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Forum:	Stamps & Covers
Topic:	Space Cover 539: Robert Rank Velvet covers

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Your Reply: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	[QUOTE]Originally posted by ChrisCalle: [B][URL=http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum20/HTML/000507.html]Space Cover of the Week[/URL], Week 539 (November 17, 2019) <center><a href="http://www.collectspace.com/review/chriscalle/scotw539a-lg.jpg" target="AirLock"><img src="http://www.collectspace.com/review/chriscalle/scotw539a.jpg" width="480" height="266" border="0"></a></center> <BLOCKQUOTE>[b]Space Cover #539: Robert Rank Velvet covers[/b] I have read with great interest all the Space Cover of the Week posts over the years and am happy to be back in the rotation of offering up covers I find enjoyable in my collection. I would like to offer up my favorite space covers, Robert Rank Velvet covers. Rank's Velvet covers utilized a unique flocking technique that as an artist I have always found fascinating. While other cachetmakers have used similar techniques in my opinion nothing compares to a Rank velvet cover in design and application of the colors. For many the manned missions Rank dual cancelled many of the covers with launch and landing cancellations. The Rank Velvet series ran from Ham the space chimp through Apollo 11 and included most spaceflights and events. I have shown one of my favorite covers above, which is from Apollo 9. As with his Space Voyage series of space covers, these flocked cover designs look as fresh today as they did over 50 years ago. In my research I have found that for several covers he produced a flocked and a silkscreen version of the same design. As Rank explained, in each color application the design is made by forcing the ink through the silkscreen with a squeegee. The screens were 17" x 20" and printed six designs on each. Very thin tape was used to block out the five designs not being printed. The flocked velvet designs were done while the ink was still wet, and the enamel printed cover was placed on top of a canvas which would be vibrated by a motor driven rapidly rotating steel bar. The velvet flock then "dances" on top of the canvas and adheres to the wet enamel surface of the design where it is permanently imbedded. The vibrating unit was encased in a converted refrigerator carton to keep the flock from escaping. The process was very messy and difficult to produce consistent covers with spoilage running from 15% to upwards of 40%. For most edition less than 80 covers were produced. <center><a href="http://www.collectspace.com/review/chriscalle/scotw539b-lg.jpg" target="AirLock"><img src="http://www.collectspace.com/review/chriscalle/scotw539b.jpg" width="400" height="224" border="0"></a></center> A recurring favorite subject in the designs was John F. Kennedy with Rank producing several non-space related covers depicting events in the presidency of Kennedy. One of these is shown above for the event when Kennedy visited England. On <a href="http://www.chriscallefdc.com/chriscallefdc/Robert_Rank_Flocked_Space_Covers_2.html" target="AirLock">my website</a> I show most of the Robert Rank velvet covers as well as a a few of his mock-ups where he was indicating the position of the images and text. While I believe I have a complete collection of all the velvet covers produced by Rank I am always on the lookout for new discoveries!</BLOCKQUOTE>[/B][/QUOTE]
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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="600"><TR><td bgcolor="#000000"><TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding=4 border=0 cellspacing=1 WIDTH="100%"><TR bgcolor="#660000"><TD COLSPAN=2><CENTER>T O P I C     R E V I E W</CENTER></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>ChrisCalle</TD><TD><A HREF="http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum20/HTML/000507.html" TARGET=_blank>Space Cover of the Week</A>, Week 539 (November 17, 2019)<center><a href="http://www.collectspace.com/review/chriscalle/scotw539a-lg.jpg" target="AirLock"><img src="http://www.collectspace.com/review/chriscalle/scotw539a.jpg" width="480" height="266" border="0"></a></center> <BLOCKQUOTE>Space Cover #539: Robert Rank Velvet coversI have read with great interest all the Space Cover of the Week posts over the years and am happy to be back in the rotation of offering up covers I find enjoyable in my collection.I would like to offer up my favorite space covers, Robert Rank Velvet covers.Rank's Velvet covers utilized a unique flocking technique that as an artist I have always found fascinating. While other cachetmakers have used similar techniques in my opinion nothing compares to a Rank velvet cover in design and application of the colors. For many the manned missions Rank dual cancelled many of the covers with launch and landing cancellations.The Rank Velvet series ran from Ham the space chimp through Apollo 11 and included most spaceflights and events. I have shown one of my favorite covers above, which is from Apollo 9. As with his Space Voyage series of space covers, these flocked cover designs look as fresh today as they did over 50 years ago. In my research I have found that for several covers he produced a flocked and a silkscreen version of the same design.As Rank explained, in each color application the design is made by forcing the ink through the silkscreen with a squeegee. The screens were 17" x 20" and printed six designs on each. Very thin tape was used to block out the five designs not being printed. The flocked velvet designs were done while the ink was still wet, and the enamel printed cover was placed on top of a canvas which would be vibrated by a motor driven rapidly rotating steel bar. The velvet flock then "dances" on top of the canvas and adheres to the wet enamel surface of the design where it is permanently imbedded. The vibrating unit was encased in a converted refrigerator carton to keep the flock from escaping. The process was very messy and difficult to produce consistent covers with spoilage running from 15% to upwards of 40%. For most edition less than 80 covers were produced.<center><a href="http://www.collectspace.com/review/chriscalle/scotw539b-lg.jpg" target="AirLock"><img src="http://www.collectspace.com/review/chriscalle/scotw539b.jpg" width="400" height="224" border="0"></a></center>A recurring favorite subject in the designs was John F. Kennedy with Rank producing several non-space related covers depicting events in the presidency of Kennedy. One of these is shown above for the event when Kennedy visited England.On <a href="http://www.chriscallefdc.com/chriscallefdc/Robert_Rank_Flocked_Space_Covers_2.html" target="AirLock">my website</a> I show most of the Robert Rank velvet covers as well as a a few of his mock-ups where he was indicating the position of the images and text. While I believe I have a complete collection of all the velvet covers produced by Rank I am always on the lookout for new discoveries!</BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top>thisismills</TD><TD>Thank you for the wonderful post, these covers are works of art. I've been searching for a couple as shown on your site but have yet to locate them for my collection up to this point.Scanning quickly through them again here is a cover that it looks like you don't have a photo of... maybe you have but just not shown on the site.<center><a href="https://i.imgur.com/dGb2CQU.jpg" target="AirLock"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dGb2CQU.jpg" width="400" border="0"></a></center></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>Ken Havekotte</TD><TD>Always enjoy hearing about Robert Rank, and as you have pointed out Chris, he did a fantastic job with his long series of velvet cachet cover productions, I believe from 1961-70, and they're still holding up quite well after nearly 60 years! By far, I've always considered Robert Rank the hardest and dedicated space cover dealer that I've had the pleasure to know and work with for so many decades. His unique space cover designs and world-wide postal cancel access network were truly phenomenal with his Space Voyage Covers of Union City, NJ.Please note the below two velvet covers that I don't know/think are included in your terrific Rank velvet cachet website. One is for Glenn's first day issue in Feb. 1962, however, it may have a different velvet cachet design than the others you already have. Also, Chris, the second cover depicted is an already known and recorded Schirra launch in October 1962, however, this one appears to be a larger-size cachet on a bigger envelope measuring 5" x 6.5".I'll check over some others as time permits and I did recently acquire a 5K space cover collection that did have several of Rank's velvet cover issues.It seems to me though that his Apollo 8 and 11 velvet cover creations, for some reason, are rarely ever seen. Or is it just me? Off hand, Chris, do you happen to know, even as a wide estimate, how many of the velvet covers Robert did for each space event and I am sure it was probably more for Mercury, Gemini and Apollo events, but maybe not.<center><a href="http://www.collectspace.com/review/kenhavekotte/scotw539a-lg.jpg" target="AirLock"><img src="http://www.collectspace.com/review/kenhavekotte/scotw539a.jpg" width="400" height="533" border="0"></a></center></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top>Cozmosis22</TD><TD> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Ken Havekotte: ...how many of the velvet covers Robert did for each space event<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> From Chris's post: "For most editions less than 80 covers were produced."Being such time consuming and tedious work always figured the number was less than 50.As shown on the Apollo 9 cover these caches were not produced directly on the envelopes; probably due to the noted 15-40% failure rate of the process. They were applied after the cancelled covers had been returned to him.Although they are quite artistic; was never really impressed with them as the images were by design a bit fuzzy; probably due my photographer's eye syndrome <IMG SRC="http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/smile.gif"> ...always wanting everything sharp and in focus. </TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>micropooz</TD><TD>The late Jane Beville was one of my mentors in this hobby, and she had an extensive collection of flocked space cachets. After she died, I got her flocked cover collection as part of her estate sale. I catalogued and scanned each of the covers (204 total) before trading/selling them off. Have sent Chris the catalog to see if any of these may help flesh out his website. The late Woody Witt (another flocked cachet aficionado) was going to flesh this listing out with his collection and put out a catalog. Unfortunately, nature took him away from us before that could happen.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top>Ken Havekotte</TD><TD>Thanks for all the good information, however, I don't recall meeting or knowing Jane Beville, but I did know Woody Witt. The last time Woody was over to my home, he dropped off some Gemini covers needing some anniversary cancels here at the Cape. He was going to make another visit in picking them up, but unfortunately, he left us much too soon. Dennis, do you know if any member of his family collects space covers, and if so, I'll be glad to forward the Gemini covers to that person, rather they collect or not.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>micropooz</TD><TD>Ken, I have lost track of Woody's family. Perhaps some of our other cS'ers have a fix on them.</TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top>yeknom-ecaps</TD><TD>Ken - All of Woody's collection/material was sold through Rasdale's auction earlier this year so there is no one who seems to have collected in his family besides him.</TD></TR></TABLE></td></tr></table>

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