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Author
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Topic: Space Cover 594: Katzowitz's cancels
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Bob M Member Posts: 1779 From: Atlanta-area, GA USA Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 01-16-2021 07:22 AM
Space Cover of the Week, Week 594 (January 17, 2021) Space Cover #594: Katzowitz's Space Cover CancelsJoel Katzowitz, professional designer (ret.), artist, space collector, sometimes collectSPACE poster, and space cancel designer extraordinaire, has designed a number of USPS pictorial cancels that probably most of us space cover collectors have at least a few of. I have most of them and I've displayed five of Joel's cancels here. The one at the top is for John Glenn's STS-95 Space Shuttle flight and the other commemorating 50 years of America in space, with an image of the Explorer 1 satellite. The cover at the bottom — complete with dog tracks — for the STS-69 unofficially named Dog Crew II, with a cachet based on the Dog Crew II crew patch designed by Joel. ![](http://www.collectspace.com/review/bobm/scotw594b.jpg) These three covers have pictorial cancels marking, at the top, the opening of the Apollo/Saturn V Center in 1997; next is a cancel for STS-76, the third Shuttle-Mir docking mission in 1996; and the bottom cover's cancel marks the 100th US manned spaceflight, STS-71, with an appropriate array of US stamps commemorating Mercury, Gemini, Skylab, Apollo and the space shuttle. The six covers shown here came from space collector and cover producer extraordinaire, Ken Havekotte. |
Joel Katzowitz Member Posts: 824 From: Marietta GA USA Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 01-17-2021 07:37 AM
Wow, that was pretty sneaky Bob, telling me you were working on your Space Cover of the week installment and leaving out the part that it was about my designs!!!Working on these cancel designs with Ken was always a blast! I think the first cancel that we ever worked on together was the AHOF Gemini Induction ceremony in 1993. That was very special to me because I designed the first incarnation of the AHOF in 1989. Thank you Bob!!! |
bobslittlebro Member Posts: 211 From: Douglasville, Ga U.S.A. Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 01-17-2021 07:55 AM
Great looking covers Bob. I have a few of these myself. Cancel's like this are always a special addition to anyone's collection. |
Bob M Member Posts: 1779 From: Atlanta-area, GA USA Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 01-17-2021 09:22 AM
quote: Originally posted by Joel Katzowitz: Wow, that was pretty sneaky Bob..
It was meant to be a surprise and it worked. It's about time you got some recognition for your excellently done Katzowitz's Kover Kancels, but maybe using extraordinaire to describe your work was slightly too much, with maybe excellent or superb being more appropriate. ![](http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/smile.gif) But I don't think that anyone would object to using "extraordinary" to describe Ken's space cover production and collection. We should probably expect Ken to display the rest of Joel's cancel production here soon. |
GACspaceguy Member Posts: 2650 From: Guyton, GA Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 01-17-2021 10:09 AM
Joel has helped with many displays here in the Karst-ionan always impressive and so are those covers. Great montage of covers for a super designer. |
Ken Havekotte Member Posts: 3153 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 01-17-2021 10:32 AM
Nice tribute Bob in celebrating the space artwork of Joel Katzowitz during the last three decades. Joel has always been my one of my favorite postal artwork pictorial cancel designers for the USPS and SpaceCoast Cover Service (SCCS), and rightly so!Below are a few other designs of Joe's with his famous "lunar boot imprint" for Apollo 11's silver (25th) anniversary here at KSC in July 1994, which is perhaps one of my all-time favorite designs using the well-known Aldrin lunar boot-step outline. Two others are the Gemini and Apollo astronauts induction into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, Titusville, FL, in 1993 and 1997. Joel's first cancel design was for the Gemini space fliers (first cover below), however, for the first 7 Mercury astronauts' induction, no special cancel had been done, but only for Gemini and Apollo. While Bob's very top cover above has Joel's pictorial cancel "John Glenn Returns to Space" on Shuttle Discovery for Mission STS-95 in 1998, it's shown again below, but used on a special Glenn combo-cover of both his Mercury/Shuttle flights together. It depicts the same type-cancel design by Joel, however, this one is smaller in size than in comparison to the first depicted cancel impression. A postal district branch here in Florida, which produces rubber stamp devices for special cancels like this, made the Glenn return to orbit cancel-strike too large than originally intended, therefore, a second but smaller hand cancel device was ordered by SCCS. A smaller size was needed because, as you can see on both covers, the larger size would simply not fit nor have enough room or space for a full cancel placement as seen on the original Mercury first day cover. ![](http://www.collectspace.com/review/kenhavekotte/scotw594b.jpg) As for Bob describing my space cover work as "extraordinary," that's very kind, but I don't deserve such special recognition. I'm only just a dedicated and passionate space cover and memorabilia collector like so many others that I know of, whom as a young boy in my case growing up with rockets on the Florida Space Coast, was fascinated (and still am) by space travel and exploration. Like before, all four of the cachet covers above were official productions of SCCS, however, the lunar surface designed 25th Apollo 11 anniversary cover was a joint issue with Cape Kennedy Medals (CKM) of Cocoa Beach, FL. And for Joel, if you don't mind me asking, do you have an overall favorite cancel design that you can share with us? Also, Joel, did we miss any of your other cancel designs here? |
Joel Katzowitz Member Posts: 824 From: Marietta GA USA Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 01-18-2021 07:34 AM
I'd say the John Glenn return to space cancel is my favorite. It shouldn't be much of a surprise, as you know, Project Mercury has always been my passion.I don't know if you remember this Ken, but at some point during the design phase the USPS was not sure we could use Glenn's name in the cancel because he was still living and that violated their policy. So you asked me to come up with a backup plan. Configuring the type layout to form the outline of a Mercury Spacecraft was not easy and so I figured any option would have to fit in the same amount of space as his name. I eventually went with "Space hero" and I still have that alternative artwork. |
garymilgrom Member Posts: 2023 From: Atlanta, GA Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 01-18-2021 04:40 PM
Well done Joel! |
Antoni RIGO Member Posts: 212 From: Palma de Mallorca, Is. Baleares - SPAIN Registered: Aug 2013
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posted 01-20-2021 08:21 AM
Thanks Joel for your excellent artwork. Really appreciated. It is a premium to collect this kind of covers with pictorial cancels devoted to space events.Ken, for STS-95 pictorial cancel I know there are two different sizes. I assume that both are based on Katzowitz's designs as they are identical. However, do you know why are there two different sizes? Thanks. ![](http://www.collectspace.com/review/antoni_rigo/scotw594a.jpg) ![](http://www.collectspace.com/review/antoni_rigo/scotw594b.jpg)
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Ken Havekotte Member Posts: 3153 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 01-20-2021 09:16 AM
Yes, Antoni, the two different sizes were explained in the above Jan. 17th post of mine. Good to see the STS-95 cards posted as they were approved KSC-NASA VIP cards for Glenn's return to space. |
Antoni RIGO Member Posts: 212 From: Palma de Mallorca, Is. Baleares - SPAIN Registered: Aug 2013
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posted 01-20-2021 11:43 AM
Oops. Thanks Ken. I had overlooked this paragrah. Sorry. Now seen and understood.And as you said, these STS-95 cards were approved by KSC-NASA VIP cards. As long I know, no further KSC-NASA VIP cards for next space flights have been approved. The STS-95 cards are the last ones. |
Ken Havekotte Member Posts: 3153 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 01-20-2021 12:19 PM
That's correct Antoni as the cards for STS-95 were the last VIP issues and the only shuttle launch cards. Before the shuttle program, the last VIP card issued was for the first Skylab (SL-2) station crew launch in May 1973. For STS-95, more than 5,000 cards had been printed as proposed by my firm. The VIP cards had been distributed at the main VIP launch viewing sites on center grounds, which included the Press Site 39 area inside the news center. The VIP cards were provided by my firm on a NASA contract for their production, cost, and delivery on center. | |
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