I inherited my grandmother's collection of postage stamps when she passed away about 10 years ago. She didn't really collect them so much as she hoarded them (a collection would be organized). If there was a design she liked, she'd buy an extra sheet of them and put it in a folder, never to be used. And she liked a lot of designs. Every once in a while I still like to flip through the folders and see the variety of designs and subjects.
Anyway, among the many unused sheets of stamps were two sheets from 1968, commemorating Walt Disney. I thought it would be fun to share a scan of them with you.
There it is, 50 stamps; a mere six cents would get your letter to wherever you wanted it to go! The stamp made its debut on September 11, 1968 (less than two years after Walt died); the "First Day" ceremonies were held in Marceline, Missouri, which Walt always identified as his boyhood home town (even though he lived in several places when he was a child). Over 150 million of these stamps were eventually sold!
Here's a closeup. Boy, the printing quality leaves a lot to be desired.
Fortunately, I found a nice image of the original painting by Disney artist Paul Wentzel. It's a great, lively portrait of Walt! Another artist (Bob Moore) painted the little children of the world emerging from the castle.
I'm glad my grandma saved her stamps!
Precious! In more ways than one in your case. Great portrait of Walt. No wonder they sold a lot. I'd buy these too. :)
ReplyDeleteI've always loved the artwork on that stamp. My brother and I had one single Walt Disney stamp that we kept for years, but eventually it was lost....thank goodness for eBay!
ReplyDeleteThere were several different "cover" envelopes available on the stamp's first day of issue. Two of those envelopes can be seen here with the Marceline, Missouri postmark: Walt Disney Stamp and Cover Envelopes
Oh, Do I remember that stamp.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great painting, even better when it's big enough to see, instead of postage-stamp sized.
BTW Major, my Mom left a similar stamp "collection", except she rarely bought unused stamps, preferring to tear the used ones off the envelope.
I have a big manila envelope full of these, somewhere...
JG
What a great piece of art. I remember when these stamps came out and feeling slightly irked that my mom continued to buy the ones with Fuddy-Duddy George Washington.
ReplyDeleteGrandma was COOL! Major :-)
ReplyDeleteChiana, I know I had seen a few individual stamps in Grandma's old desk, so I was happy to find two full sheets of these "Walt" stamps!
ReplyDeleteTM!, thanks for the link!
JG, I have a bunch of used stamps in an envelope as well, but they are from my GREAT grandmother. Those things are old! But... all used.
Katella, yeah, why buy a boring stamp when you can buy a fun example? Maybe your mom felt that George Washington was more dignified.
Thanks Viewliner!
nice to see you, Chiana ;)
ReplyDeleteDavid, these are beautiful! this has always been one of my very favorite pictures of Walt Disney.
thanks for sharing them with us
I have a similarly-designed poster that replaces the children of the world with Disney characters. If I remember correctly (I haven't unrolled it in several years), none of the characters are any newer that "The Jungle Book."
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather also had a special "day of issue" envelope with this stamp. I remember seeing a poster of the stamp's artwork hanging on the back wall of a Disneyland ticket booth in 1976 and getting really excited by it.
Wish I'd had a mint copy of the stamp with me when I was at DL on 17 Jul, 1995 - I could have had a specialized cancellation done on the map I bought that day.
Would love a sheet of these to matte, frame, and put on my office wall!
ReplyDelete