Our Item 208-0510-Scott RW75A-Fed Duck-Northern Pintails-CC-131 C3

This particular award is particularly gratifying to me personally. While I am not a duck hunter, I know many who are and none have ever been anything but gentlemen and honorable women in my presence. Many are buyers of our cachets *[some only those with duck stamps] and has resulted in a remarkably favorable rating of comments on eBay, though I have never even displayed a single cover in any of their auctions.
This particular cachet shows "Pintails in Flight" which has been a specific request from duck hunters and bird-watchers. Both groups prefer an image of both the male and female and each with wingspread up and down, as this is required for positive identification while the birds are in-flight.
I entered a cover in this same category before as it was made possible by a door opened on my behalf by my good friend, Bob Dumaine [Sam Houston Duck Co. and a regular author on the subject for Linn's Stamps News] with Robert Hautman, one of the Hautman brothers [all of whom have won the competition on one or more occasion]. That stamp [Canada Goose-RW64] and cover design [See Our Item 197-038A,CC-077 B-D4] was created by Robert. He prepared an ink sketch and made a velox of that sketch which he handpainted for us as a guide for our use in painting the cachet once printed. The cachet design was a replica of the Goose on the stamp, but neither he nor I knew at that time what the cancel would look like. We painted it pretty much like his sample except I suggested to Sharon we use a blue-green shade for the water and a blue for the sky, where he had painted the same blue on both the water and sky on the sample.
It was only later we learned the cancel was a black replica of the Duck image that was the basis of the stamp image. After the covers were completed with cancels we sent them to his studio/home for him to autograph and return. When we got them back there was a note included that read, "Julian; Your covers look better than the sample I sent because the water looked better. Truly fantastic job! THANKS, Robert".
I was pumped and decided, for the first time, to enter it in the Duck category of the Cachetmakers Contest. However, I first cut out his handwritten note; picked one of the better cancels, signed, and sequentially numbered it, had the cover and note double matted and framed using only museum quality materials and UV glass and then submitted it. I felt confident, but did not get an award. However, since I spent so much money on the mat and framing, I did not automatically donate it to AFDCS and it was returned.
Within weeks controversy was so great from within the hobby about the judging (none of which came from me or Sharon) was so great the newly appointed Auction Chairman was replaced as in his defense he claimed "I instructed my chosen judges to NOT allow ANY category the TOP designation who had ever been granted a prior award as the winners should first be geographically spread to others." Therefore, in the end I felt vindicated, as many had approached Sharon and I with comments indicating, "The Pugh's Duck Cover should have won."