[Alyson Kuhn] The King & Queen of Hearts have just ascended to the 44-karat postal throne. Their first day in {post} office was last Friday, May 8, just before today’s postal rate adjustment. The perfect pair were designed by Jeanne Greco, who is philosophical about the fact that her King and Queen will face frequent separations.
Jeanne observes, “They will usually be used separately, but I hope they’ll find each other in the same mailbox from time to time. Perhaps they’re destined to reconnect only by chance in a royal flush or on an envelope that weighs more than an ounce.” Her King and Queen are modeled on images from an 18th-century deck of French playing cards. She comments, “Love stamps have featured the usual vocabulary of hearts, flowers, and cherubs. I wanted to create something different. I especially liked the idea of using an everyday icon to symbolize the male and the female.” Indeed, this is the first time that personages have been the central image on US Love stamps.
Derry Noyes, long-time art director for the USPS, originally commissioned Jeanne to design a single stamp. Jeanne promptly upped the ante, saying she’d like to do a two-stamp design. Her irresistible reasoning: “After all, love takes two.” Derry adds, “Jeanne came up with this very cool concept immediately. It’s lovely to have two stamps that ‘work’ together – which is how they will be used on many invitations. Jeanne was also creative about helping me ‘find’ room for the essential USA 44 that wouldn’t overpower her design.”
Meanwhile, speaking of perfect pairs, I stocked up on 22¢ stamps at a recent stamp show, since two of them total 44¢. When the 22¢ first-class rate went into effect in 1985, an interesting typographic change occurred on US stamps. Can you sense {hint} what it was? There is no reference to cents on them, simply a 22 and USA. Designers could move the USA around in relation to the denomination {and still can}.
USPS art director Howard Paine worked on two 22¢ stamps at opposite ends of the production spectrum. The stamp honoring Frederic A. Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, is the first US stamp for which a computer was used to create the final design. For the “200 Years of Friendship with Morocco” stamp, Howard found an arabesque he liked in a book, and made the artwork out of rubylith, about 2 ft. in diameter. There are 12 outer points, all interlocking! Howard also designed my favorite 22¢ stamp, an engraved portrait of the Statue of Liberty, from a photograph by Peter B. Kaplan.
Less but not least: I have a few 11¢ stamps in my reserves, for when I’m in a prime humor. You can see the new postal rates and even download an encyclopedic 44-page PDF at usps.com.
What a gorgeous design for the new love stamps! Gotta go get some
It’s interesting that artist was able to convince the USPS that two was better than one for this overall theme.