Antwerp Hilton hosts Boone's auction of historic share certificates.

Mario Boone's 72nd auction features more than 1500 lots of scripophily from all over the world. The word scripophily is a contraction of the English word “scrip”, a certificate entitling ownership right, and the Greek word "φίλος" (philos), meaning "friend". It refers to the field of collecting of antique stocks and bond certificates.

This 1905 share from the Grands Magasins du Printemps tells us what this famous department store from Paris stood for: "Bon Marché - Qualité -Nouveauté - Élégance", in English: Cheap - Quality - Novelty - Elegance. Today a chain of department stores, Printemps offered high quality goods at prices affordable for the middle class. The store pioneered with discount sales to clear outdated stock, and used window models to display the latest fashions. L(ot) 350 in the auction starts at €200 

Two auction catalog volumes are available online and can be downloaded separately as PDF documents. Nearly all of the 180 pages in the main catalog include color images and background stories of the certificates to be hammered. For easy retrieval purposes, search indexes help the collector on his quest for engravers, artists, security printers, Belgian provinces, more than 80 countries and an equal number of special interest themes. 

The TOP 80 auction highlights are documented in a separate volume with bigger pictures and more detailed descriptions. 

This fascinating share in the merchant frigate Le Saint Philippe was signed by its captain Jean Daragorry in 1746. At this time it was the practice to finance the fitting-out of a ship on a one voyage at a time basis.  Le Saint Philippe, equiped with 18 6-pound ball cannons and a crew of 80, sailed under Spanish flag to Campeche and Tabasco in Mexico. At this date, France and Spain were at war with England over the Austrian Succession. Lot 786 is one of the Top 80 highlights of the sale and is expected to realize at least €2,400. 

The auctioneer managed to present some old collections that now have become available to the market including Belgian coal mining, British Railroads, Belgian Trams in Italy, Chile and Brazil. Some of these (check the catalog) are first offered as a complete collection in one single group lot. Only if no bids are received for the complete collection the individual certificates will be auctioned one by one. 

The auction features a few airline stock certificates. This is L1518, a nominative share from the Navegação Aérea Brasileira, issued in Rio de Janeiro, 1941. The certificate is listed at a €50 start price, a steal if you ask me, but it may be hammered as part of a collection of 393 Brazilian securities, L862, that is first offered as a single group at €7000. 

The Boone auction will take place at a new venue, the Hilton Old Town hotel in the heart of Antwerp. It was built in neoclassicism style in 1859 and served as a hotel and department store. You might want to spend a weekend in Antwerp because the day after the auction a scripophily bourse is organized by Guy Bertrand at the same place.

This stock was issued in 1918 to Elizabeth Huidekoper, the wife of Henry P Kidder, co-founder of Kidder, Peabody & Co. A regular donor to charity causes she also made gifts to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The certificate is also signed by Alice Evelyn Hay Wadsworth, known for her "Wadsworthy" tactics. Both women were high-society figures. The Woman Patriot Publishing Company was a publisher of The Woman Patriot, a "National Newspaper for the Home and National Defense Against Woman Suffrage, Feminism and Socialism". L1218, a rare stock representing a remarkable era in the field of women’s rights and American suffrage, starts at €240. 

There is a lot to discover, so here are the auction details :

• Location: Antwerp, Belgium (new venue: Antwerp Hilton Old Town)
• Date:  27 April, 2024 
• Further info: online catalog & bidding, see here on the auctioneer's website, or via the Invaluable platform, see there. The two PDF catalogs can be downloaded from the auctioneer's site.

F.L.

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Scripophily magazine uncovers the stories of historic and artistic securities

Scripophily magazine brings you into the world of antique stocks and bonds. Buckle up! Compelling stories, business plot twists and memorable personalities won't let you go during your reading journey. You'll find out about today's discoveries. Reports from the auction markets will keep you up-to-date. So, if you are serious about this matter, then this is the magazine you are looking for.

Scripophily was first published in 1982 under the name The Bond & Share Society Journal. On the occasion of the magazine's 100th edition, editor Max Hensley testified :

"The magazine appears on high quality paper, articles are longer and brought with more images in full color. Every issue was produced .. without paying a penny for content".

That's right, all content is created voluntarily by enthousiastic people from the hobby, three times a year.

Issue 108 brings over 50 pages of scripophily news, in depth articles, pictures of collector friends, auction reports and more than 100 high quality images of stunning, historic or rare stocks and bonds. Here is a summary on the topics brought in the latest issue :

• Swiss railway scripophily on Youtube 
• Newsletter about Belgian scripophily 
• Herzog Collection on the IBSS website 
• Mexican scripophily sources 
• New book on US railways by Terry Cox 
• New book on the Wogau Empire (Russia) by Erik Meyer 
• Playwright Neil Simon 
• The shipyard from Gdansk 
• Saved at the last minute, a story on share adventures
• Donating collections, do's and don'ts 
• "A L'Innoviation" inferno (Belgium) 
• Borki train disaster (Ukraine) 
• Cattle ranching in the US 
• Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Co 
• Survival rates on US Mining scripophily 

Is this a free magazine? No. Good stuff is never for free. But a 1-year subscription full of excitement only costs £20 or $32 or €25. The magazine is published by the International Bond and Share Society, the leading international organization for collectors, dealers and auctioneers in this field. More info : https://scripophily.org/membership/join/ 

F.L.

Related links

• What is Scripophily, a quick introduction  
• What is a share, what is a stock certificate ? 
• Scripophily Journals available to the public from the International Bond & Share Society

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French scripophily terms 2.0

Do you agree that France is the nation that has left us the most decorative bond and share certificates  ? If you know a little French, it is often possible to derive from the lettering on those certificates what the issuing companies were all about. 

Actually, we can find bonds and shares from all over the world with text written in French. Besides France, some of the better known examples of French speaking countries are Canada, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg. 

Let's spin a globe and pick a spot. There is a good chance we know "French" scripophily from a country marked by our finger, such as : Madagascar, Vietnam, New Caledonia and Guadeloupe. In fact, every continent has some states with bonds and shares written in French. Then there are also the many French language certificates issued by companies operating abroad, many of these were Belgian. We find actions de capital and parts de fondateur in Russia, Egypt, China, Ottoman Empire, Spain, Brazil, and again, much more. 

One of the readers of the blog, came across the 100 French Scripophily terms on this site and suggested some extra entries for it. Wonderful, thank you for that. You can check out the enhanced list here.

Here is a little test to help you sharpen your French skills. Try to find the meaning of following terms printed on the illustrated share below :

• magasin
• bois
• scieries
• société anonyme
• capital social
• part de fondateur
• sans désignation de valeur
• administrateur

Of course, you can use the 100 French Scripophily terms cheat sheet.

Click the image of this Belgian share to enlarge. 

Can you locate the French terms from the little test ? 

Test passed ? You will see that exercising your French scripophily skills will not only keep your mind sharp, but it will also prove to be useful soon :

• the upcoming Boone auction features hundreds of French scripophily certificates, and, 
• rumor has it that a new, free scripophily newsletter, in French, is born, but more on that in the next issue of Scripophily magazine and in a later blog post. 

F.L.

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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.

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 : 
• event at the Brabanthal, Leuven 
• Numismatica Leuven vzw 
• vzw Belgische Vereniging voor Scriptofilie or via email guy.bertrand@telenet.be 

F.L.

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Archives International Auctions - Sale 36

AIA presents nearly 700 historical stocks and bonds in a triple session auction. The sale kicks off in New York City at the Museum of American Finance on Sat 22 Oct 2016 and in conjunction with the 6th Annual Wall Street Bourse. One of the many attractive lots in the auction is lot 255. It concerns a 1907 share certificate in the Paris-France company designed by the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha.

Paris-France
500 Francs share, 1907
designed by Alphonse Mucha
click image to enlarge

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) moved to Paris in 1887. There he became successful after producing a lithographed poster for a play featuring Sarah Bernhardt (1). Mucha's commercial work became known as Art Nouveau in France. His advertisements, posters, labels and the like typically featured women, in flowing robes, surrounded by flowers and plants forming halos behind their heads. 

The certificate here depicts young women with a beehive, a scythe, a caduceus, a book and a pen, a gear and a hammer. These objects represent the allegories Industry, Time, Commerce, the Arts and Labor. Before, artists illustrated countless bonds and shares with these allegories drawn as strong but unrealistic figures. But Mucha brings a new story. His allegories are women of flesh and blood with ordinary traits. The girls look tired to me. One has bags under her eyes. Another one seems to be crying over her lover or maybe she has a Champagne hangover. After a night out they are not interested in their gadgets. It is also remarkable how the artist created sense of depth in the scene with the figurants placed so close together. One can almost guess the size of the room. 

Paris-France
detail from the share above
lot 255 in AIA's 36th auction at $130 start price

The Paris-France department store was founded in 1898 to sell high quality clothing, Parisian specialities, luxury and travel goods (2). The company opened many branches in provincial cities throughout France and lasted almost a hundred years. Its stock and bond certificates are one of the few securities designed by Alphonse Mucha. 

In the late 1920s Mucha delivered an artistic masterpiece The Slav Epic, a series of twenty huge paintings illustrating the history of the Czech and Slavic people. The Nazi's mistrusted the nationalism in Mucha's work and arrested him in 1939. After his release Alphonse Mucha died in Prague due to lung infection. 

One of the largest collections of Mucha's work is in the possession of former world champion tennis Ivan Lendl. I wonder if the Lendl collection contains a Paris-France bond or share.

(1) Alphonse Mucha, Wikipedia
(2) Max Hensley, Mucha Do About Securities, Scripophily magazine, Apr 2015

Archives International Auctions - Fall Auction 2016

US & Worldwide Scripophily, Banknotes and Printing Ephemera

• Dates and locations
• Session 1 : Oct 22, 2016 - Museum of American Finance, NYC
• Session 2 : Oct 25, 2016 - AIA, Fort Lee, New Jersey
• Session 3 : Oct 25, 2016 (internet only)
• Further info : see here , for the catalog there 

F.L

Stocks are hip and shares are old school

Earlier, I explained that "share certificate" and "stock certificate" mean the same. I also believe different kinds of securities have evolved because of changing environments. Well, here is an example of adaptive evolution in scripophily. 

Check out the following two certificates :

• double-click their images to enlarge them, 
• and look for similarities and differences.

certificate No 1

Image courtesy : Geert Leemeijer 

certificate No 2

Image courtesy : Geert Leemeijer

This is an odd couple

Both look like standard certificates. They also resemble each other :

• Both are issued by The "Shell" Transport & Trading Company, Ltd. 
• Both are printed by Blades, East & Blades Ltd.  
• And both state a capital of £43,000,000.

Yet, there is something strange about this pair. Did you notice that the first one is issued as a £1 ordinary share, and the second one as a £1 ordinary stock certificate ? You can verify this in these details.

detail from certificate No 1

detail from certificate No 2

Certificate No 1 was issued almost ten years earlier than certificate No 2. That raises the question why change the lettering from "share" to "stock" ? Why would a company want this : there is no change in the capital structure, and after all stock and share mean the same thing.

A matter of modern language ?

Geert Leemeijer aka Stockold Scripophily brought these two examples under attention in the Collectible Stocks & Bonds Facebook group. Geert suggested that over time the term stock certificate became more popular than share certificate. The different lettering on these securities was ".. a matter of modern language".

Here is an overview of the Shell examples provided by Geert with the date of issue and the stated capital :

• shares
• 1920 - £23,000,000 - 20 ordinary £1 bearer shares , blue
• 1925 - £43,000,000 - 5 ordinary £1 bearer shares, brown
• 1929 - £43,000,000 - ordinary £1 registered shares, blue
• stocks
• 1937 - £43,000,000 - ordinary £1 registered shares, blue
• 1937 - £43,000,000 - 1 ordinary £1 bearer share, red
• 1954 - £88,000,000 - ordinary £1 registered shares, blue
• 1957 - £113,000,000 - ordinary £1 registered shares, blue

Two of these are displayed above, the others are grouped in the paste-up image below. The set illustrates the transition from share to stock for the Shell company.

"Shares" in the upper row, "stocks" below.

The brothers Marcus and Sam Samuel founded The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company in 1897.
Their father imported and sold sea-shells and that's how the "Shell" company got its name. 

Image courtesy : Geert Leemeijer

Shell is not the only one

Other British companies also favoured stocks above shares. The UK section of Tabak-Peter shows the following examples :

• British-American Tobacco Ltd
• The Imperial Tobacco Company (of Great Britain and Ireland) Ltd. 

Earlier certificates from these companies are printed as shares and later ones as stocks.

Another example is the J. Lyons & Company Ltd.  J. Lyons started as a spin off from the Salmon & Gluckstein tobacco company at the end of the 19th century. The company expanded into a chain of teashops, ran high class restaurants and started to manufacture biscuits and later ice cream.

J. Lyons & Company, Limited

7% Preference "shares" of £1, 1923

The red stamp on the certificate, see below, tells us that 

The Shares referred to herein were converted into stock on the 24th June, 1940

J. Lyons developed original ideas about what the future of business could be like. After World War II they supported the EDSAC computing project at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory. In 1959 J. Lyons built their own computer, called Lyons Electronic Office I. Based on the EDSAC design, LEO I handled the company's accounts and logistics.

J. Lyons & Company Limited

7% Cumulative Preference "stocks" of £1, 1958

PS : Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher worked 

as a food research chemist for the company around the 1950s.

UK stocks and shares in the Turbulent Thirties

Google's Ngram viewer displays charts that show how often terms, or phrases, occur in a corpus of books over a preselected number of years. The Y-axis shows the percentages of references to each term from all terms Google has indexed for a year (X-axis) in the entire corpus.

Google Ngram viewer shows a decline for the term
share certificate from the 1930s till the early 1940s.
double-click image to enlarge

The corpus used in the chart is British English. It consists of books in the English language published in Great Britain. The chart illustrates a decline for the term share certificate over a period from the 1930s till the early 1940s (blue line). Meanwhile stock certificate saw an increase at the end of the 1930s. You can also check the same with the American English corpus, but the share certificate pattern is not repeated in that graph. According to Google Ngram's data, the term share certificate became more popular again from the 1960s.

Apparently during the 1930s it was trendy to speak of stock certificates in the UK. In this period a number of British companies preferred to market their securities as stock certificates instead of share certificates. Possibly this can be explained by the increase of intercontinental (American) aviation, radio, and film. A matter of adapting modern language.

F.L.

Related links

• Shell's history pages 
• Shares and stocks, bearer and registered certificates 
• Google's Ngram 

La Belle France under the hammer

Lot 400 Compagnie Générale des Services Publics de Paris et la France

This 1906 founder's share shows the map of France in the underprint 

surrounded by not less than 10 coats of arms of French cities : Paris, Marseille, 

Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rouen, Nice, Nantes, Lyon, Lille and St. Étienne.

double-click image to enlarge

Next Friday and Saturday, Mario Boone's 55th international auction of antique stocks & bonds will take place in the heart of Brussels (Hotel NH Carrefour de l'Europe). I've announced this event in my previous post. This time, I want to bring to your attention a special collection to be auctioned during the happening.

Lot 368 : Société de Constructions de Levallois-Perret
Certificat nominatif d'actions de 100 Francs, issued 1939
Formed Paris, 1893, as successors to Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel
Rarity indication R10 (3-5 pieces known)

Société de Constructions de Levallois-Perret
detail from the certificate above
1866 Gustave Eiffel set up his own engineering office
 at 48 Rue Fouquet in Levallois-Perret. The street
was later renamed into Rue Gustave Eiffel.

France, a Walhalla in scripohily
There is no other nation that has left us so many decorative bond and share certificates like France. For many years, I've been studying auction guides, and I don't think that other countries count more artists, engravers or lithographers. I started to believe I had a good idea of what French scripophily could offer. Boy, am I wrong ! Splendour .. amazement .. rarity .. significance .. these are words that instantly crossed my mind when flipping through this collection's catalogue.

Lot 360 : Société de l'Ascenseur de la Terrasse de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Share of 100 francs, 1899, Paris

Société de l'Ascenseur de la Terrasse de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
detail from the certificate above
design by Ch. Lapierre and engraving by A. Napier
printed by Imprimerie G. Richard

La Belle France
In this special auction 500 French stocks and bonds will be sold separately. The collection was brought together over a period of 25 years by an European collector, wishing to stay anonymous. Auctioneer Mario Boone says : “In my view, the greatest joy that comes with being an auctioneer is the privilege that one gets to see, catalogue and research truly superb collections such as this one. Despite being a leading auctioneer of French scripophily since many years, I have never before come across so many rarities and novelties as in this collection. That we can auction this collection, which has been built and treasured for decades, is deeply honouring.”

Lot 291 : Revillon Frères
500 francs share, Paris 1908
The company had fur shops in Paris, London, New York,
Moscow, Montreal and elsewhere
Only two pieces known according to the auctioneer

Revillon Frères
detail from the certificate above
grandiose design by A. Antigue
printed by Imp. Lahure

À chacun son goût

The collection covers three centuries, all major industries and themes and is also geographically most interesting. It includes not only, as mostly seen, Paris-issued shares, but also many pieces from other French cities and departments. Besides French colonial shares, the auction contains sections with French companies operating in Australasia, Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin and North America including California Gold Rush certificates. 

Lot 171 : Société Anonyme pour l'Amélioration, l'Education et
la Vente des Chevaux de Luxe de Race Française
Action de 1000 Frances à un quatre centième, 1837

Société Anonyme pour l'Amélioration, l'Education et la Vente 
des Chevaux de Luxe de Race Française
detail from the certificate above
Design and lithography by Ferdinand Séré
Printed by C. Adrien from Paris

Practical info 

• Auction date: 30 October & 1 November 2015 
• Place: Brussels, Belgium
• Further info, see here  

Lot 82 : Entreprise de Déchargement des Ports de Paris
100 Francs share, 1924, Paris
printed by Imp. Spéciale pour Titres

100 Words to improve your French scripophily skills

If you start collecting stocks and bonds from France, you need to learn a bit of French. Many words can easily be understood because they are written similarly to the corresponding word in English. Some examples : automobiles, fruits coloniaux (colonial fruit), banque (bank), compagnie (company), edit (edict), funiculaire (funicular) and navigation.

However, other expressions are less obvious to derive. Here is a list of 100 French terms that you will observe sooner or later on those nice papers. You will also find out that the French language often provides words that are pleasant to pronounce, e.g. tuilerie and messagerie fluviale. 

F.L.

Lot 361 : Société Pyrénéenne d'Entreprises
500 Francs share, 1919, Paris
The company was founded in 1919 to make dams,
hydroelectric facilities and bridges in the Pyrenees.
printed by Union des Arts Graphiques

Mario Boone - Auction 53

Certificate depicted : Société Niçoise de Transports Maritimes
Share of 500 Francs, 1893, proof
double-click image to enlarge

Grands Magasins A L'Innovation S.A.
Share of 500 Francs, 1928, Brussels
Design by Constant Montald

Amongst the auction's top lots, is the truly exceptional "Empain" collection, see also here .

• Date: 1 November 2014
• Place: The Atomium, Brussels, Belgium
• Further info, see here

F.L.

Tip for Sun 2 November : Scripophily Bourse in the IBIS Expo Hotel near the Atomium.

How Claude Lorrain influenced scripophily !

Claude Lorrain 1605-1682: French artist of the Baroque era

I start off this article with a little task for you. Below, two old shares are listed. I want you to double-click the images and take a good look at their enlarged versions. For the moment don't spent any time checking out the other images from this post which are discussed later. So, take a deep breath, forget what is happening around you and focus on these first two certificates. Try to identify what these two shares have in common. I am not talking about any similarities in geographical, historical or economical terms, but in terms of visual experience. 

Société Sucrière d'Annam, in English : Sugar Company of Annam
 Share of 100 Francs, Saigon, French  Indochina, 1929
Printed by the French printer Imp. B. Arnaud
double-click to enlarge

Helouan (Egypt) Development Company
10 Ordinary Shares of 1 Pound Sterling, 1907
Note the art deco elements in the border design : early for the date.
double-click to enlarge

What do these shares have in common ?

When looking at the Sucrière d'Annam share, my eyes immediately perceive the printed borders, the company's name and  the 100 Francs denomination. But then, something else happens, unknowingly. After that first glance, my eyes are guided right into the underprint design. I'm not focusing anymore on the flat surface of the share. No, I'm peering .. deeper into the design. It sounds silly, but my eyes come at rest on a point a few meters further into the open space between the sugar canes. The same happens when looking at the share of the Heloun (Egypt) Development Company. When you see it, you'll first notice the title, its denomination and the border. But also here, the next blink of your eyes sets your focus on a spot maybe a 100 meters further into the design, behind the palm trees but before the sphinx. Magic ?