USA - Christmas Cards, Postcards & Covers

Hi @renden :

Are there any known?

Don

Another 1935 philatelic cover with a clean Christmas day cancel, this one aboard USS Dale, a destroyer commissioned and entered service in January 1935, served throughout WW II in the Pacific Theater, decommissioned 1945, and scrapped 1946.

This cover is addressed to William S. Linto, a well-known cachet designer who designed many ship and WW II patriotic cachets.  I've always been surprised at how compliant the U.S. Navy was in the 1930s for processing philatelic mail.  Some of his cachets may be seen here:  www.navalcovermuseum.org/wiki/Cachet_Maker_William_S_Linto

I am editing this post to correct the implication above that the cachet may be one of William Linto's.  An additional internet search turned up that Daniel Puglis, whose name appears directly under the cachet of this cover may have designed it.  Some of his designs also may be seen on the Naval Cover Museum website:    www.navalcovermuseum.org/wiki/Cachet_Maker_Daniel_Puglis .  Puglis' designs strongly resemble the rectangle style of the cachet on this cover.  Bottom line, I'm not sure who designed this cachet.

Don StampHinger

HI Beryllium Guy:

Another attractive card.  The grayness of that winter scene reminded me of the Christmas carol In the bleak midwinter. I have come to like and appreciate the art work on these early 20th century cards. 

Here is another one out of my shoe box collection, posted in Rutherford, NJ, on Dec 24th, 1910. 

Don StampHinger

Here is a philatelic Christmas cover addressed to an avid cover collector in Seattle.  One can find many covers addressed to D.C. Bartley at Green Lake Station, Seattle, on eBay.  Considering the neatly placed Christmas seals on this cover, my guess is that the addressee prepared the cover and sent it to a Navy installation or ship for cancellation.  The cancel lacks a ship or shore location, perhaps for enhanced security reasons as the U.S. had just entered WW II on Dec. 7, 1941.  There are numbers, a handstamped date, Mar 14, 1942, and the word Lexington written on the reverse.  The cover was never sealed and it does not appear to have gone through the mails.  Where this cover was cancelled and how it got back to the addressee is a mystery.  Given the desperate straits of the U.S. Navy in December 1941, I'm surprised it got cancelled anywhere. 

Don StampHinger

A commercial Christmas-related cover from the offices of Wee Wisdom, a magazine for children published by Unity School of Christianity.  Wee Wisdom began publishing in the 1930s and continued into the 1970s. While the meter dial is mute, I think the Santa cachet has an art deco touch, so I date this cover in the late 1930s to early 1940s.  Given the low postage, this cover probably carried gift subscription information or possibly a renewal notice.  One of the more whimsical Christmas covers and a favorite in my small collection. 

Don StampHinger

Thanks, Beryllium Guy, for your kind remarks and posts.  I have enjoyed seeing your cards as well as posting in this thread.  This will be my last post to the thread for this year.  Christmas guests and family start arriving today and philatelic pursuits will be curtained for awhile.

I am signing off with this cheerful, holly leaves, Christmas-themed cover from Australia, posted at Sunshine, Victoria, on December 19, 1949.  It is franked with Sc. C8 and its reverse is even more festive than the front.  While I consider it a personal cover, the "Please Cancel Lightly ... ." label suggests that both the sender and the addressee may have been stamp collectors.

Merry Christmas to all.

Don StampHinger