Postal History Corner: July 2010

Chickering Designed Cachets For Canadian Stamp Issues

Charles R. Chickering (1891-1970) was a U.S. stamp designer at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) from 1947 to 1963. During that period he was given sole credit for the design of 66 stamps and joint credit for the design of 11 others.

Designed by Charles Chickering

Chickering retired from the BEP in 1963 and soon after was hired by Gladys Jackson of Jackson Cover Service to design cachets. Chickering designed cachets for U.S., U.N., and Canadian stamp issues for Jackson from 1963 until his death in 1970.

In this post I will be showing some of the beautiful cachets designed by Charles Chickering for Canadian issues from 1964 to 1969. The inspiration for this post comes from Mark Lerner who has written a well researched article about Charles Chickering for the July 15, 2010 issue of the American First Day Cover Society's Journal First Days.

London Conference 1966
Chickering Cachet

Identifying Chickering Designed Cachets

I have seen three marks on Chickering designed cachets: "Chickering", "CRC", "C"

Chickering was the most common identifier

Overseas Mailers and Jackson/Chickering First Day Covers

I must side-track a bit and tell you about Overseas Mailers Ltd. which was established in 1950 by Jay Leach of Hicksville N.Y. to sell stamps. In 1953 Leach began to design and print hand-painted first day covers. A few years later he began selling first day covers produced by other companies which he modified. Modifications included added cachets and text, as well as hand water- colouring. Leach provided his customers with an insert which described the stamp and the cachet.

Leach favoured Jackson/Chickering cachets for his embellishments. In some cases he made no modifications and simply included the descriptive insert. I will identify the Leach modified covers in this article.

Leach modified Chickering cachet:

Added cachet : fleur de lis and lion
Water-colouring of bridge

Leach Insert:

1964 Issues

Promotion of World Peace

Leach add-on cachet

Royal Visit

Leach add-on cachet

Christmas Issue

According to Mark Lerner, this cachet was based on a design submitted to BEP by Chickering for the first U.S. Christmas stamp. The design was rejected for its overtly religious appearance.

1964 - 66 Provincial Flowers and Emblems Series

Quebec

Ontario

Nova Scotia

New Brunswick

British Columbia

Alberta

Saskatchewan

Prince Edward Island

Manitoba

Newfoundland

Northwest Territories

Yukon

1965 Issues

Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Canadian Flag

Winston Churchill

Leach embellishments

Interparliamentary Union/ Ottawa National Capital

Christmas Issue

Cachet designed for US issue

Leach modified the Chickering US cachet for the Canadian issue
"Canada" printed at the top of the cachet
Leach also embellished with water-colouring

1966 Issues

Alouette II

La Salle

Highway Safety

Leach embellishments

London Conference

Peaceful Uses of Atomic Power

For this issue, Leach serviced his customers with the unmodified Chickering cachet. He did however print the following insert:

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

Christmas Issue

1967 Centennial Definitives

Chickering designed cachets for each of the twelve denominations of the Centennial definitive issue.

Regions of Canada : 1 cent