3 Cent U.S. Postage Stamps (Sheet of 20)

Product Description :

The 3-cent, Silver Coffeepot US Postage comes in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps.
The features an artist”s simplified rendering of a silver coffeepot, circa 1786, belonging to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
(Definitives are regular issues of postage stamps, usually sold over long periods of time.
) The elaboration of social life and the enormous popularity of tea, coffee, and chocolate in the late 17th and 18th centuries contributed to the demand for household silver.
Each major American city boasted its own famous silversmiths who crafted made-to-order household utensils that were beautiful as well as useful, proudly proclaimed the wealth and social status of the owners, and served also as a means of storing savings in the days before banks.
Fine proportions and excellent craftsmanship were hallmarks of American silverwork, which in large measure was simpler than the more ornate silver favored in Europe.
The coffeepot depicted on the stamp was made by Philadelphia silversmiths Joseph Richardson, Jr.
(1752-1831) and Nathaniel Richardson (1754-1827).
It may have been presented to Margaret Rawle on the occasion of her marriage to Isaac Wharton in 1786.
Margaret Rawle”s initials are engraved on the body of the coffeepot but do not appear in the simplified painting on the stamp.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired the coffeepot in 1986.
Joseph Richardson, Jr.
, and his brother Nathaniel came from a long line of noted silversmiths and worked together as partners from 1777 to 1790.
Both the Rawles and the Whartons were prominent Philadelphia families.

Product Details :