The Die Varieties of the Nesbitt Series of United States Envelopes

by Victor Maximilian Berthold

TEN HEADS—TWELVE VARIETIES.

In accordance with the instructions of the United States Postal Department, the first issue of United States envelopes was to represent a profile of General Washington after Houdon's famous bust. No doubt the spirit of the engraver was willing, but the "flesh was woefully weak." Indeed, it is no exaggeration to affirm that the head, or heads, of Die I (or A) are as far from Houdon's masterpiece as the sun is from our planet. Moreover, on a close inspection we find a lot of curious and noteworthy details which seem to indicate that the artist, or artists, had peculiar ideas of the manly beauty of the "Father of our Country."

Certainly, various national types are represented and the expression runs the gamut of meekness, aggressiveness, stolidity, stupidity and boozy hilarity. As a rule an artist would be satisfied to ornament the eye of his subject with one eyebrow, but several of the profiles of Die 1 have two, and in a position which would bewilder the student of anatomy. Another startling feature is the sidelock, which sometimes grows upon the eyebrow. And finally we are forced to conclude that the tonsorial artist who attended Washington performed queer tricks. In one die one-half of the head appears void of hirsutic covering. Well, perhaps this was the summer season! I must not forget to mention that on one side of the nostrils appears a Phrygian cap, probably an indication of the republican spirit of the United States. In conclusion the writer recalls a good joke by a gentleman prominent in philatelic circles. After a perusal of the above paragraphs he expressed himself that the bust of Washington of Die 1, instead of being "after Houdon" was a "Hoodoo", and there is a great deal of truth in the witticism.

Owing to the antiquity of the first issue of Nesbitt dies, collectors must not expect to find an abundance of mint specimens. Of course they are the exception, but in many used envelopes the head is impressed with sufficient clearness to permit identification, and the cuts accompanying the dies, being photographic reproductions of pen drawings by an artist, will be found a valuable aid. Indeed, as far as the varieties of Die 1 are concerned, a thorough knowledge of, or acquaintance with, the various heads is necessary to avoid confusion, especially as the inscription in several labels is similar and not unfrequently the lettering is quite indistinct.

If the question is asked why a unit distance measurement is not applied to differentiate these varieties, the answer is that the spacing of the letters of the inscription is nearly alike. Of course the slant of the letters differs. Such differences as are helpful and noticeable will be mentioned. The system of line prolongation, for example, the downward prolongation of the "T" of "THREE", discloses certain groups in the writer's opinion, but the differences obtained thereby are not of sufficient practical value for establishing groups. For a quick and reliable identification of these varieties an intimate knowledge of the heads is required.

It having been decided to reproduce the heads, the question arose: Shall we draw every feature and every detail, or is it preferable to indicate merely such portions of the face as are different in the various dies? Evidently, many minor points could be omitted without in any way detracting from the usefulness of the drawings. Indeed, the adoption of this plan permitted the artist to emphasize and to bring out more strikingly such features as constitute the real differences.

There are three prominent features in each of the ten heads. The first is the side-lock, which may be either single or double, straight or hooked, short or long. Second in importance is the distance between the end of the side-lock and the ear-lobe. Even a casual observation shows that the distance between the ear-lobe and the end of the side-lock varies greatly; very wide, near and close. The third feature is the lowest front-lock, which, by the taste or art of the die cutters has been, like man, "wonderfully and fearfully made", short or long, thin or full, single or double. In good specimens the eyebrow constitutes a valuable adjunct, and in all dies where this feature plays a prominent part it will be noted. Finally the attention of the collector is directed to the fact that only Head 1 shows Washington with circularly cropped hair, or, as the barber would express it, a "Dutch clip". This head was used for varieties 1, 2 and 3, the first being a rather scarce article. If the student fixes his attention on the above three main features, and does not attempt to get the entire ten heads fixed in his mind at a glance, it will be found that the task of differentiation is not at all a burden even to the youngest collector of cut square specimens. A certain amount of patience is, however, required; likewise a certain amount of willingness to be taught, but the collector possessing these two virtues—and it is one of the crowning glories of stamp collectors to be both studious and patient—will soon have the various Nesbitt heads of Washington engraved upon his memory.

Taking the distance between the end of the side-lock and the ear-lobe as our main feature, the various heads may be grouped into three distinct classes:

CLASS I. Distance between side-lock and ear-lobe very wide.
Heads 1a, 3, 4, 6, 7.