Stamp

Stamp

By David A. Keeps Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

June 19, 2008
Charles and Ray Eames became the first furniture designers ever to be honored by the U.S. Postal Service.

On Tuesday, nearly 300 design fans and stamp collectors attended a ceremony at the Eames Office in Santa Monica, grandson Eames Demetrios says. The commemorative edition of 24 million stamps, on sale for one year, is available in collectible 16-image sheets, as shown here. "It's not just the familiar furniture," Demetrios says. The images include the Eameses' 1947 Crosspatch fabric design, a still from their 1969 short film "Tops" and a photographic Christmas card of the late Santa Monica-based Modernists. Demetrios adds, "What's really cool is that the stamps are like their furniture -- works of beauty intended to be mass produced." The stamps are available from post offices, (800) 782-6724 or www.usps.com/shop.