I've never been a stamp collector, but I've always selected my stamps with a very personal eye. No staid American flags or Liberty Bells for me!. For years, I've been choosing stamps that represent things I love and one of the things I really love is great design.
So when my cache of wonderful, oversized Eames and Noguchi commemoratives depicting some of their most notable achievements in interior furnishings and design ran out a few days ago, I did what I always do. I headed to the U.S Postal Service's Web site to purchase some more, fully prepared, with the recent postal rate increase, to find a two-cent issue worthy of standing alongside these great icons of design.
Alas, with the exception of the 4-cent Chippendale Chair and the 1-cent Tiffany Lamp, none of the stamps commemorating great interior design are available any longer. If you look beyond the online store and search the site, you can still find a collector's series first day issue pane of the 16 Eames stamps for sale (premium priced and unusable as they are already cancelled). However, it's as if Noguchi, a sculptor by trade who viewed his furnishings and interior designs as a way to make sculpture useful in everyday life, never even existed.
I admit, it seems a little silly to be lamenting the passing of postal stamps, especially since I mail so very few hard copies these days. But that momentary connection with these two great masters of design while stamping my envelopes always put a bit of joy in the chore.
