Gimme a shot of The Goodkind

Bottle collectors will love this one!

A piece of bill head from Goodkind Brothers of Helena, Montana, who had their business at Main Street (known as Last Chance Gulch) and 6th Avenue. This is an image of what their bottle of Sour Mash Whiskey looked like complete with one of their in-house labels. The bottle itself stands about six inches tall.

The GIANT Panda

The middle of August we made a trip to Billings, Montana to search for old paper. The first place that we stopped had large map drawers full of paper, but I could only find one piece of paper that really held my interest, and this is it.

Sometime in the early part of the school year of 1948, Rose Allisch, Lorette Borsheim and Donald Knudson of McCabe, Montana, wrote a letter to the Chicago Zoological Park inquiring about the GIANT PANDA BEAR. This letter is a response to their inquiry.

This year is the 140th anniversary of the discovery of the Giant Panda by a Westerner. A French priest by the name of Father Jean Pierre Armand David described the panda that had been shot by hunters in the Sichuan province of China in 1869. Until Father David described the panda in that year, the panda was virtually unknown outside of China. The world is still fascinated by this animal that may indeed not even be related to the true bears.

The envelope the letter came in is dated October 27, 1948.

Graf Zeppelin Pictorial Cancel

Back in 1990, I was just beginning to follow the Postmark Pursuit column in Linn's Stamp News , a weekly newspaper dedicated to all things stamps or Philately if you want to be proper about it. After my initial exploration with First Day Covers , I started following the Postmark Pursuit column, purchasing stamps that had something to do with the theme of the cancel, creating the art work on the cover, and then sending them off to be canceled. I received many cancels that were not at all what I was expecting, and many that were. I was selling most of those I created through a local gallery and frame shop. The gallery owner would mat and frame them, hang them on the wall, and I developed a group of local people who decorated their walls with my miniature art work.

There were a number of anniversaries celebrated in 1990 of the visit of the Graf Zeppelin to the United States. It was the 60th Anniversary of the issuance of the U.S. stamps depicting the Graf Zeppelin which occurred in April of 1930. Even back in 1990, the famous C13, C14 and C15 stamps were very expensive to acquire, but I went out on a limb and purchased three of the C13 variety. I think I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 for each of them. I had prepared four covers, but I simply couldn't afford to purchase any more of the stamps, so I had one cover that went uncanceled, and as it turns out - what goes around, comes around.

A couple of months ago, there was an announcement in Linn's about two pictorial cancels relating to the Graf Zeppelin flights. I chose the more appropriate looking cancel of the two, had a C18 stamp purchased for myself by a collector, and sent off to have my nineteen year old cover canceled. What you see here is the result of a long wait. It is now on its way to the fellow who purchased the stamp for me.

Buffalo Skull - PFF #13

The stamp on this cover was issued on the 16th of May, 1996 to honor the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe. I have friends who live in Colorado and were willing to drive to New Mexico, buy the stamps in Albuquerque and then drive to Abiquiu, New Mexico, to have my covers canceled on the First Day in the town that Georgia called home for the last years of her life. She was famous for overly large paintings of flowers, but also incorporated cow skulls and bones that she found in the desert near her home into many of her paintings. My favorite artist C. M. "Charlie" Russell, and the one who inspired me to do 'envelope art' in the first place was famous for using the buffalo skull as part of his signature. I decided to use the buffalo skull and do it "Georgia" style for this issue.

Marie's skulls over at the French Fatrice are all underground, but if you're interested in what she and others have done with the theme, check out her post for Postcard Friendly Friday.

La Belle Chocolatière - Again

This one is a little larger than the last, and consequently a little finer. And I know from experience doing the covers that the second time I do an image I'm always happier with the results.

I obtained the image for this rendition from Susan E at This Old Paper, and I'll continue to link to her blog as often as I use this image. I've several more bill heads that have Baker's Chocolate as line items, so this won't be the last.

The paper itself is a bill head for C. W. Rank & Company, a general store in historic Virginia City, Montana. There are a number of interesting line items on this bill head including Fruit of Paradise, which this confectioner did not make. Fruit of Paradise was (and still is) made by the Startup Candy Company of Provo, Utah.

Excuse me while I go make myself some hot chocolate.

Six Dozen Trout Flies

This piece of paper was more fun than I've had in a long time. As some of you may be aware, a couple of weeks ago I went paper shopping - locally. I came away from that little excursion with some pretty fine paper. One of those finds was a bill head for the Montana Candy Company, also known as Webster & Koontz. They were one of the first confectioners in Montana - and I should add here - Montana Territory, for when the paper was dated, Montana was not yet a state.

This piece is also very unique. It also is a piece of territorial paper, and it also was a billhead from the Parchen Drug Company of Helena. I'm certain that there are interior views of this business, and unlike Webster & Koontz, Parchen Drug did publish an address.

The note is of particular interest. It says: "We send the largest we have (the word at is crossed out) can (the word get is crossed out) be had in Town". Apparently J. H. McKnight & Company at Forth Shaw, M.T., had BIG fish in mind...

Fort Shaw was known as the "Queen of the Montana Posts". It sat near the Sun River, about twenty-five miles West of the present city of Great Falls, where the Sun River entered the Missouri. There was an Indian Trading Post there run by J. H. Mcknight, as well as a Saloon. Of course, there was also a regiment of soldiers garrisoned at the Fort. The fort was abandoned in 1890, and an Indian School at Fort Shaw became world famous in 1904. An all-Indian Girls Basketball Team from the school became World Champions at the St. Louis Exposition.

I really am torn about this piece. Part of me wants to keep it for I'll probably never see another piece of paper quite like this - a bill for six dozen trout flies, but - I know there will be other paper just as unique as this one is.