Claude
The cachet features a black silhouette artwork depicting the Three Wise Men (Magi) with camels and palm trees under a starry sky, rendered in white against a black background. A block of four 25-cent Christmas stamps is affixed, each showing a Madonna and Child painting attributed to Carracci from the National Gallery. The postmark is a circular hand-applied cancel from Washington, DC dated October 19, 1989 with ZIP 20066, bearing a 'FIRST DAY OF ISSUE' machine cancel slug across the stamps. The cover is in excellent condition with the notation 'RITA' handwritten near the cachet.
Mistral
This First Day Cover features a block of four 25-cent stamps depicting the 'Madonna and Child' by Carracci, from the National Gallery collection. The cachet, designed by Ralph Achgill (RKA Cachets), shows a black silhouette of the Three Wise Men with camels and palm trees under a starry sky. The postmark is a circular cancellation from Washington, DC, dated October 19, 1989, with the text 'FIRST DAY OF ISSUE.' The cover is in excellent condition with a handwritten notation and includes additional text: 'CHRISTMAS BOOKLET 1989.'
(The automatic summaries sometimes misidentify the postmark as part of the cachet artwork.)
