C3601

Love

Pocahontas & Captain John Smith

Cover Announcement 

It is very exciting for me to offer the second cachet for what will be a continuing Collins series for all future Love stamp issues - Romantic Couples of the World. The first cover in this series was for last year's Love stamp and featured Romeo and Juliet. It won a Planty Award in this year's cachet competition conducted by the American First Day Cover Society.

With two Love stamps (37c and 60c) being issued this year, I was delighted because it would give me a chance to create cachets for two more of our world's famous couples. For the thirty-seven cent stamp, the Indian maiden Pocahontas pleads for the life of John Smith. The captain, an early English settler, was captured by Indians and, according to legend, sentenced to death. The chief was the father of Pocahontas, and lore has it that her passionate pleadings prevailed, and Smith was released. History is blurred on their subsequent relationship, but I would like to believe that such a dramatic event like saving a life from

imminent death would portend well for a continuing and happy future together.

The cachet itself is a true work of art. John Smith lies on the ground with his arms and feet bound. He gazes up at the young Indian girl who holds his fate in her loving appeal. The chief sits nearby listening intently to his daughter as she tries to persuade him to spare the life of her English captain. The dramatic scene I captured wonderfully by the natural earth-tones of the watercolors. It's an awesome First Day Coverl. Pocahontas and John Smith now take their place in my Romantic Couples series with the new 37c Love stamp. Collins #C3601 - $12.25.