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In the add-on discussion, Dave "DMFDCs" Moorshead wrote that he commissioned add-on cachets for Sc. 2054 Metropolitan from "Jack Follows, now deceased, a British artist who was fond of nudes and airplanes and who did mainly add-ons and in a cartoon-like style.
"As a collector of #2054 Met Opera FDCs, I corresponded with Jack, and we arranged that he'd do 4 add-ons for me for 4 #2054 uncacheted FDCs, which I supplied him, one for each opera in the Wagner Ring cycle of operas, which I love.
"Now one needs to go with the flow, so to speak, so asking Jack to paint an add-on in a style different than his would be foolish. Fortunately, I have a Wagner Ring comic book, and I sent Jack copies of selected pages, telling him what I wanted on each cachet, since the Ring is very image-laden.
"Well, Jack's results went beyond my expectations! (And his favorite music was country!) He did a masterful job, something no one else has done for this issue. I treasured them when I received them, and now with his passing, I treasure them even more."
Here are two of the covers:
"De Walkure is the second opera in the Ring Cycle and the strongest musically. The opening of act 3 has the music made famous by helicopter officer Robert Duvall in "Apocalypse Now" and is the scene shown here, with Brunnhilde on a mountaintop as her sister Valkyeries fly in. In the opera, they fly in on winged horses — remember, suspect disbelief — but I suggested to Jack that he put them on WWI bi-planes, since Jack enjoyed painting planes. Well, Jack did me one better by putting them on mini-Zepps, feeling that was more Teutonic! :-)"
"Siegfried is the third and probably mildest of the three Wagner Ring operas. In the cachet here, Siegfried, who was born of Sieglinde and Sigmund in De Walkure but who are brother and sister — who says opera ain't fun! — slays the dragon, who is really another gnome, Mime, but who "converted" himself to a dragon by placing a gold veil, or Tarnhelm, made out of the stolen gold from Das Rhinegold — remember that? — over his head, which allows him to change his shape."
Lloyd A. de Vries
©2003 de Vries Philatelic Media