Just What Is A Cachet?
By Don on Jan 19, 2008 in Postal History
Ask some people what ‘cachet’ means and they’re likely to tell you it’s a French word that refers to a stamp or a seal. Others may refer to its common English usage to refer to something that gives the owner superior status…as in “owning a bottle of Lafitte-Rothschild champagne gave the host a certain cachet among his guests.”
But to a devotee of postal history, a cachet is a design or inscription (other than a cancellation or pre-printed postage) that appears on an envelope, postcard, or postal card to commemorate a postal or philatelic event.
Cachetmaking is truly an art form. The designs may be produced in a variety of ways, including drawing or painting directly onto the envelope, serigraphy, block printing, and lithography. Engraving, and more recently laser printing and rubber stamping have been used to create cachets.
Cachets can be official or private and they commemorate everything from political opinion, to specific routes, or the Super Bowl. Cachets for first day covers (FDC) made their appearance in 1923. Prominent philatelist and cachet-maker George W. Linn created a design for the Harding Memorial stamp issue. With this creation, Linn created an entirely new collecting area, and for many years, through his firm, Linprint, printed and sold first day cachets.
In the 21st Century, the largest and best-known cachetmaking companies, which typically produce thousands or tens of thousands of printed cachets for U.S. stamp issues, are Artcraft, Fleetwood, House of Farnam, and Colorano. For collectors, detective work may be required to determine which cachet makers (old and new) created which designs. However most cachet makers have a continuing of style to their designs and repeat certain elements…subtly, but effectively ‘branding’ their work.
Among the chief clues for identifying cachets are trademarks, names or initials, addresses, borders, continuity of style, stuffers and advertisements.
One cachet designer well known for continuity of style is F.R. Rice’s whose lifesaver-style border is found on about 75% of his designs. C. Stephen Anderson’s cachets consistently feature an illustration with an historical narrative printed below it.
