Ansink

Hal Ansink

THE FIRST HANDDRAWN/HANDPAINTED COVERS

As far as is known, the first handdrawn / handpainted (HD/HP) First Day Covers (FDC's) were produced just 3 years after the United States Post Office Department first decided to designate official first days of issue for U.S. postage Stamps in 1923. In those early years there was minimal activity in producing HD/HP covers. Just as there were many stamp collectors who preferred to design and decorate their own album pages, there were a few collectors who preferred to prepare their own illustrated covers.

Although pen drawings of people and scenes are found on British covers as early as the 1850's, the earliest known legitimate U.S. handdrawn cachet maker was Ejgil J.S. Halvorsen of Salem, Mass. Halvorsen, an avid airmail and first flight cover collector was bored by their dull appearance, so around 1924 he decided to adorn them with handdrawn illustrations. After several years of decorating flight covers he started preparing designs for first day covers in 1926. Halvorsen (photo) initially designed his cachets to match the cancel, using a witch for the Salem cancels, , a bean pot for the Boston cancels and a liberty figure for New York cancels. An item in the September 1926 issue of the American Philatelist makes note of Halvorsen's Hand Decorated Covers with "These covers will migrate from collection to collection and at some time will add a little novelty and interest to the modern cover collection".

Up to the mid-1930's there was only a scattering of cachet artists who made only occasional handdrawn first day or special event covers.

Halvorsen 1926 Gundel, 1934

FIRST COMMERCIAL PRODUCER

In 1934 Torkel Gundel (photo), who had made some earlier special event covers, decided to produce handdrawn and hand painted first day covers commercially. He hand prepared most of the 1934 stamp issues in quantities of 25 to 50 covers.....thus becoming the first commercial producer of handdrawn and handpainted first day covers. Other commercial producers active during the late 1930's were Ralph Dyer; Risko Arts Studio, whose cachets were prepared by a combination of airbrush, brush and colored pencils; and the Breswick Cover Service who used the artistic talent of Marion Fulton (photo).

Fulton, 1936 ACE Logo

Also during this period L.J. Turley of Louisville, KY determined there was need to provide a forum for collector artists. He ran a little classified ad in one of the Philatelic journals during September 1934. The response was immediate and the first handdrawn/handpainted collector club was formed in January 1935. They named it the Art Cover Exchange (ACE-photo) and it would eventually grow into a membership of 400-plus collector artists. The membership exchanged a considerable number of first day and special event covers through the 1940's, with Turley estimating there were some 30, 000 to 100, 000 Ace covers scattered worldwide. As World War II became the main concern of most of the membership, those few still active were absorbed by the Chattahoochie Cover Club (CCC). Some of the better known cachet artists to emerge from ACE were Gladys Adler, Walter Czubay (photo), Lottie Eshliman, B.R. McIntyre, Fay Mudridge, Glen Osborn, Virginia Seath and Marion Smith (photo).

Czubay, 1936 Smith, 1937

COVER COLLECTING EXPANDS

In the 1950's another large handdrawn group was formed within the framework of the Cover Collectors Circuit Club (CCCC), a worldwide cover exchange organization. They called themselves "IMP's" for Impressionist Handdrawn Cover Makers. Other handdrawn related cover clubs formed over the years have been the War Cover Club (WCC), Patriotic Cover Exchange Club (PCEC), Oceanic Exchange Club (OEC), the Unique Cover Club of the American First Day Cover Society and in 1985 the original ACE club was reformed by the daughter and granddaughter of the L.J Turley. In all the clubs, the membership was a mixed group of rank amateurs, skilled craftsmen and a few genuine commercial artists....with the artwork varying from excellent to barely passable. But they were a sources of great philatelic friendships and a training ground for many future cachet artists.

"PROMINENT" COMMERCIAL CACHETMAKERS

There also have been a number of prominent commercial handdrawn cachetmaker/artists who have produced quality cachets in quantity over the past six decades. Starting in the 1940's, the most notable were E. J. Henriques, Dorothy Knapp, Herman Maul, Mae Weigand and Mae Weigand. A number of these cachetmakers continued to produce covers well into the 1970's and beyond. What is shown here are some of their earliest works.

Knapp, 1952 Maul, 1944

Weigand, 1944 Wright, 1952

Joining in during the 1950's were Eddie Atkinson, Paula Bogert, Violet Schlorff and Hiram Swindall. The 1960's were represented by Marvin Frey, Cletus Henry, J.T. Rhine and Frank Ulrich, to be followed in the mid-1970's by Art Bolle, Doris Gold, and Lois Hamilton. Below are examples of their cover artwork.

Bogert, 1952 Swindall, 1957

Frey, 1966 Ulrich, 1966

Art Bolle, 1972 Gold, 1976

BEGINNINGS OF THE "MODERN" ERA OF HD/HP COVER ARTISTS

Then in the mid-1970's, the World of Handdrawn & Handpainted covers changed.

Always sought after and appreciated by a small group of collectors over the previous 5 decades, collector interest soared rapidly with the entrance of premier cachet artist Freda Dickie Weaver and those who followed....creating a new era of collecting pleasure as described in a companion article.

The most often debated question about handdrawn and handpainted covers has always been......are they philatelic covers or merely miniature works of art? In truth they are cachets the same as fine steel engravings on printed covers (and even on stamps), only done in smaller quantities as compared to the hundreds of thousands of printed versions. Much the same as stamps, handdrawn and handpainted cachets honor the subject and are just as philatelic as the stamp issued.

The World of Handdrawn & Handpainted covers can be a fun world for everyone. One can merely collect and appreciate their beauty or create their own impression or interpretation of what the stamp represents on a first day cover. Covers can be created for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and special events. No need to even wait for a special occasion. All it takes is an envelope, a stamp and your choice of medium for the pleasure of creating your own hand-produced cover.

Hal Ansink

{Our special thanks to Hal for putting this very informative article together. He is a long-time collector of handpainted FDC's and a student of their history … we greatly appreciate his presence in the hobby. A companion article by John Weaver titled; Historic Origins of the Modern Handpainted First Day Cover, takes over where Hal left off ... in time ... and gives an interesting perspective on the evolution of the contemporary HD/HP cachet from the mid-1970's until present}