Antique securities up for sale at SPINK's Autumn 2020 Bonds and Shares auction

Spink and Son Ltd specialises in the auctioning of stamps, coins, banknotes, medals, autographs, books, wines, bonds and shares. Their latest sale went online earlier this week and ends at 11 AM, Sep 22. Over 650 lots of antique securities will go on the block. 

The auction features many historic and decorative share certificates. This one, L(ot) 564 in the auction, is from The Bluebird Copper-Gold Mining Company Ltd. The print features a great vignette of a mountain bluebird which lives in open country across western North America. Click the image to enlarge. 
P. H. Franklin from Salt Lake City founded The Bluebird Copper-Gold Mining Company Ltd in 1901. He signed this 1902 share as president. Other co-founders were M. J. True, Jos. Kittinger and F.A. Fox, all three from Buffalo, NY, and C.S. Hutchinson from Syracuse, NY, the location of the principal office. Operations took place at Milford, Beaver County, Utah. 

At stake in this sale are historic and vintage stocks and bonds from many countries. Main sections include British canals, civil engineering, docks & harbours, piers, bridges and railways, as well as Irish railway scripophily and stocks and bonds from American mining and railroad companies. 

The Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company operated a canal and a network of railways in south-east Wales. It started as the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation and opened canals from Newport to Pontypool and to Crumlin from 1796. The vignette on this 1852 share certificate shows a train and a horse-drawn barge nearing a canal bridge. L120 in the auction. 

The auction features over 250 bonds and shares from British railways, canals, docks & harbours, and pier and bridge companies. Some examples :

• Historic is L119, a share in the company 'for making the rivers Mercy and Irwell navigable from Liverpool to Manchester, in the County Palatine of Lancaster', dated 1724 ! Ten years later small boats were able to sail from the centre of Manchester through to the Irish Sea. Printed on vellum, extraordinary lettering, red wax seal with sailing ship and paper revenue stamps, genuine signatures, in other words lots to enjoy. 
• A red paper seal depicting a bridge adorns The Hoarwithy Bridge Company share from 1855. L333
• Two shares from the Vauxhall Bridge company, L362 and L363, parade a stunning copper seal. The first iron bridge over the Thames river opened in 1816.
• L283 St. Helen's and Runcorn Gap Railway, early share from 1830 
• Train watchers can be spotted on The Leeds and Thirsk Railway Company share from 1846, L227 

A series of 23 Irish lots follow, most of these consisting of scarce railway securities. The following Newry Navigation Company share offers a splendid vignette and a great story.

Francis Jack Needham, Earl of Kilmorey (1787-1880), purchased this share in 1834. Lord Kilmorey had married Jane Gun-Cuninghame in 1814. He became High Sheriff of Down. Over fifty years old  Francis Jack became the legal guardian of the twenty year old Priscilla Anne Hoste. She was the daughter of the late Admiral Sir William Hoste and Lady Harriet Walpole. The Earl and Priscilla quickly became lovers and ran off together. A year later, in July 1844, they had a son, Charles. The Earl acknowledged his son and gave him his surname. He housed his wife and his beloved Priscilla in adjoining houses connected with a tunnel. L392, Newry Navigation Company 1834, £50 share issued to Francis Jack Needham, Earl of Kilmorey. 

The second half of the sale counts over 250 lots from North, Central & South America.  A selection from the catalog :

• Atrato Mining Company, Colombia, 1880, unique vignette of river dredging activity, detailed map of South America in embossed seal, and more to see, L428 
• L415, Bolivia Trading Company, 100 shares of $10, 1902, large llama vignette 
• L433 is a rare Consolidated External Debt of Costa Rica £100 bond from 1886 
• Puget Sound, Chelan and Spoke Railway Company, share certificate from 1910 with triple pane vignette 
• Stock ticker vignettes are seldomly seen, but here is one on the Electric Reporting Company share from 1884, L624 

The Guayabillas Mining Company operated near Yuscaran, Honduras, where the Spaniards found gold and silver in its foothills in 1746. L439 in the sale

Make sure you check out online more of these wonderful securities. Here are the details :

• Location : this is an Internet only auction
• Date : Sep 2 15:00 - Sep 22 11:00.
• Further info and online catalog: see here 

F.L.

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SPINK to sell New Zealand stock at online auction

SPINK's next scripophily auction is set for October 17, 2018. This online sale counts about 500 lots of antique bonds and shares from the UK, Russia, China, Mexico, Egypt, USA and many more states. The auction starts with an important range of New Zealand scripophily.

The Land & Loan Company of New Zealand Limited provided credit for farmers and traders in wool and frozen sheep meat. Meat and dairy exports to Britain would form the basis for economic growth in New Zealand. Bids for this rare 1884 share, lot 15 in the auction, can start at £60. 

Detail from the Land & Loan Company of New Zealand certificate above. 
The vignette illustrates the company seal showing a ship and sheep. The vignette's design is skillfully repeated in the company's embossed seal. 
Click image to enlarge. 

Bonds and shares from New Zealand are hardly seen at auctions. SPINK included this time more than sixty lots. Among the highlights you can find a share from the Dunedin Stock Exchange, L(ot) 13. The New Zealand Times Company share, L18 in the auction, issued in Wellington, 1900, may be purchased from £120. Some certificates show a Māori vignette, such as L39 and L40, two different types from The London & New Zealand Exploration Company, but also on a Taitapu Gold Estates certificate from 1899, L54.

From Timaru, located on New Zealand's South Island, this £10 share in the Timaru Landing and Shipping (Limited), L57, was issued in 1868. Equally rare and early, it is estimated at £120-150. 

The Far East section contains mainly lots from China. An uncancelled Shanghai Power Company share, L139, printed by American Bank Note Co, with text in Chinese and English, starts from £180. L141 is a 200 silver dollar share in the Tai Seng Opium Firm from Macau, dated 1918. £400 may buy you this extraordinary topic in scripophily. The section counts many Chinese government loans offered either in group lots or as a single item such as a 1912 5% Gold 'Crisp' Loan, bond for £1000, L99.

L137, two shares from the Shanghai Land Investment Company, incorporated in Hong Kong, show a Chinese workman painting a house at the top of a ladder. Both certificates, signed by philantropist Sir Horace Kadoorie, can be acquired from £80. 

Some twenty lots of African company securities are next, often richly decorated, e.g. L170 Compagnie Impériale des Chemins de Fer Éthiopiens,  L172 Compagnie Générale de l'Afrique Française, French Congo, L174 Charterland Goldfields Limited, Rhodesia.

The Ottoman Company Limited, formed in 1865 to finance the Bank of Turkey, failed the following year as a result of the Panic of 1866. Its £20 share, 1865, printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co, has one of the finest engravings in scripophily. L159, in the auction, estimated at £50-60.

Great Britain contains over 50 lots including several pre-Irish independence ones. L253, The Derby Canal Company share, printed on vellum, with waxed paper seal and rare, was issued in 1793.  L269, a trio, contains a share in The Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Co Ltd, 1860, wonderful vignette of a paddle steamer and issued to "The Most Honorable The Marquis of Clanricarde of Portumna Castle County Galway" (sic). Another share, from The Boy Messengers and Electric Call Company, L273, is signed by Patrick Bowes-Lyon, uncle of Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who won the mens doubles Wimbledon championship in 1887. Modestly estimated at £40-50.

The Navan and Kingscourt Railway Company opened the section that connected the Irish towns of Kingscourt and Navan in 1875, at that time still part of Great Britain. This £10 share, issued 1871, Dublin, is part of a trio, L297 in the auction. 

The sale covers many other European countries. E.g. collectors of 18th century securities will be impressed by the caligraphy and the fine printing of the company seal on a Canal de Richelieu share from 1753, L206, bids welcomed from £200 onwards. Lots of Art Nouveau, Jugendstil and Belle Époque material ready for the block, such as a Théatre-Concert du Moulin-Rouge share from 1904, with the famous windmill logo's inclusive, £80, L220.

The SPINK auction features scripophily from the Confederate States of America as well. This $100,000 5% treasury note, was issued in the last months of the American Civil War on February 1, 1864, Richmond. Click the image and see the enlarged sailing ship vignette. L381, estimated £120 to £150. 

Matching time zones, scripophily from The Americas tops off the sale with over 150 lots. Bidding can start at £140 for an extremely early Peruvian Treasury Loan issued during the Peru's fight for independence from Spain, L368. A specimen share from the Canadian Western Lumber Company, with felled timber in the vignette, was printed circa 1910 by Waterlow & Sons, L358. Catalogued on Coxrail.com as LAC-360-B-30, the only one known, L422, a $1000 bond in the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Rail-Road Company, 1855, can possibly be snapped up for £80.

Banco de Buenos Aires, share of 10 Pesos, 1911, with a nowadays controversial but mega underprint scene of natives listening to a conquistador with priest. L346 in the auction. 

You can find more of these fascinating stocks and bonds in the SPINK online catalogue. Here are the auction details :

• date : 17 October 2018, 11:00 AM
• location : online auction
• online catalogue and further info, see here  

F.L.

Original British automotive shares for sale at Spink London

SPINK's Bonds and Shares Department has scheduled its next ONLINE only sale for 21 June 2018. Specialist Mike Veissid and his team noticed that most of the buying in the market of antique securities happens online and decided to no longer produce any printed catalogues. Sales will be held entirely online at least four times a year and go live two to three weeks before the sale date. The June sale has 526 lots of world wide scripophily. Included are a unique series of British automotive shares.

Rolls-Royce needs no introduction. Founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce in 1904, the company developed and manufactured the "best car in the world". Did you know that RR was responsible for the cabinets of Ferranti's Pegasus, one the world's earliest (and British) computers. Apart from the modern issues, RR shares from earlier periods like the one offered in lot 333 are extremely rare. Issued in the middle of World War II, 1942, a very modest estimate of £140-180 will certainly attract the attention of many automobile enthousiasts.

More about these British automobile shares right away, but there are many other lots in the sale worth having a look at. The sale starts with a line of bonds and shares from New Zealand and Australia, lots 2 - 14, and includes a Lake Bathurst Australasian Gold Mining Company from the 1850s.

A large Chinese section of government loans counts many group lots, such as lot 34, a group of 9 5% Tientsin Pukow Railway Supplementary Loan 1910 £100 bonds, issued by the Chinese Central Railways in 1911, estimated around £275.

Chinese Government 5% Gold Loan of 1912 £1000, lot 44.

It is the highest denomination of the £10,000,000 loan. Nicknamed the ‘Crisp’ loan because it was floated by C. Burch, Crisp & Co. in London at 95% on behalf of the British & International Investment Trust, Ltd. 

Only 750 issued, it is estimated to fetch £1,400 - £1,800

Twenty-five lots of Chinese company securities are next. Amongst them a group lot of 5 different issues from the Banque Industrielle de Chine, including a blue founders share. These are true classics but are oh-so nice to look at, as you can see here. Estimated between £150-£200.  Lot 86 is a China Portland Cement Co. Ltd. 50,000 yuan share, high denomination, 1926. A group of 7 Manchuria Iron Company certificates from the 1920's and 30's deserves attention. This huge company at some time produced 50 per cent of Japan's wartime steel. Lot 104, £90 mid estimate.

Some other striking Asean certificates : two shares in the Borneo Rubber Company Ltd, 1917, map of Indonesia and Malaysia in underprint, lot 108 & 109, estimated around £55, and a very rare Ottoman 3½% Loan Secured by the Egyptian Tribute, 1894 £100 bond, lot 114 in the sale, is expected to fetch £600.

£60 May buy you lot 238, a stunning Tramways d'Astrakhan share from 1896. The share is designed by the artist Gossart, engraved by Malvaux and signed by the wealthy Belgian entrepreneur and amateur Egyptologist Édouard Empain.

Most countriest from Europe are represented. Some examples : 5000 Pesetas Spanish specimen bond from the Law of August 1899 - Royal Decree of June 1902 Loan, head of the King Alfonso XIII as a boy at top, rare, lot 249, £70 estimate. Lot 153 is a highly illustrated Serbian bond issued by Belgrado's Jewish community. A very large format Danish 5% Loan specimen bond £1000 from 1864, rarely seen, lot 161, is estimated between £80-100.

The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, lot 270 in the Spink sale. 

This specimen 5-Yr  $10,000 Gold Note from 1916 was printed by the American Bank Note Company shortly before the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). A rare historic piece for any UK and Irish collector, with very attractive estimates between £250 and £300.

Not less than 105 lots are from Great Britain.  A parade of early British canal companies include several certificates from 18th century.  The Glocester and Berkeley Canal Company share, 1794, printed on vellum, yellow paper embossed seal, may be obtained for £300. An unissued bond from the Thames and Severn Canal Navigation, from the 1790s with brown-orange printed vignettes of canal tunnels, is an early example of color security printing (lot 279). From 1762, a £100 share in the River Nene Navigation Joint Stock features nine wax seals and a lead seal. Marvellous to see (here), this museum object, lot 277, can become a highlight in a collection from £600 onwards.

Poseidon with trident at a rough sea, detail from lot 270 (see image above)

Click the image to enlarge it, and see how curved engraving lines make Poseidon' s cloak fold gently. Poseidon sticks his left foot outside the oval frame surrounding the scene, a clever idea from the artist to create extra depth in the artwork. To print a wonderful vignette like this, you need  both a great artist and a top talented engraver. 

Spink's sale provides a remarkable cross-section of British car makers securities. Here are some of the highlights with lot numbers between parentheses : Rolls-Royce (333), Calcott Brothers Ltd (313), Minerva Motors (England) Ltd (327), Lea-Francis Cars Ltd (325), Humber Ltd - with the Humber logo (322 and 323) and Singer & Company Ltd (335). Even early electric automobile companies are not missing the stage, e.g. The London Electrical Cab Company (293, see image). A share from The Electromobile Company Ltd, a manufacturer, dates from as early as 1904 (319).

Pioneering with electric automobiles, this company's cabs had two sets of accumulators suitable for forty miles on one charge. Lot 293, estimates £50-60

The last chapter contains more than 150 lots from North and South America. Almost all countries from this part of the world make an appearance. Some noteworthy items are : Canada Company, 1842 (377), a group of five bonds from The Brazil Great Soutern Railway Company Ltd, 1891 (395) , Saint Helena Whale Fishery Company, 1837 (417), County of Lee-Fort Madison, West Point, Keosauqua & Bloomfield Rail Road Company, 1857 (454)  and Lykens Valley Coal Company, 1837, superb vignette of forge and printed by Underwood, Bald, Spencer & Hufty (488).

City of Rosario 4% Sterling Conversion Loan for £2,000,000 

£500 Sterling bearer bond, series "B", specimen, 1908 

lot 391, estimated £80 to £100

Here are the sale's details, so you can discover much more for yourself :

• Location : online auction only
• Date : 21 June 2018
• Further info : see Spink's online catalogue with full color images, here, and PDF version there 

F.L.