About This Stamp
A 20-cent commemorative stamp recognizing the 200th anniversary year of the signing of the Treaty of Paris was issued September 2, 1983, in Washington, D.C. The First Day of Issue ceremony took place in the John Quincy Adams Room at the State Department. The room houses the original English tambour desk on which the Treaty of Paris, which marked the end of the Revolutionary War, was signed.
David Blossom, of Weston, Connecticut, based his design for the stamp on Benjamin West's unfinished painting entitled "The Signing of the Treaty of Paris," which was executed the year before the Treaty was signed. The design features the three American signers, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams, as well as the British signatory, David Hartley. The original painting hangs in the Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Delaware. Esther Porter modeled the stamp.
The stamp was printed in the photogravure process and issued in panes of 40.