited-edition HD/HP FDCs to a group of collectors who, by 1983 were gladly paying $20 per cover. In fact, by then we'd developed a waiting list for her work.

THE IDEA SPREADS

As I say, it is difficult to put events into perspective when you are deeply involved in them. While it felt, at the time, that Freda and I were alone in our fight to bring recognition and acceptance to that "new breed" of FDC, there were, of course, other artists turning out HD/HP material. For example, Lois Hamilton (Fig. 4) had painted HD/HP covers as early as May

Figure 4. Hamilton (1984)

of 1974, Geri Pelton (Great Picture covers) had begun producing HD/HPs in May of 1978 and Carole Murray (CM Cachets) started her line in September of 1979. Also, new cachetmakers were appearing in the related field of printed/handpainted (P/HP) covers. Fred Collins (Fig 5) had begun producing P/HP covers in March of 1978 and Bernard Goldberg (fig. 6) started making his thermographed, handpainted (T/HP) cachets in October of 1980. Thus, Freda and I were not really alone.

Figure 5. Collins (1990) Figure 6. Goldberg (1982)

In another sense, though, we WERE alone. There were a few other HP cachetmakers beginning to enter the field at this time, but they were focused primarily on marketing their own product. Things changed when Freda and I decided to go one step beyond. Here is what happened.

THE SEARCH FOR "NEW" ARTISTS

With the filling of her subscriber list, Freda began to receive more and more inquiries from collectors who wanted the opportunity to obtain beautiful and original art on FDCs. However, Freda informed me that she was at maximum capacity. It was at that point that I made one of the craziest decisions of my life. I decided to create our own competition! One objective was to relieve the pressure on Freda. But ... I'd also become obsessed with the idea of beautiful HD/HP covers. It was clear that many collectors wanted quality art on FDCs and I was determined to fill that need. I began searching for artists to participate.

As a first step, I joined the American First Day Cover Society early in 1981 and began writing about my new passion -- first to individual members, then via articles in the journal. Next, in early 1982, I began scouring the country for artists who would make HD/HP covers. I set several standards for those I was seeking. I wanted artists who could produce top quality miniature paintings, could repeat the same design over and over, could understand the needs of FDC collectors, and who were willing to learn philatelic ethics and customs. After about a year of trial and error, the search paid off. My first "discovery" was Curt Poormon (see Fig. 7) whose first official issue was done in July of 1984.

Figure 7. Poormon (1991)

His acceptance was so overwhelming that I was encouraged to continue. I convinced Michelle Bakay (Fig. 8) to begin cachetmaking in March of 1986 with the Texas statehood issue. In quick succession there was David Emke (Fig 9),

Figure 8. Bakay (1986) Figure 9. Emke (1988)

Lyn Schrage (later Lyn Cloud), P.A. Roman (Fig. 10), Ron and Pat Beller (Figs. 11 and 12) and many others.

Figure 10. Roman (1991) Figure 11. Ron Beller (1990)

I even helped Curt Poormon get Bob D'Spain going (Fig. 13). It was a busy eight years -- I never charged an artist commission, just cut them loose and went out to find more. My quest ended only when I noticed that many new artists were being brought into the field without any help from me.

Figure 12. Pat Beller (1991) Figure 13. D'Spain (1990)

There hasn't been a need to search out "new" artists for several years now. Artists are finding their way into the field in a variety of ways and the collector base is increasing to accommodate them. Some collectors say there is no place for such fine art on covers, but many others disagree. I believe that the final judgment will be made by collectors. For my part, it would be hard to resist HD/HP covers of the quality appearing in today's market. (I've included fine works of some recent initiates in figures 14-17. For many more beautiful examples of both HD/HP and modern P/HP covers be sure to peruse the DIRECTORY section of the current issue of this newsletter).

Figure 14. Hord (1988) Figure 15. Dubé (1992)

Figure 16. Kolter (1992) Figure 17. Bender (1993)

The spark that Freda and I helped ignite in the early 80's turned out to be the fuse to an explosion of beauty that had never before been seen on covers. However, I know that collectors who grew up in the 40's, 50's or 60's and had lived through the turbulent 60's and 70's, must have been ready for the new breed of cover, otherwise their acceptance would not have been so rapid and widespread. Thus, the credit is only in small part due to individuals. For whatever reason, the handpainted cover has come into it's own and may soon be the choice of most FDC collectors, instead of just some.