# 2764 - 1993 29c Garden Flowers: Lilac

U.S. #2764

1993 29¢ Lilac

Garden Flowers

·      From the first in a series of booklets featuring garden flowers

Stamp Category:  Commemorative

Set:  Garden Flowers

Value:  29¢

First Day of Issue:  May 15, 1993

First Day City:  Spokane, Washington

Quantity Issued:  39,956,800

Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Printing Method:  Lithographed, engraved

Format:  Booklet panes of 5 stamps each

Perforations:  10.9

Color:  Multicolor with black intaglio

Why the stamp was issued:  Part of the push behind the 1993 Garden Flowers stamps had come from the sale of stamps in supermarkets and other retailers.  People had reported that they wanted “bright, pretty American stamps,” so the USPS thought that flower booklets might please the public.  They ran TV commercials and full-page advertisements in stamp publications announcing “The flowers are in bloom at your post office.  Buy them while they last!” and “Pick up a bunch.”  

About the stamp design:  Engraved by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s Richard Everett, the stamp features artwork by Ned Seidler.  Seidler had previously designed the 1984 block of four Orchids stamps (US #2076-79).  This stamp, along with the other four in the booklet pane, depicts a bouquet spread across five stamps.  The lilac stamp is the only one in the booklet that pictures the flowers in only one color.  Using photographs and flower books as his inspiration, Seidler produced his painting through a combination of watercolor and gouache, a type of thicker watercolor. 

Special design details:  The Garden Flowers booklets have been found with two different errors ­– missing the black intaglio printing (denomination, USA, and flower name) and imperforate. 

About the printing process:  The Garden Flowers booklet was the first to be produced on the new Goebel booklet machine, which was the first to print multicolor covers.

First Day City:  The Garden Flowers stamps were issued in Spokane, Washington at the 55^th annual Spokane Lilac Festival and International Lilac Society Convention. 

About the Garden Flower Series:  This series was borne out of the 1992 Wildflowers issue.  Initially, that project had begun when the USPS asked an artist to produce color sketches of a group of garden flowers.  Instead, the artist gave the USPS illustrations of wildflowers.  The USPS liked them so much, they decided to create a 50-stamp pane, showing wildflowers that can be found in each state.  The USPS still liked the garden flowers idea and felt it would also meet consumer demand.  Though they didn’t announce it at the time, these stamps were to be the first in a new series of seasonal flower booklets.  Over the next three years, the USPS issued booklets of stamps showing flowers that bloom in summer, fall, and winter.

History the stamp represents:  Known for its lovely, fragrant flowers, the lilac is popular in many countries around the world.  Because lilacs can be grown in almost any climate and need little attention, they are a favorite garden flower.  The common lilac, which grows wild throughout southeastern Europe, has clusters of light purple flowers that grow against a background of dark green leaves.  A light purple color is also called lilac after these pretty flowers.

Nurseries have developed other varieties which have larger and more colorful blossoms; their flowers range from white to deep reddish-purple.  Many poems have been written about the beauty of the lilac, but the best known is probably Walt Whitman’s ode to Lincoln’s death, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”