Cruising the Nile in the winter

At the age 17, mystery novel author Agatha Christie spent the winter of 1907–1908 with her mother in Egypt. They stayed for three months at the Gezirah Palace hotel in Cairo, participated in social events and visited some of Egypts ancient monuments. 

Christie would visit Egypt again later, and write several Egypt-set novels, including Death on the Nile featuring detective Hercule Poirot.

The Nile Express Steamers Co. 

5 founder shares, Cairo, 1906  

Printed in Cairo by Baader & Gross 

The Express Nile Steamers Company (ENSCo) was organized in April 1906 with a capital of 30000 Egyptian pounds. The company offered Nile cruises to rich Westerners, and Britons in particular. ENSCo's trip from Cairo to Luxor took 7 days, back in 4.5 days. And within a year the route was extended from Luxor to Aswan taking another two days.

ENSCo's first ship was launched at Giza on 14 Nov 1906. Miss Bassie Ems, the daughter of the company's director general, baptised the 'America' graciously. The triple decked vessel with cabins for 54 first-class passengers featured saloons for dining and smoking. Passengers enjoyed the Nile views behind glass windows that shielded them from wind and cold. 

In 1908 Baedeker publishes its Egypt and The Sudan, Handbook for Travellers. The book includes tips for traveling aboard a Nile steamer: 

"Passengers by steamer should beware of the risk of catching cold by leaving the windows of their cabin open ; and it is well to remember (e.g. when shaving) that the steamers sometimes run aground, especially above Luxor. Liability to delay through this last fact makes it impossible to be sure of reaching Cairo in time to make connection with the ocean-steamers."

Exciting times, if you ask me! I wonder whether Agatha Christie got bored on her three-month stay. I would have gone on a cruise. Did she? Well, that's a question that only Mr Hercule Poirot could solve. 

Merry Christmas!

F.L.

References

Launch of the America, Egyptian Gazette (1906-11-15) 

Egypt and the Sûdân; handbook for travellers, 1914, Karl Baedeker 

Previous posts

• Showcasing your services: The Hindusthan Safe Deposit Company 
• The Case of the Missing Farmers – Egyptologist traces back Crédit Agricole d’Égypte vignettes 

Showcasing your services: The Hindusthan Safe Deposit Company

Old stock certificates often illustrate the purpose or type of business a company was in. As such, they act as a window into the past, making them valuable as historical documents. 

Here's a nice example from The Hindusthan Safe Deposit Company. It features two vignettes each depicting a vault with a map of British India in the background.

The Hindusthan Safe Deposit Company Limited, Karachi 

stock certificate for 10 ordinary shares of 10 Rupees (5 Rupees paid) 

This Hindusthan Safe Deposit Company share was issued to Hormusjee Ardeshir Mistri on the 2nd of April 1937 in Karachi. Now the capital city of the Pakistani province of Sindh, Karachi was then part of British India. 

The company, incorporated in 1936, was managed by reputable businessmen like Homi Mehta, A. D. Shroff, and Messrs Doongursee & Sons. It provided safe deposit services and had its building on the McLeod Road in Karachi, today known as the I. I. Chundrigar Road.

The company's building and vault were designed by K. T. Divecha, an architect from Mumbai “on the most modern lines and provide up-to-date amenities. The vault is one of the strongest in India and was impregnable by the most skilled and persistent attacks of the scientific burglar. Particular care has been exercised to see that it does not become out-of-date when modern warfare breaks out. Local authorities have certified it as well designed to resist damages from bombs.”

The vault had a capacity of 5,000 lockers with a spacious and well-furnished waiting room provided for the clients. The basement was air-conditioned in order to give better protection to deposits against deterioration due to moisture. Apparently, the architect was forethoughtful about us scripophilists.

The certificate has a beautiful embossed seal showing a vault. 

(image taken from the reverse)  

The certificate has two vignettes, quite alike, depicting a robust vault door on a map of Hindhustan, commonly spelled as Hindustan or Hindostan. During the British Raj, which extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, the term Hindusthan referred to the whole of the Indian subcontinent. 

Note that the company was organized in 1936. Though partly shown on the map illustrated in the vignettes, Burma (now Myanmar) became a separated colony of Britain on 1 April 1937, just the day before this certificate was issued.

F.L.

This post is based on my article for Scripophily magazine No 127-April 2025, a publication by IBSS. 

References: “The Colourful Personalities of Sind,”, M. U. Abbassi, 1944

Scripophily Puzzle No. 7 - solution

What have The Washington Post, Berkshire Hathaway and 20th Century Fox in common? 

Answer: Scripophily Puzzle No. 7 ? 

Hm, yes ... but no, we are looking for the solution of that puzzle.

To help you solve the puzzle, see here, I provided three visual cues. These were images from three different stock and bond certificates. Each one relates to our mystery person.

And the correct answer for the puzzle was ... (drumm roll in the background) ... Katharine Graham.

The first cue showed a 100 shares certificate from The Washington Post Company, issued in 1971. At that time Katharine Meyer Graham was the President of her family's newspaper business. 

Her father, financier Eugene Meyer was Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1930 to 1933. After leaving the Federal Reserve he bought the Washington Post newspaper at a bankruptcy auction in 1933 and became its "publisher". In the US a newspaper publisher is the owner of small newspaper company, or the chief executive of a major newspaper. Eugene Meyer was both. 

 

When president Harry Truman named Meyer to be the first president of the World Bank in 1946, Meyer transferred control of the Post to his daughter and her husband Phil Graham, the new publisher. After his father-in-law passed away in 1959 Phil Graham became the company's new president and chairman of the board.

So much for some background info about the newspaper. Enters our starring role, Katharine Meyer Graham.

Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, guest at a meeting of the Dutch Newspaper Press (NDP) in 1975

attribution: Unknown / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, URL see here  

In 1938, after graduation, Katharine Meyer covered labor news and a wide range of other topics at the San Francisco News. One year later she returned to Washington to work for her father's newspaper. Katharine married Philip Graham in 1940. After serving the army during World War II he took over the position of The Washington Post's publisher from her father.

When her husband died in 1963, she took control of the newspaper as its new president and publisher. Back then, a woman was not supposed to be able to run a tough business like a newspaper company, but she persisted.

Katharine Graham was the first woman to head a Fortune 500 company. She was the first to serve as a director of the Associated Press, the news service owned by member newspapers, and of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. Her facsimile signature appears on stock certificates from The Washington Post.  

Mrs Graham made historic decisions about the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, a top secret government account of the war in Vietnam, and the Watergate scandal, which led to Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency in 1974 under the threat of impeachment. 

In both cases, she hold out against massive pressure from the White House and other government agencies not to publish, at the risk of criminal charges for violating espionage laws and opposition to licenses for the company's broadcasting properties.

Together with Benjamin C. Bradlee, The Post's editor, Katharine Graham took the company to the top in American journalism. During her leadership, the company's revenue grew about twentyfold. The Washington Post got listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1971 and became a diversified media corporation.

What did The Washington Post disclose about the Vietnam War? The Pentagon Papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged its military operations in the Vietnam War, without informing the mainstream media. 

The first visual cue of this puzzle - a Washington Post share with Katharine Graham's signature - already contained sufficient information to take a good guess.  

However, I wanted to make you doubt yourself by providing two more visual cues, diversions, including one with a detail of another famous signature. 

image courtesy HWPH 

The facsimile signature shown in the second image provided is the one from famous investor Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a multinational conglomerate holding company. 

Warren Buffett started buying large portions of Washington Post stocks in the 1970s. He became a close friend and financial advisor to Katharine Graham. For 37 years Buffett was a member of the board of the newspaper till 2011. At that time Berkshire Hathaway owned 21% of the common stock in The Post.

The last visual cue for this puzzle is a $5,000 bond certificate from Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. 20th Century Fox released in 2017 The Post, a political thriller about The Washington Post and the publication of the Pentagon Papers. It stars Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham. 

Trivia: Katharine Meyer Graham and Meryl Streep both attended Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, though at different times.

The movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, also shows a similar looking stock certificate from The Washington Post. Check out The Post's trailer at imdb.com see here. Scroll forward there to 1m 32sec to see Meryl Streep presenting the Washington Post's new stock certificate. 

The Washington Post's company seal, shown at the bottom of the share, mentions 1947 as its date of (re)incorporation. Near the upper left and right corner of the image, and outside the seal, you can distinguish two small round marks. You can find these dots elsewhere on the certificate too and also on many other American stock certificates. Called "planchettes" they are mixed into the paper pulp during the manufacturing process of the security paper and glow under ultraviolet light. 

Is The Washington Post still owned by the Graham family? In Oct 2013, the Graham family sold the newspaper to Nash Holdings, owned by Jeff Bezos, for $250 million.

No one submitted a solution for the puzzle. Was this too easy, or too difficult? Let me know.

F.L.  

Related links

• Katharine Graham's obituary at The Washington Post 
• Warren Buffett to step down from Washington Post Co. Board 
• The Post (film) at Wikipedia 

Previous posts

• "Auction Explosion!" says Scripophily magazine 
• The most expensive share sold at auction in 2021 

Use alternative search terms when searching digital publications

When you want to find something specific online, you key in a search term in the input field of a search engine such as Google. A search term can be a single word or a combination of words, e.g. “railway” or “railway company”. However, to get want you want, you may need to take an extra step.

The vignette shown here appears on a bond from The Utica and Black River Railroad Company. It is wide and gorgious, you can click the image to admire the scene in detail. 

The railroad's line originally ran from Utica, N.Y., to Philadelphia, N.Y. (Manual of the railroads of the United States 1874). 

The bond is illustrated below. According to coxrail.com its Frequency of Appearance is F1, which means this certificate "usually appears more than 10 times per year" on the collectors' market. Note that Cox's Frequency of Appearance system does not tell you anything about the value of a particular railroad stock or bond. You can find out more about this system here. 

The Utica and Black River Railroad Company, $1000 First Mortgage 4% Gold Bond Guaranteed, 1890, Cox catalog nr UTI‑125‑B‑50 

I tried to identify the signature of the person who signed the bond as President of the railroad. Sometimes that person turns out to be an important railroad entrepreneur, a philanthropist, or even a civil war veteran.  

An interesting source for researching railroad officials is The Biographical Directory of the Railway Officials of America. The 1885 edition, edited by E. H. Talbott and H. R. Hobart and pubished by The Railway Age Publishing Company, lists nearly 4000 names of :

• Presidents and vice-presidents
• general and assistant general managers
• general, assistant, and division superintendents
• general and assistant general freight agents
• general and assistant general passenger and ticket agents
• chief engineers
• general agents, and 
• other officers.

The 1885 edition of the book is available online. You can consult it here on archive.org. A PDF version can be downloaded there. 

The archive.org site provides a search function when the book is read online. I then keyed in the word combination "Black River", a snippet from The Utica and Black River RailRoad Company name. 

This yielded the following results that referred to the full company name :

• B. H. Bail, General Freight Agent in 1883 to date [1885, the book's publication date] 
• Edgar A. Van Horne, General Superintendent in 1883 to date
• Albert Wilber, resident engineer in 1875

Interesting, but not what I was looking for. Though all of these were officials from our railroad, none of the names seem to match the signature.

Next I put in an alternative keyword : "Utica".

Now I got these outcomes :

• B. H. Bail, General Freight Agent in 1883 to date
• Theodore Butterfield, General Freight and Passenger Agent, Utica, N.Y.
• J. F. Maynard, Vice-President and General Manager, Utica, N.Y. 
• John Thorn, Director 1859, President 1859 to date 

Aha ! Got Ya. The signature present was the one from J. F. Maynard. 

Why the different results ? 

The reason is that the automatic process of converting old books in print to a computer-readable format is not error free: letter 'l' can be misread for number '1', sometimes a letter is worn off, etc. This illustrates my point: use alternative search terms to get the most out of your digital research activities. 

By the way, you can find the 1887 edition of the book here, and the 1893 edition there. Perhaps there are more editions available online.

I could have ended my post here, but there is something extra about this bond certificate that I wanted to share. The thing is, the certificate features two different embossed company seals, both hardly visible. 

The first seal was embossed on the guilloche figure that was printed in the lower left corner of the bond. You can see it much better when you inspect the reverse of the certificate. However, on the reverse you see a mirrored image, see the left image above. 

Luckily, the GNU Image Manipulation Program software allows me to rotate and mirror the image once more so it becomes readable (right image above). The seal depicts a locomotive and reads: 

THE UTICA AND BLACK RIVER RAILROAD COMPANY 

UTICA, N. Y. 

Then there is a second embossed seal, also difficult to detect. It is located on top of the "U" initial of the company title (top left corner). Also in this case we check the reverse of the certificate. It reads : 

ROME, WATERTOWN & OGDENSBURG

RAIL ROAD COMPANY

STATE OF NEW YORK

CONSOLIDATED 1885

The seal was embossed upon this printed text:

For Value Received, The Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad Company hereby guarantees the punctual payment of the principal and interest of the within Bond according to the terms, tenor and effect thereof.

Since 1886 the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg RR started leasing the lines of the Utica and Black River RR. Both had been under one management since then. The former thus assured the bond buyer that he would see his money back in the end.  

F.L.

Previous posts 

• The most valuable scripophily item hammered in 2020 
• Shall we take the car, the plane, or the boat ? 

Franky's Scripophily BlogSpot exists 10 years !

A decade of scripophily blogging ! In 2010 I never thought I would write about these gorgious scripophily items for 10 years, but here we are now. 

Each time I write one of these little pieces I make a journey through time, all around the globe, and learn about amazing personalities. These old skillfully produced bonds and shares, surprise me over and over again. Do I succeed in taking you along the ride ?

To illustrate this article I picked a share from The West Flanders Railway Company which is related to my birthplace, Ypres. British investors from London founded the company in 1845 with a capital of 21,000,000 francs or 840,000 pounds. This certificate is hand-signed by the company officers William Parry Richards, William Goodenough Hayter, John Peter Fearon and William Jesse. The railway's engineers are none other than George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson. The share is issued to Member of Parliament William Edward FitzMaurice.  

One thing's for sure. If you want to learn about scripophily then start writing about it. As a bonus you will improve personal skills like writing, editing, proofreading, publishing, scanning and presenting images, and doing research online. All the way you meet wonderful people! 

For this anniversary occasion I wish I could treat you to a piece of chocolate cake, but instead I have put together the following : 

• a new poll about collecting habits in scripophily, see here  
• Participate, your inputs matter ! Share the poll on your social media channel with your collector friends wherever they may live.
• my personal top 10 favorite articles from the past 10 years, see there 
• and a little jigsaw puzzle,  see there .

Thank you for listening to this radio! 

Stay tuned at Franky's Scripophily BlogSpot

F.L.

The West Flanders Railway Company share shows a stunning vignette of an early train circling the coat of arms of the West Flanders province. A first line ran from Bruges to Courtrai, then to Ypres, and Poperinge. A second line started in Veurne to Tielt and from there either to Deinze or Aalter. 

Previous posts

• The most valuable scripophily item hammered in 2019 
• Belgian Association for Scripophily exists 40 years 

Star of India

When you inspect an antique share certificate then there is a good chance that you discover a seal on the document. Here's an example of a dry seal, also known as an embossed seal, hardly noticeable but surprising at a closer look.

Seals are security features used to enhance protection against counterfeiting. There are many ways by which seals can be produced, e.g. as a dry seal like the one in the example, as a stamp imprent with ink, or as an impressed relief in wax. Even holograms are used on modern certificates. 

Dry seal with in the circumference the text THE SCINDIA STEAM NAVIGATION CO. LD. - BOMBAY 

Dry seals are created on the document by means of an embossing press. An embossing press consists of two plates, one bearing the image in relief and the other one bearing the mirror image. By pressing the document between the plates, the seal image is produced forming a raised image in the paper. 

Seals on certificates can show the name of the issuer, an emblem or a coat of arms, an incorporation date, or a picture of the kind of activity that was involved.

Our seal was embossed on a share from The Scindia Steam Navigation Company, Limited. It shows a star surrounded first by some lettering and then by sun rays. Not all letters are readable but you can recognize ..EAVEN'S LIGHT OUR G..

The Scindia Steam Navigation Company, Limited was founded in 1919 by Walchand Hirachand, Narottam Morarjee, Kilachand Devchand and Lallubhai Samaldas. Back then the sea routes in the British Empire were controlled by British companies. In April of 1919, the company's ship SS Loyalty sailed to the United Kingdom. Much against the will of the British, it was the first Indian ship to do so. The vignette on this share from 1920 depicts the company's flag ship, the SS Loyalty. 

All-wise Google tells me that the star and the lettering in the dry seal matches the emblem of the Order of the Star of India. It was Queen Victoria who created in 1861 this order of knighthood to honour (loyal) Indian Princes and Chiefs, as well as British officers and administrators who served in India.

The order's motto was HEAVEN'S LIGHT OUR GUIDE and can now be recognized on the seal above. With HEAVEN referring to the stars, this neutral motto had to appeal to people of different faiths. The star did not have Christian connotations, and was so accepted by the Indian Princes.

In  1886 Maharaja Madho Rao Scindia of Gwalior succeeded his father Jivaji Rao Scindia and ruled until his death in 1925.  Note the Star of India on the chest. image (clipped) : Internet Archive Book Images / No restrictions via Wikimedia Commons

At first it was unclear to me why we see the Star of India in the seal from the Scindia Steam Navigation Company. However my friend David had an interesting theory. What he came up with can also explain why the name of the company, despite being founded in Bombay by Gujarati businessmen, includes the word Scindia, the name of a dynasty that ruled the State of Gwalior. 

David pointed out that the company's first ship, the SS Loyalty, was purchased from Maharaja Madho Rao Scindia of Gwalior. Madho Rao became Commander in the Order of the Star of India in 1895. The Maharaja in turn had bought the ship, then known as the RMS Empress of India, from the Canadian Pacific Line in 1914. According to The New York Times of Dec 20, 1914, he was the richest Prince of the Indian Empire.

Royal Bombay Yacht Club, 6% Rs.100 debenture, 1898 
Note the Star of India in the emblem's lower right quarter, click image to enlarge 

image: Barry Collection, via scripoworld.com 

Are there more scripophily items illustrated with a Star of India ? Almost none, but there is a bond from the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, see image. This exclusive membership club, founded in 1846, was awarded its blue flag with a Star of India surmounted by the Imperial Crown of India.

A regular customer of the RBYC was politician Freeman-Thomas, aka Lord Willingdon (1866-1941). As Governor of Bombay he ruled from 17 Feb 1913 through 16 Dec 1918 over the Bombay Presidency. This administrative subdivision of British India, more or less the size of today's Germany, counted then nearly 30 million people.

While in office Willingdon maintained good relations with the Indian Princes and important business men. He met Narottam Morarjee, one of the founders of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, to discuss the shipping business. Another founder of that company was Lalubhai Samaldas who had served as an Executive Councillor to the Governor.

Lord Willingdon's statue in Coronation Park, Delhi, India. Note the Star of India 

image (clipped) : Nvvchar / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) via Wikimedia Commons 

On the 3rd of June, 1918, Lord Willingdon was appointed by King George V as a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India.  He often visited the Royal Bombay Yacht Club with important British officials and officers.

One one occasion in 1918 Willingdon invited some Maharaja's, possibly including the Maharaja of Gwalior, to the club. The Governor and his Indian guests were denied access. The RBYC only accepted European members. Willingdon then founded his own Willingdon Sports Club with membership open to both Indians and British.

detail from the Post Office Cash certificate, see below, showing the coat-of-arms of the British Empire

There was one celebrity that Willingdon did not get along with. That person was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. When Gandhi returned in Jan 1915 to India from South Africa, both met at Gandhi's welcome reception in Bombay. They would later meet each other again under different circumstances.

In 1917 a famine broke out in the Kheda region of the Bombay Presidency ruining the local economy. Peasants were not able to pay their taxes anymore. Under Gandhi's influence the people sent a petition to Willingdon, asking that he cancel the taxes for that year. Property confiscation and arrests was the government's answer.

Gandhi with the help of his followers organized the people to start a non-violent resistance, with success. Taxes were cancelled, property was returned and prisoners released.

Here's another "Star of India" certificate, a [India] Post Office 5-Year Cash Certificate, issued in 1935 while Lord Willingdon was India's Viceroy. However, the star is not immediately visible.

During the British rule of India several acts were approved to expand and regulate the Indian Posts and Telegraphs service. After the Government Savings Bank Act 1873 was ratified in 1881, Post Office Savings Banks opened throughout India. The reverse of this certificate explains that the holder, after his initial investment of 18 Rupees and 13 annas, would cash in 20 Rs after five years. The average per capita income in 1931-32 was Rs 65 (Towards Freedom 1945, Bimal Prasad)

On 18 Apr 1931 Lord Willingdon became Viceroy of India for five years. During his reign Gandhi and the Indian National Congress party organized a mass Civil Disobedience Movement. Willingdon imprisoned Gandhi, the INC members and tens of thousands of Indian activists.

As Viceroy, Willingdon was also supreme commander of the British Indian Army. The Government of India Act 1919 gave him also direct control over foreign affairs and communications, including the post service in India.

The viceroy served also as the grand master of the two principal order of chivalry of British India: the Order of the Star of India and the Order of the Indian Empire.

When viewed against a light source, the Post Office Cash certificate shows off its watermarks including several Star of India emblems. The four black dots (three of them in the corners) are the silhouettes of little magnets used to hold the certificate in place when photographed. Click image to enlarge 

The Post Office 5-Year Cash certificate is revealing when it comes to watermarks. Besides the initials of the paper maker, you can see a repeating pattern of the words GOVT of INDIA and the Star of India.

Gandhi must have been the Indian Postal Services' top customer. At some point he received hundreds of letters on a daily basis. These were answered by several close friends acting as his secretaries. Tens of thousands of letters written by Gandhi survived, 31,000 of them were compiled in the Collected Works of Gandhi.

Microprinting is rarely seen in Indian scripophily but this Post Office Cash certificate has it in the underprint:  'POST OFFICE FIVE YEAR CASH CERTIFICATE'. Image scanned at a resolution of 1200 dpi 

Was Gandhi ever awarded a Star of India ? Well, he was close to the founders of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company who publicly supported him, morally and financially. Did Gandhi encounter the Maharaja of Gwalior ? Yes, on one of these occasions Gandhi addressed Madho Rao Scindia in public and asked him for contributing to the funds of the new Benares Hindu University.  However Gandhi did not receive a Star of India, that was about the last of his concerns.

F.L.


PS You've seen other shares with a Star of India ? Send me a picture, I'd be happy to include it here, or post it on Facebook's Ancient indian stocks & bonds - scripophily group.

Reference

• Lord Willingdon, Wikipedia 
• Towards Freedom - 1945, by Bimal Prasad

More on Seals

• Seal stories 
• Holograms, modern seals on stock certificates  

= = = = =

Here is an addition from 30th April, 2020. Thank you for the tip Sanjay ! 

The Eastern Electric Light & Power Company Limited, £5 shares certificate, 1882

vignette of Star of India, repeated in the embossed seal 

source: Spink Auction 9014, May 2019

American scripophily in London

SPINK UK's latest auction went online last week and ends on March 17, 2020. Exactly 330 lots of intriguing antique bonds and shares will go on SPINK's E-block.  

SPINKS' sale bulks with stunning vignettes on securities printed for pioneering American companies. The Greyhound Motors Corporation, later renamed the Greyhound Motor Car Company, was one of the first companies that designed a little sports car, the "Trinca Patent Body", an idea by Frederick Trinca. L(ot) 196 in the auction, this $10 shares certificate from 1920 invites bidders from $120 onwards.

At stake in this auction is scripophily from many themes such as automobiles, aviation, shipping, railroads, finance, coal, iron and gold mining, oil companies, government and municipal loans, and more. The securities have something in common : they made American history.

The Sunflower Gold Mining Company from Colorado Springs was founded during the Cripple Creek Gold Rush. This gorgious share, L240, dates from 1897

Spink and Son Ltd was founded in London in 1666. The company specialises in the auctioning of  stamps, coins, banknotes, medals, bonds & shares, autographs, books and wines. When specialist Mike Veissid joined SPINK in 2008 the company set up the Bonds & Shares Department. 

The Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair from 1905 took place in Portland, Oregon. It was set up to celebrate the centennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the first American expedition to cross the western part of the US. The exposition was a major success and welcomed from June through half October, nearly 12,000 visitors per day. L306

The auction features several shares issued to or signed by famous personalities. A stock certificate for 100 shares in the Irving Trust Company is issued to, and signed on the reverse by IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, L206. An East End Electric Light Company stock certificate from 1893 is issued to and signed on the reverse by electrical pioneer George Westinghouse, L295. A temporary share in The Edison Portland Cement Company, likewise but Thomas Alva Edison, L296.

After being a school teacher for about a year Caleb Davis Bradham (1867-1934) started his own drug store. His 1893 recipe for "Brad's Drink" used kola nut extract, vanilla and "rare oils" and would become world famous as Pepsi-Cola. This Pepsi-Cola Company share was issued in 1922 to C. D. Bradham and signed by him on the reverse. Rare, bids for L317 start at $1,000.

The largest section in the sale is formed by a contingent of 137 American railway securities. Some highlights here : L45 Aspen Short Line Railway Company, 1889 specimen bond; L52 The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, $10,000 bond, 1902, signed by George Eastman (Kodak) on reverse. A top example of American steel engraved vignettes can be found in L158, a 1853 $1000 bond from the Virginia Tennessee Rail Road Company.

This 1884 stock certificate in The Atlantic-Pacific Railway Tunnel Co shows a railway tunnel through a mountain (click image to enlarge). Note the gold seal which is embossed with a frontal view of a train coming out of a tunnel. Bidding on L48 starts at $70.

There is much more to discover for yourself in the other sections of the online catalog as well, e.g. shipping and oil.  Here are the sale's details

• Location : online auction only
• Date : ends on 17 March, 2020 at 1:30 PM
• Further info : see Spink's online catalogue with full color images here
• Note: The sales takes place in London, bids are mentioned in USD.

F.L.

Museums Victoria deliver engaging online experience

The Museums Victoria (MV) manages the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum, Scienceworks and Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building. Its history goes back to the founding of the National Museum of Victoria in 1854.

Today, MV is home to over 17 million historic artefacts and science objects and welcomes more than 2 million visitors per year. Its MV Collections site gives virtual visitors a fresh and adequate experience by means of modern Internet techniques.

Company seal of The Federal Bank of Australia Limited, detail from the certificate below 

image attribution : Museums Victoria, https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/1114702 

The many MV collections relate to geology, palaeontology, zoology, and, social, indigenous, cultural, economic and technological history. Its Trade Literature Collection contains over 60,000 business brochures, advertisements, product catalogues and the like. The Numismatics & Philately Collection comprises thousands of coins, paper money, medals, stamps and some scripophily as well.

A considerable part of its records, more than 1 million, together with 150 000 images, has been digitized and put available online on the Museums Victoria Collections site. Here's is one of the listed share certificates, indicated as item 1114702.

This share certificate in The Federal Bank of Australia Limited , printed by Sands & McDougall, Melbourne, was issued in 1887. Established in 1881 this bank started to issue its own banknotes in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. A speculative boom in Australian real estate led to the Australian banking crisis of 1893 and the bank was forced to close down.

image attribution : Museums Victoria, https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/1114702

On MV's 'item 1114702' page, see THERE, you can see the image as shown here. But there is more. The page gives you a summary and a description of what you see. And, just as if you were attending a guided tour, an explanation is given on the significance of the displayed item.

The overview concludes with a list of clickable keywords letting you discover more about the related collection, collecting areas and classifications, people, places, dates, articles and images, possibly of other scripophily. Wow! It is from functionality like this where this site's added value comes from. For free, and a few mouse-clicks away.


F.L.

Related links

• Museums Victoria - Australia's largest public museum organisation 
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The Taylor and Sanderson Steam Shipping Company

In North East England, at the mouth of the River Wear, lies the city of Sunderland. Since mediaval times the city grew as a port, trading coal and salt, and a place where ships were built. Once called the "Largest Shipbuilding Town in the World", Sunderland was also home to Short Brothers Limited. This shipbuilding company built several steel screw steamers for another Sunderland company, The Taylor and Sanderson Steam Shipping Company Limited (T&S). 

John Wallace Taylor and John Sanderson established Taylor & Sanderson in 1877. Incorporated in 1899 as The Taylor & Sanderson Steam Shipping Company, Limited, the company exported coal with its own ships. Several of its vessels, built by Short Brothers, awaited a remarkable fate. 

The Thornhill, a steel screw steamer, was built in 1897 by Short Brothers for T&S. On 16 April 1907, the general cargo vessel caught fire. It sank about 800 miles of Barbados on passage New York for Pernambuco, Brazil.

Short Brothers completed the Coronation for T&S in 1903. On 12 January 1913, the ship made the passage Bremen for Sunderland in balast (without any cargo but with containers filled with sea water for stability). Close to its home port, it was wrecked at Ravenscar, North Yorkshire. The salvaged ship was sold to F W Horlock & Co.

August 1914, the Coronation, renamed Coralie Horlock, was captured at Hamburg. In 1917 she became a part of the Imperial German Navy where she served as a transport vessel and as a submarine target !

The Coronation survived World War I and was sold again, this time to a Spanish company. On passage Genoa for Barcelona, in ballast, there was a bunker explosion. Two days later on 6 June 1921 the ship sank in Cavalaire Bay, France. 

The Taylor & Sanderson Steam Shipping Co. Limited 

Ordinary shares of £5, 1913 

The company went into liquidation in 1917. 

The Wallace was another steel screw steamer that was constructed by Short Brothers in 1905 for T&S. Possibly named for John Wallace Taylor, managing director of T&S, the vessel was requisitioned by the Admiralty for service as a collier, a bulk cargo ship which carried coal. Sold in 1917 when T&S went into liquidation.

detail from the Taylor & Sanderson Steam Shipping Company share certificate

signatures from John Wallace Taylor and John Wallace Taylor Jr as Directors of the company 

John Wallace Taylor (1834-1927) was a member of the River Wear Commission. One of the stained-glass windows in St John's Methodist Church, Sunderland, is dedicated to him. His second son, Frederick William Taylor was a director of Sunderland Association Football Club. 

Short Brothers built two ships for T&S in 1905. Besides the Wallace, there was the Alexandra. First sold in 1916 and 1920 to British companies, it found a new owner from Norway in 1924. A/S Inger, Bergen, renamed the Alexandra into the Ingerfire. On 11 April 1943, in the middle of World War II, the ship, on passage Barrow for Halifax in ballast, was torpedoed by a German submarine U-571 in 51.29N - 42.59W, far away from any port as you can see here. 

The ships mentioned in this post were all general cargo steal screw steamers that were built by Short Brothers Ltd. Their sizes were more or less the same with these average dimensions : 355ft length (108m), 49ft breadth (15m), 22ft depth (7m). Their volumes were on average 3759 grt and 2376 nrt. 

In 1911 Short Brothers built a second Thornhill for T&S. This collier was requisitioned in 1915 by the Admiralty. She was modified into a "Q-ship". Q-ships were very special mystery ships also known as Q-boats or decoy vessels. The Thornhill became an armed merchant ship with concealed weaponry. 

A Q-ship was designed to lure German submarines into making surface attacks. By seeming an easy target, the U-boat captain was tempted to make a surface attack using the deck gun instead of one of his limited number of torpedoes. In that scenario the Q-ship had a chance to open fire and sink the submarine. 

The Thornhill was sent to operate in the Mediterranean as the HMS Wonganella. On its way back from Malta to the UK, early March 1917, a German submarine attacked the ship near Gibraltar. It suffered gunfire damage and carried casualties. Then, after having crossed the Atlantic first, she left Halifax, Nova Scotia, in early June and returned to the UK. During that passage the ship again was involved in actions with German submarines on 18 and 19 June near Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland. 

The Thornhill survived both World War I & II and was sold consecutively to 5 English and 4 Yugoslavian shipping companies. In 1959 the vessel ended at Yokohama with collision damage and was sold for breaking up at Kawasaki.

The T&S share has a vignette of its shipping flag bearing the company's initials. The flag is skilfully reproduced in the embossed company seal (lower left corner of the certificate). Flag colors: dark blue stripes on a white background, white 'T&S' letters in a red oval 

click image to enlarge 

F.L.

References

• Sunderlandships.com 
• Grace's Guide to British Industrial History  
• The Sunderland Site  
• Q-ships and their story, Chatterton, E. Keble, 1922,  via Archive.org
• Naval-history.net 
• A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland 

PS:  Interested in shipping flags or company seals? Then you may want to check the categories 'vexillology'  and 'sigillography'.