Franky's Scripophily BlogSpot: Belgian Congo

Showing posts with label Belgian Congo. Show all posts

Monday, November 20, 2023

Booneshares offers rare US railroad and South American certificates in December scripophily auction

Mario Boone is a major player in the field of antique share certificates and financial documents. The auctioneer scheduled his 71st scripophily auction on 2 December 2023. This auction will take place live on the internet via the Invaluable platform. On the agenda are more than 1000 lots of bonds and shares.

The auction features stunning shares from all parts of the world. This founders share from the Banque de Cochinchine was issued in 1907 and printed by the well-known security printer Crabbé. The share is signed by Noël Pardon, who previously was acting governor of Cochinchina and New Caledonia, and then governor of Guadeloupe and Martinique. L(ot) 46 starts at €400.

For this occasion, auctioneer Mario Boone has compiled a strong section of US railroad certificates. To give an example: L777, starting at €300, comprises a 1877 bond from The Cheraw and Chester Railroad Company, South Carolina. Only two examples known and coxrail.com reports no sales recorded within the last ten years.

The US railroad section counts over 200 lots. A few more examples:

5% First Mortgage Gold Bond $1000 from The Canon City and Cripple Creek Electric Railway Company, mountain vignette, 1897, L762
L949, The Western Virginia and Kentucky Rail Road and Coal Company, $1000 bond, 1857, several vignettes, amazing scrollwork and very rare
L769, The Central Union Depot and Railway Company, $100 shares, 1885, vignette of Cincinnati building and street scene
A rare print from the American Bank Note Company is L876, Nevada Southern Railway Company, First Mortgage 5% 30 Year Gold Bond of $1000, 1893

The auction catalog includes stock certificates from companies involved in all types of activities. Such as this CELTA share. This cooperative was founded in 1931 to compete with Sudam, a private company providing electricity to the city of Tres Arroyos in Argentina. The still existing cooperative expanded its activities over the years also including telephone, funeral, health and dental services. This share, issued in 1939, presents a bold Art Deco scene conceived by the artist T. Menna.

Often these old securities have been designed by the artists of the day. The auction catalog lists a special index of the artists and engravers featured in the offerings. The certificate illustrated below depicts a Congolese woman with basket, an elephant tusk, a village, a map of the Basankusu region and the Star of Congo in the underprint.

The early 20th century share shown here is from the notorious ABIR. The company harvested rubber in the Congo Free State, then private property of King Leopold II of Belgium. ABIR forced the local population to pay taxes and to harvest rubber under inhumane conditions. Those who failed where beated, mutilated, killed or their relatives were kidnapped or raped. This share from 1904 is a testament to Belgium's awful low point in history.

It was Frans Hens who made the design of the certificate. He was the first Belgian artist to travel in the 1880s through the Congo and paint its nature, villages and people. He became known as a painter of the Belgian coast and the Schelde river. L82 is listed with a start price of €50.

Another major topic in the sale is South America. The auction includes several single-item lots but also group lots from most South American countries. Collectors have the opportunity to acquire several certificates in these lots at reduced average item prices. However, in case no group bids are received most of these groups will be split into single-item lots during the auction.

Illustrated above is L1002 a 1909 Banco de Guatemala share. Printed by Waterlow & Sons it shows several vignettes and many guilloches. Very lovely printed is the Resplendent Quetzal - featured in the coat of arms of Guatemala: the country's national bird representing freedom and independence. L1002 is part of the Guatemala group lot, L992.

There is lots more to discover in the auction. Here are the auction details :

Location: this is an Internet only auction
Date: 2 December 2023
Further info : online catalog, PDF file & bidding, see here on the auctioneer's website, or via the Invaluable platform, see there

F.L.

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Sunday, December 11, 2022

Jigsaw Mayombe

According to The New York Times jigsaw puzzles improve skills like spatial reasoning. Jigsaws can even help to avert anxiety. (Enjoy More 'Eureka!' Moments with Jigsaw Puzzles, NYT, Alexis Soloski, Dec 12, 2020)

So here is a new scripophily jigsaw depicting one of the most appealing Belgian Congo share certificates: http://leeuwerck.blogspot.com/p/puzzle.html .

Have fun !

This 1899 share from Les Produits du Mayombe was produced by Félix Wylands, a well-known photoengraver. Wylands started his career as a pharmacist but was soon fascinated by the possibilities of the chemical photoengraving process. As owner of the Société Anonyme Les Arts Graphiques he made several prints for artistic publications.

F.L.

Pioneering communication technology and lots more ready for take off at Spink

SPINK's latest timed scripophily auction went live earlier this week and ends at 11 AM GMT on Feb 16, 2021. This online sale presents about 600 lots of antique bonds and shares from all continents.

SPINK's e-Auction includes a large American section. The Utah Lithographing Co. S. L. C produced this stunning print for the Fairview Southend Mining Co. We've seen other lovely scripophily works by this printer, such as those made for the Salt Lake and Ogden Railway Co., depicting a tramcar and a mountain and lake landscape, and for the Dromedary Hump Mines Company illustrated with a dromedary. This 1906 issued share certificate shows a native American at nightfall watching the first star that appears behind the mountain tops. L(ot)534

For this sale SPINK specialist Mike Veissid selected a remarkable number of antique bonds ands shares from companies pioneering in the field of communication technology. Marconi needs no introduction, L292 is a share from Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd. Edison is represented with a £100 share in The Edison Telephone Company of Glasgow, 1880, L281.

Here are some other fascinating items :

Most of us still remember the fax machine. L290 Kamm's Zerograph Syndicate (1905), Limited, issued in 1906, is signed by Leo Kamm who invented a filmless movie projector but also a telegraph transmitting text that was printed at the receiving end.
Two 1911 shares in The National Telewriter Company, Limited comprise lot 296.
Military commander and aviation pioneer Baden Baden-Powell signed L286, The Helsby Wireless Telegraph Company, 1910.
A share in The Kilduchevsky Mega Telephone Syndicate, Limited, L291, is signed by another aviation pioneer, Paul de Kilduchevsky.

The German Josef H. Reineke invented this wireless telephone system for use in mining environments. A demonstration of Reineke's system was given in 1913 at the Annandale Pit, Kilmarnock, belonging to the Carrington and Auchlochan Coal Co. It was stated that with a portable apparatus in case of an accident, when ordinary telephone wires would be broken, it would be possible to converse with entombed miners. Officials of Dinnington Main Colliery, Yorkshire, where the system was tested for six months, often spoke from the pit-head or the pit-bottom to an operator in the cage while in motion. They also communicated with success through a mile of solid coal. L299 in the auction.

source: The Electrical Review, Vol. 73 No. 1869, Sep 19, 1913.

Also prominent in the sale is a series of securities related to arms, explosives and weapons :

Probably the most splendid scripophily in this theme is a share in The Colt Gun and Carriage Company, Limited. Issued in 1906 it is embellished with vignettes of soldiers and machine guns, L306.
L312 is a share in John Rigby & Co. (Gunmakers), Limited. Rigby, one of the oldest gunmaking companies in the world became famous in the 18th century for its dueling pistols.
Hiram Percy Maxim is credited with inventing the firearm silencer. L311 is a Maxim Silencer Company, Limited share from 1909 with embossed seal depicting guns.

The Rexer Arms Company acquired the rights to manufacture the Danish Madsen machine gun in the British Empire. After a legal battle on patents Rexer changed its focus on producing the Rexer Steam Car, without success. L323, £1 shares certificate, 1906, vignette of aiming soldier

There is a lot more to discover. Collectors of scripophily from South Africa, Rhodesia and Egypt will be delighted, as well as those looking for new automobiles, motorcycles and tobacco material !

Here are the sale's details :

Location : online auction only
Date : ends on 16 February, 2021 at 11:00 AM
Further info : see Spink's online catalogue with full color images here

Into African and Belgian Congo scripophily? Then this top signature of Henry Morton Stanley will definitely interest you. As an agent of King Leopold II of Belgium, Stanley searched for the source of the Nile and explored central Africa. Detail from L303, W. T. Henley's Telegraph Works Company Limited

F.L.

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Friday, October 23, 2020

King of the Netherlands owned the Belgian economy : spectacular royal share in the Société Générale de Belgique auctioned in Antwerp

Mario Boone's 65th auction is set for Saturday 31 October and takes place live on the internet. Over 1,300 lots of antique stocks and bonds from all over the world span four centuries of financial history. Part of an extraordinary collection and highlight in the auction is a unique share in the Société Générale des Pays-Bas pour favoriser l'Industrie Nationale that once belonged to Willem I, King of the Netherlands.

With the help of bankers from Brussels, Willem Frederik (1772-1843), King of the Netherlands, created in 1822 an investment bank, the Société Générale des Pays-Bas pour favoriser l'Industrie Nationale. Belgium was still under Dutch rule at that time. In 1830, when Belgium became an independent state, the Société Générale des Pays-Bas took the name Société Générale de Belgique.

The Société Générale de Belgique played a major role in the industrial development of the country and its former colony Belgian Congo. After the independence of Belgium the company became the official banker of the kingdom until the National Bank of Belgium was formed in 1850. Under Leopold II, the investment bank financed industries in China, South America, Egypt and Russia. The Société Générale is now a part of the French multinational Suez. This certificat d'inscription was issued in 1841 for 4300 shares of 500 Dutch Florins to Willem I, King of the Netherlands. Lot 332 in the sale is expected to realize at least €12,000.

The 'Willem I' share offered here is part of a set of rare and early Société Générale items, lots 329 - 347 in the auction. Each one of these are opportunities to enrich any serious Belgium scripophily collection. Included are the 1822 company statutes from the Alg. Ned. Mij. ter Begunstiging van de Volksvlijt (the company's Dutch name), a provisional share from 1837, a 500 Ned. Guldens share dated 1847, a Bradbury Wilkinson specimen, parts de reserve, and the like.

The Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga was registered in Elisabethville, today known as Lubumbashi. This specimen share from 1949 is part of the Belgian Congo railway collection. Lot 204

The sale includes more noteworthy collections. The Belgian Congo section counts about 80 lots, more than half of these come from a railway collection. The Dutch Indies consists of 40 lots, some of them group lots, and will interest collectors of sugar, tobacco, spices and rubber scripophily.

Northern Steamship Company Kotlas-Archangel-Murmask

200 Roubels share, 1916, lot 1062, click the image to enlarge

A large Russian section counts over 90 lots. Many of these antique securities were issued during the reign of tsars Alexander III and Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov. Some of the highlights :

Northern Steamship Company Kotlas-Archangel-Murmask, gorgeous vignette, see image above, L(ot)1062
City of Arkhangelsk, 5000 Rbls bond, 1916, large denomination, L1064
Baku-Tiflis Oil Industry and Commerce Company, company operated in today's Azerbaijan and Georgia, temporary share for 1000 shares amounting to 1 million roubles, serial number 1, extremely rare, L1060
L1061, share from the Chinabad-Andijane Feeding Railroad Line, Uzbekistan, 1916
Kursk-Charkov-Azov Railway, £500 bond, 1888, L1002

The French city of Reims hosted in 1909 the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne, the first international aviation meet. Aviation pioneers such as Glenn Curtiss, Louis Blériot, Louis Paulhan and Henri Farman participated. This share in the Aérodrome de la Champagne - Terrain d'Aviation de Reims-Bétheny was issued in 1910. The artist Gournay may have attended the event and added different types of early aircraft to the design of the share. L643

The catalog's comprehensive country index lists about 100 countries. In particular large sections are Dutch East Indies, Belgian Congo, Belgium, France, Germany, Russia, Spain and the USA. Scripophily from less obvious, often exotic places, like Papua New Guinea, Burma, Ethiopia, Monaco and El Salvador is present as well.

Printed by Imprenta Casa Misericordia this Minas de Cala share was issued in 1901, Bilbao. Its ingenious design of a carving incorporates all the important headings of a share certificate (company name, share capital, ..) as well as the arms of Huelva and Bilbao. L1108 starts at €50

There is much more to discover in the auction. Here are the auction details :

Location : Internet only
Date : 31 October 2020
Further info :

online catalog & bidding here, or via the Invaluable platform
PDF version of the catalog there

F.L.

The share from the Compañia de Seguros Maritimos de la Habana, dated 1857, features this stunning vignette. Click to enlarge. L1210, see the Cuban section of the auction

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Thursday, September 3, 2020

Scripophily Puzzle No. 3 - solution

Scripophily Puzzle No. 3 was about a sensational art theft that happend in Belgium during the night of 10 April 1934. As a matter of speaking, you could say that, back then, the news of the robbery went viral.

On Thursday, April 12, 1934, The New York Times reported :

Thief Steals Panel by van Eycks That Treaty Restored to Belgium

Wrenches It From Altarpiece, 'Adoration of the Lamb,' in Ghent Cathedral During Night — Most Sensational Art Theft Since That of 'Mona Lisa' Is Laid to an Eccentric. Thief Steals Panel by van Eycks That Treaty Restored to Belgium

-- Wireless to The New York Times ---

BRUSSELS, April 11. — One of the panels from the polyptych, "The Adoration of the Lamb," by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, one of the masterpieces of Flemish art, was stolen last night from the Cathedral of St. Bavon in Ghent. ... The panel stolen is the panel of St. John the Baptist and includes the figures of virtuous judges. It is about 54 inches long and 22 inches wide. The theft was discovered early this morning when the beadle of the cathedral was making his rounds. The thief had evidently hidden in the cathedral last night and had allowed himself to be locked in. ... The polyptych had been complete only since the conclusion of the World War, when Germany was ordered to return two panels, one of them that [was] stolen last night. The theft of a panel of the Ghent altarpiece is the most sensational event in the art world since a thief walked out of the Louvre in Paris with Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" in August, 1911. ...

source: timesmachine.nytimes.com, accessed 2 Sep 2020

The three towers in the old Ghent city center, from left to right :

A) Saint Nicholas Church, B) Belfry of Ghent, C) Saint Bavo Cathedral

Puzzle No. 3 was a multiple-choice question in which you had to indicate one of three towers in a vignette. I also gave you two visual clues that lead to the solution : images of share certificates in these two companies :

La Victoire des Flandres SA - Vlaanderens Zege NV
Société de Plantation & d'Exportation de l'Elaeis au Kasaï, dite "Plantexel"

share from La Victoire des Flandres - Vlaanderens Zege

Obviously the vignette with the three towers was taken from the former share in a Flemish insurance company. After enlarging the image - by clicking it - you could see that the company was based in the city of Ghent. Searching online for images of towers in Ghent would confirm your first clue: Ghent.

Registered office in Ghent

in French : siège social Gand

in Dutch : maatschappelijke zetel Gent

The second clue showed a share from Plantexel, dated 1928. This Belgian company cultivated palm oil, aka elaeis, in Belgian Congo. You'll be surprised knowing how this company fits in this story.

First, let us have a look at the painting. It looks like this when all panels are open. The panels have paintings on both sides.

the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck

The brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck painted the Ghent Altarpiece, or the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, in Dutch: Het Lam Gods, in the 15th-century. The polyptych altarpiece measures with all panels open 11 ft × 15 ft (3.4 m × 4.6 m). This masterpiece of European art is located in the St Bavo Cathedral, Ghent.

In our story, the stolen panel is the one in the lower left corner. The painting on its front side is called The Just Judges or The Righteous Judges, in Dutch: De rechtvaardige rechters. A notice from the public prosecutor's office, dated 12 April 1934, shows one of the last pictures taken from the paintings on the front and the back of the panel.

public prosecutor's office notice about the theft of the Ghent Altarpiece

The public prosecutor's office distributed two days after the theft a notice with a description of the panel.
Left : front side painting The Just Judges
Right : rear side painting St John the Baptist

attribution : Vdkdaan / CC BY-SA, Wikipedia

At the end of April 1934 the thief demanded from the Bishop of Ghent a ransom of one million Belgian francs in return for the panel. The Belgian government intervened and refused to meet the demand.

The authorities started negociations after receiving a second letter from the thief in May 1934. More letters led to the return of the rear side painting. There was no further trace of the thief.

At this point our main suspect comes in to the story. On 25 November 1934, stockbroker Arsène Goedertier, once a sacristan of the Bishopric of Ghent, suffered a heart attack. He was dying in the sole company of his lawyer to whom Goedertier declared that he knew the repository of the painting. Goedertier however was not able to disclose it but, so told the lawyer, he referred to documents hidden in the house.

signature Arsène Goedertier

The documents found were incriminating and included carbon copies of the ransom notes. The lawyer notified the police only a month later. The latter concluded that Goedertier had been the thief.

After a while doubts arose whether Goedertier had been the thief, or the brain behind it. Some suggested that somebody else may have put the incriminating documents in Goedertier's home office after the latter's death. Several researchers have tried to prove Goedertier's guilt or innocence or tried to find the painting.

Today the original painting The Just Judges is still missing. What you see today, and also in the picture above, is a copy made in 1945 by Jef Van der Veken. A Ghent police detective is still assigned to the case of the missing painting.

Arsène Goedertier was one of the directors of "Plantexel". He signed many of the company's founder shares (the 2nd clue in this puzzle).

Searching the word 'Plantexel' in Google yields links to the story of the famous theft. The answer for this puzzle is C: Saint Bavo Cathedral, the location of the Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers.

I received one correct reply. Well done reader-detective DB ! Why don't they assign you the Goedertier case !

F.L.

Previous posts

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Puzzling scripophily - No. 3

Unleash your detective skills !

Here is a vignette showing three towers in a row. Have a good look at it. In this puzzle, I want you to solve the following question : Is it A, B or C ? Now, that's simple, isn't it !

Of course, you need some more inputs to find the solution unless you are a clairvoyant. Here is hint one. The vignette was used on a share from the insurance company La Victoire des Flandres SA - Vlaanderens Zege NV.

courtesy : Mario Boone, The Scripophily Center

And here is hint no. 2, a share from a Belgian Congo company. This is also the last hint that I can give you.

The question is simple. Look at the vignette on top of this post. Choose your answer A, B or C, and tell me briefly why your choice is the solution of this puzzle.

How to take part ? Submit your reply in the comments section of this post, or in any other way.
What's in it for you ? The first correct answer yields eternal fame.
When will the solution be revealed ? Check this particular blog post .

Good luck !

F.L.

Belgian Association for Scripophily exists 40 years

The Belgian Association for Scripophily, in French: Association Belge de Scriptophilie (ABS), in Dutch : Belgische Vereniging van Scriptophilie (BVS), is a non-profit society that was founded 40 years ago in 1980. Ever since, the society's members gather once a month, to share news and discuss findings in our field of collection.

Two years ago member Denis Sagaert took the initiative to publish a free scripophily newsletter. More than reason enough to have a talk with him ! For the occassion, Denis choose the images for this post.

Alfred Van Neste (1874-1969) created the design for the founders share in the Société Anversoise de Cartonnages & Biseautages. The company, founded in 1899, was a book producer and publishing company from Antwerp. Van Neste, a landscape painter, illustrator and engraver, became one of Antwerp's most known poster designers. Click the image to enlarge and discover several illustrations from stages in early book production. The drawings are so prominent that the Art Nouveau elements in the border nearly escape our attention. Just below the rooster in the upper left corner you'll find 'SACB', the company's cypher (an interlacing or placing together of letters).

FL Denis, welcome to our virtual studio. How did you become a collector of antique securities ?

Denis I bought my first old shares in 2004 at a flea market in Brussels. As an asset manager I was already very familiar with bonds and shares, but I had no clue about 'scripophily'. Two years later, I read a newspaper article written by the chairman of the Belgian society. I then became a member.

FL Do you collect certain themes ?

Denis Yes, my main themes are Belgian-Russian shares, Belgian tramways and Belgian mining companies.

The Solvay company is a global player in the chemical and pharmaceutical business. The brothers Ernest Solvay and Alfred Solvay founded the company in 1863 to produce sodium carbonate by the Solvay proces. The vignette on the left is derived from the company's 50th anniverary medal made in 1913 by Belgian sculptor and medalist Victor Rousseau. In 1938 a similar, much larger bronze plaque made by Rousseau, was delivered for the Solvay memorial monument in Rebecq, the birthplace of the brothers. This bearer share dates from 1967, the year of Solvay's first public offering of shares to the public.

FL Denis, can you tell something about ABS/BVS ?

Denis Our association was founded in 1980 when scripophily was still a young hobby. ABS/BVS is a non-profit organization. Once a month we gather in Jezus-Eik, close to Brussels, and hold an auction for members. Occasionally, non-members are allowed to take part in a special auction either on-site or through submission of email bids. Also, people who still own some old cancelled bonds and shares, can contact our chairman for value estimations. They can also consign their 'non-valeurs' for sale at the club auction.

FL How many members does the society has ?

Denis We have about 25 members.

FL I've seen that the newsletter is mainly written in French. Do most members speak French ?

Denis There are a little more French speakers. We have a small group of members from France! But there is no big difference with the number of Dutch speakers.

Banker André Langrand-Dumonceau founded in 1863 the Banque de Crédit Foncier et Industriel. From the 1850s through the 1860s Langrand-Dumonceau tried to build a major Catholic financial group in Europe to counterbalance the so-perceived Jewish dominance in the financial sector. He became manager of tens of financial companies. He founded Royale Belge, one of the largest Belgian insurance companies. Pope Pius IX, King Leopold of Belgium, Napoleon III of France, and other European notables supported Langrand-Dumonceau's activities. However, by 1870, his financial empire collapsed and he fled to the USA. Langrand-Dumonceau signed this 1863 certificate for 20 shares of 500 Francs.

FL Denis, the society has an interesting website. What does it offer ?

Denis The site hosts a very extensive online database of antique securities (*). Of course, you can find information about our club and our hobby. In case of a 'special auction', we put the auction catalog online as well.
(*) Editor's note: you can search among more than 40,000 bonds and shares

FL You decided to publish a newsletter. What is it about ?

Denis We have a lots of resources on Belgian business histories, like the Moniteur and Recueil Financier year books. We bring topics on Belgian scripophily. In cases where a foreign company has a Belgian connection, eg. through its shareholders, then we might bring topics on foreign corporations too. In all cases, the content should be a combination of financial history and known bonds and shares.

FL Denis, was there a particular reason to start the newsletter ?

Denis Well, in the first place, we hope our members find it interesting, but publishing a newsletter is also a great way to give visibility to our association. The number of collectors in Belgium is diminishing. Hopefully, we can attract new members with this project.

L'Ikelemba was an agricultural and trading company, especially in rubber. The company's assets were located in the Ikelemba river bassin, in today's Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Lithographie du "Messager de Bruxelles" produced this share from 1898, a great example of a chromolithograph. Instead of using techniques like intaglio printing (e.g. engraving) or raised relief (wood-cut), this printing process was based on a flat surface printing method. The drawing was made on a special stone. By means of chemicals, ink was attracted by the drawing and repelled from the surrounding areas. In the case of multiple colors, separate stones were used for each color. A single print went through the press separately for each 'color' stone. The big challenge was to keep the resulting color prints aligned to form a unified image.

FL I can't resist asking the next question, I'm a bad person, but what is your favorite certificate ?

Denis Hm ... one of my favorites is a L'Ikelemba, action de dividende, from 1898 and extremely decorative.

FL Denis, I want to thank you for this interview and wish you success with the newsletter.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Numismatics teams up with Scripophily in Leuven

Interested in antique stocks and bonds from Belgium and Belgian Congo ? Looking for Russian bonds, French railway shares, and lots of other scripophily items ? Then there is a good chance to find what you want at the 52nd International Numismatic Collector's Bourse in the Brabanthal, Leuven, Belgium.

This 1899 share from Les Produits du Mayombe,
designed in art nouveau style by the artist F. Wylands,
can still be found at a reasonable price.

The event takes place on 1 May, 2018 and is an initiative from Numismatica Leuven in cooperation with the Belgische Vereniging voor Scriptofilie (Belgian Association for Scripophily). The bourse attracts hundreds of table holders from nearly 20 countries and will feature up to 40 tables of scripophily dealers and/or collectors.

Grand Bazar de la Place Saint-Lambert, Liège, share from 1924

Many antique securities were illustrated with nice vignettes.
This share from Le Grand Bazar de la Place Saint-Lambert, Liège,
was issued in 1924 and printed by Lith. La Cote Libre from Brussels.
Click-image to enlarge

More details :

Place to be : Brabanthal, Brabantlaan 1, Heverlee, Belgium
Date : 1 May, 2018
More info :

F.L.

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Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Uranium from Belgian Congo and more at Boone's 59th Auction

This Saturday, Boone's upcoming sale will take place in Brussels. The auction includes over 1,300 lots of historic bonds and shares and ends with the sale of a phenomenal, you can say epic, collection of Belgian banknotes. The event concludes with an international scripophily bourse on Sunday.

The auction's scripophily section features material from almost 90 countries. Top piece is a 1777 share in the Iron Bridge Trust, regarded by UNESCO as the symbol of the Industrial Revolution. Second highlight in the auction is a 1922 specimen certificate from Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, a star item in any Belgian Congo or world mining collection.

Lot 136 in the auction : Société Union Minière du Haut-Katanga , 1922

Union Minière du Haut-Katanga (UMHK) mined copper, uranium, radium, cobalt, gold and other minerals in Belgian Congo between 1906 and 1966. By the 1930s the company had a virtual monopoly of the world uranium market. The rich uranium ore was refined in UMHK's plant at Olen, Belgium. In the 1940s the Americans purchased tonnes of uranium to be used for their atomic bomb program. During WWII the Nazis captured over 1000 tonnes of uranium stored at Olen. It was recovered by US forces at the end of the war.

click image to enlarge

Mario Boone, 59th Auction and Bourse of Historic Shares and Bonds

Depicted is lot 525, Iron Bridge Trust, 1777.

According to UNESCO, the company marks the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

A special catalogue has been printed for the sale of a unique collection of Belgian papermoney from as early as 1848 right until the introduction of the euro.

Auction details

Location : Brussels
Dates : 21 Oct (Auction) 2017, 22 Oct (bourse)
Further info : see here

F.L.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Scripophily magazine celebrates 100 issues

The "World Auction Sales" table in Scripophily magazine reports the performances of auctions over the preceding period. Auctions are measured by the number of lots offered, sell ratio and the corresponding turnover. Also, included is eBay as an auction platform. Did you know that, over the period Dec 2015 - Feb 2016, the average lot price recorded in eBay's scripophily section was €14 in Europe, and €23 in the US (*).

(*) after applying cleansing operations on the data, such as eliminating double counted lots, because some auctioneers sell simultaneously through eBay

Scripophily magazine No. 100 - April 2016

Scripophily magazine was first published in 1982 under the name The Bond & Share Society Journal. In April 2016 the International Bond & Share Society honoured the joyous occasion of the journal's hundredth publication with a separate 44-page commemorative section, printed nostalgically in black and white on A5 paper size. The magazine has come a long way. Editor Max Hensley explains:

A technological advance of great importance for Scripophily (magazine) has been the Internet. The Dec 2015 issue contained an article written in Turkey, edited in the US and composed in the UK, all within weeks. This would have been impossible before the internet.

Editor Max adds that today, the magazine appears on high quality paper, articles are longer and brought with more images in full color. Journals from the 1990s contained an average of 5 auction reports whereas now the issue reports about twenty to thirty auctions. Every issue was produced " .. without paying a penny for content."

" The hollow surprise of the Londonderry Gold Mine is one
of the articles from the commemorative section in Scripophily
magazine, written by Anne Marie Hendy. It reads like Harry Potter."
, says this unshaven blogger.

As usual, this issue brings society matters, market news, bourse reviews, auction reviews, an events calendar, member classifieds, book reviews, interviews and lots of pictures of collector friends and bonds and shares. The commemorative section contains the following set of snapshots from the first two decades :

Out of the ordinary bonds in out of the way auction, a comic essay
The formation of British companies to 1856
Further "nuggets" from Western Australia : The hollow surprise of the Londonderry Gold Mine
Coastal shipping - a brief, about British coastal shipping scripophily
The expensive business of raising railway loans : the Shanghai-Nanking Loan Agreement
The "Train Renard"
Auction reports, reports on the F.H.W. and Witula auctions from 1992
Dome and Lakeshore - two top Ontario gold mines
Trillion $$$ Standard Oil stock comes home !
UK Tramways - a neglected field of scripophily
The King George's Sound Company - the American/Chinese fur trade in 1785
Philoscripy? Bonditry? Shyloxis? , explains the origins of the word scripophily
Dangerous Edison forgeries on the market
HP Magazin, a summary from HP magazine Jan 1996
Share companies in Soviet Russia
A major art thief signs shares, the story of Arsène Goedertier and the Plantexel company
The man who robbed the Robber Barrons, about William Mann, founder of the Mann's Boudoir Car Company
Otto Mears, Colorado railroad pioneer
Art Nouveau-Jugendstil
Scripophily in Tokyo
Go West, yunger Mann ! , German immigrants in Texas

Scripophily magazine is a publication from IBSS .

F.L.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Digest of scripophily readings XVI

New online scripophily articles and references, April 2015

Recueil des Sociétés Coloniales et Maritimes 1902

This online "Manual of Colonial and Shipping Companies 1902" consists of the following parts

Colonial companies from Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Portugal and the Netherlands operating in Africa, Asia, America and Oceania
Shipping companies from Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands
List of directors

Compagnie Anglo-Belge de la Côte D'Or

Detail from the certificate below.

Notice the hatching work on the well-muscled man in the front.

Hatching is a technique often used in drawings to suggest volume.

double-click image to enlarge

The book was originally publised in 1902 by the Société d'Études Coloniales de Belgique, now digitized by Google on the Internet Archive. You can browse it online here . The page contains also a link to a 20 MB PDF file, but the online version has better search functionalities.

Compagnie Anglo-Belge de la Côte D'Or

English: Anglo-Belgian Company of Gold Coast (Ghana)

Founder's share, 1899

Printed by Lith. Laporte & Cie., Antwerp

Men of the Pacific Coast

Here is a helpful online reference for the researchers of American Far West history. The full title of the book is : Men of the Pacific Coast containing Portraits and Biographies of the Professional, Financial and Business Men of California, Oregon and Washingthon 1902-1903. It was published by the Pacific Art Company, San Fransisco, Cal. in 1903, and has been digitized by the Internet Archive with funding from Microsoft Corporation.

Included are portraits and brief biographies of men involved in commerce, manufacture, art, science, literature, finance and religion from the Pacific Coast. You can view it online here. On the same page, there is a link available for downloading the almost 90 MB sized PDF file. In contrary to the above publication, this PDF version offers better results for searching on place names and terms like "railway, gold, diamond, ..".

Pictures of Wyle C. Morris, Eastern Oregon Railway Company and Amos O. Benjamin, Alaska Company, Inc.

Men of the Pacific Coast

Left : Wyle C. Morris, Eastern Oregon Railway Company

Right : Amos O. Benjamin, Alaska Company, Inc.

double-click image to enlarge

Scripophily magazine

In addition to the online sources above, the last December 2014 No.96 issue of Scripophily magazine contains the following stories :

Amazing Western Union Telegraph Co Certificates Found in New York Stock Exchange Archives
Inter-City Umbrella Renting Company
Flagler - a Household Name in Florida, about Henry M. Flagler's oil and railway activities
Scripophily of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition - Part 2
In Memoriam The 4%s, about the British 4% Consols
The Early History of Palm-oil Production in Indonesia and Malaysia - The Story of Adrien Hallet
Cox's Corner : Assessable Shares
other periodical topics : society matters, news, bourse reviews, auction reviews, events calendar, member classifieds, book reviews, interviews and lots of pictures of collector friends and scripophily

Scripophily magazine is a publication from the International Bond & Share Society.

F.L.

Signed the Guest book, yet ?

P.S. This post marks 5 years of Franky's Scripophily BlogSpot.

Thank you all for the visits, remarks and questions.

I hope to see you again sooner or later.

Cheers !

Franky

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Innovative service for first-class collections

Last year, the Centrum voor Scriptofilie (or Scripophily Center in English) announced SCRIPOCOLLECTIONS.com : an online service for its customers. This is not just another online web presence. On the contrary, Mario Boone, director of the company, came up with a new, innovative way of handling third-party collections online. Worthwile to write a few lines about it.

Read on, when

a) you are an advanced collector and it has become difficult to complete your collection
b) or, you need to sell your collection in its entirety
c) or, you are looking for an interesting investment opportunity

How does SCRIPOCOLLECTIONS.com meet these needs ? Well, the service offers an Internet platform to display collections from collectors who :

wish to receive offers for missing pieces
wish to sell their collection in their entirety
a combination of both the above.

The role of the service provider is supportive:

making a digital inventory of the collection
optionally scanning shares and bonds
display a collection online
estimate the collection
finding a buyer for the entire collection
mediate between the customer and potential sellers of new entries of a collection
ensuring customer's privacy by default
et cetera

You are correct when you say that these kind of activities are common practises for auctioneers and antique dealers. But, at least to my knowledge, it is the first time I see this implemented by means of a web platform targeting the world wide public.

Possibly there is something in it for you, I mean even when you are not planning to put your collection online. Do you have a bond or share certificate for sale that can supplement one of these collections ? Contact the Scripophily Center, maybe your piece finds a new home.

More info available on SCRIPOCOLLECTIONS.com.

Below are some images from the collections currently on display.

F.L.