The Caneco Connection - A Study of the First Day Covers of the Canada Envelope Company

Robert D. Vogel
Released August 2018.
326 pages, 8.5x11, spiral bound.
Colour C$ 54.00 [ISBN 978-1-927119-92-1].

In 1954, the Canada Envelope Company (Caneco) began to prepare not only First Day Covers with suitable cachets for the stamp issue being commemorated, but also printed inserts with information relating to the subject(s) of the stamp issue. The FDCs were usually addressed to specific representatives of CANECO customers, but some were addressed to individuals without a company reference, likely friends of employees and, eventually, possibly to FDC collectors who had asked to be included in the mailings.

After studying his collection, Bob found that other companies were utilizing the same envelope but with their own return addresses on the reverse. This was cause for further study. Starting in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Bob found Elliott-Marion, Dominion Engineering Works and James H. Wilding, all Montreal businesses, choosing the same cachet and in most cases similar information inserts. When Caneco ceased production of their own cachets in 1973 and substituted Rosecraft and NR Covers cachets to continue their first day cover program, James H. Wilding and Dominion Engineering Works followed suit. These two companies continued with their programs until 1975 and 1983 respectively. Caneco continued their program until 1984 when they ceased to be in business.

Bob Vogel became a serious philatelist in 1964, collecting mint and used Canada. When his interest turned to the postal history of Muskoka District in 1970, he gradually assembled a comprehensive collection and exhibited it at the local level. During the mid-1990s his interest changed to the postal history of Berlin/Kitchener, Ontario, focusing on the machine cancels of that community, which he exhibited at a National level. Bob’s sideline collections include WWII Patriotic Meter Slogans, 1932 Sepia Views – Postal Stationery, Canadian Christmas Seals, postal stationery relating to Christmas Seals and Canadian First Day Covers. In 2016, he prepared the second edition of Art Klass' Christmas Seal Ads on Canadian Post Cards for BNAPS.