Re-sent: Crafting New Mail from Old Correspondence
These envelopes are made from full-colour enlargements of vintage correspondence, with elegant penmanship and charming postal markings. I affix first-class postage, at least three vintage stamps per envelope. Self-adhesive address label and thick note card included.
Many people who buy these envelopes tend to hoard them safe in their cello-pouches, rather than sending them out into the world. I encourage you not only to mail them, but to delight in the details. They’ll take on a life of their own in transit.
Exemplaries: A scroll through Bari's mailbox
Turkish Delight
Our upstanding correspondent sent this pair of handsome turks upright on their envelope, requiring extra postage (49¢ for Thanksgiving 2005). They were fed (ahem) into the postal sorting equipment sideways, which is why the cancellation somewhat missed the mark.
Wenderful
Wendy Cook, whose extraordinary calligraphy graces packages and signage at Bell'occhio in San Francisco, took a bold nib to this envelope, gliding right over the ultra-swashy handwriting on the original Italian envelope mailed a century and a half ago (June 14, 1853, preciso).
Pairfect/Pairfection
The sender has played up the “pairness” of these almost-matching envelopes. Both are franked (Philatelic term for postage paid on an envelope) with animal stamps from two series, one naturalistic and one artistic. The right-hand stamps show a French illuminated manuscript from the 15th century and Indian jewelry from the 19th century. Cocky.
Window of opportunity
François Robert cut a window out of this envelope and printed the address on the back of the note card. He always abbrevs. Michiana Shores as MC, which oui know does not stand for Mon Château. Very dary in Gary, Indiana.
Casablanca extravaganza
The original envelope was mailed from Casablanca (from the philatelic window at the post office!) to Beirut 50 years ago, bearing 20 Moroccan stamps. The “stylized stenciling” creates the illusion of peeking through the letters of the address.
Budabest
Compare the 1947 hand-cancellation (next to the engraved stamp of Cannes, complete with enviable promenaders and a peek of palm)... to the modern, metered self-adhesive strip. Contrast the classic Parisian Registered Mail label (with splendid serifs... with the white-bordered die-cut priority sticker. Lust for a manual typewriter with a violet ribbon, a wonderful counterpoint to the ziggy-zaki penmanship.
Mail Mania
The beatific postman is delighted by the theme postage that delivered him, and relieved that Dagwood and Blondie’s house isn’t on his route. Don’t you wish his pouch contained correspondence for you? A postal card, a personal letter, even a flowing handwritten invoice for specialty comestibles.
Mail Mishap
Uh-oh. An enterprising correspondent oriented this envelope vertically (requiring 49¢ postage). A pair of diminutive engraved 32¢ stamps were riding right under the Riviera, neatly hand-cancelled… but then the entire right-hand stamp and half of the left were savagely torn off by someone or something. Then, the envelope was machine-cancelled on its backside! What a flap! Cannes you imagine?
Très Fade
The muted quintet of stamps almost fades into this envelope. The five stamps received two red hand cancels in Napa (at the historic downtown post office) and a small black machine cancel at the sorting center in Oakland. The enlarged red cancel in the upper left reads “Outre Mer”, because the original envelope was going overseas from Le Havre.