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 The store pioneered with discount sales to clear outdated stock, and used window models to display the latest fashions.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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Jigsaw Mourier

A new jigsaw puzzle in scripophily features snow dogs in a winter landscape. We are talking about the share of the Mourier company.

Mourier company had its registered office in Paris, France. The company traded in furs and pelts in France and its colonies. This share, from 1927 and showing the signature of its founder in the lower left corner, depicts in great perspective northern fur traders (see more on that here). 

Ready to puzzle? You can find the puzzle here:  http://leeuwerck.blogspot.com/p/puzzle.html . 

Have fun !

F.L.

The most expensive share sold at auction in 2021

In its last Summer edition, Scripophily magazine lists the top 25 scripophily auction lots from 2021. Ranked on number one is a share from the Compagnie des Indes Orientales. It was issued as early as 1665.

This Compagnie des Indes Orientales share was offered at auction in Antwerp by Booneshares on 16 October 2021. Starting at €44,000 it rose to €120,000. 

image courtesy Booneshares 

It was the French minister of finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who founded in 1664 the Compagnie des Indes Orientales with authorization of Sun King Louis XIV.  The purpose of the company: to compete against the English and Dutch colonial trading companies.

The company was granted a 50-year monopoly of French trade in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan, with a concession in perpetuity for Madagascar and ‘all other islands and lands it could conquer’. The company also had to build churches and train priests in its territories.

This certificate was issued in 1665, an eventful year:  the Second Anglo-Dutch War begins, King Charles II of England leaves London fleeing the Great Plague, the Qing invasion of Taiwan fails due to a typhoon, and the Compagnie des Indes Orientales sends twenty settlers to start the colonisation of Réunion.

The blazon of the Compagnie des Indes Orientales includes the Latin phrase Florebo quocumque ferar. Meaning 'I will flourish wherever I go' it became the motto of Réunion Island. 

source: Frank Schulenburg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons  

The company had interests all around the coasts of Africa, Madagascar, Réunion, the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula and India, as well as islands in Southeast Asia, even China and Japan. Several ‘comptoirs’ were established in various parts of India such as Puducherry and Chandannagar. Especially Indian cotton was in demand on the French market.

In 1720 the Indes Orientales merged with John Law's Compagnie d'Occident to form the Compagnie des Indes.

The certificate is the oldest French share known today, as well as the oldest one from a company active on the Peninsula of India. It is also the oldest share ever offered at any auction world wide. 

The share was printed as a standardized form and issued for 6000 French Livres, 2000 Livres been paid. Its features include transfers of ownership, hence it was tradeable and transferable. 

Only two other certificates like this one are known to have survived. Being one of the top items at the Swiss Finance Museum, this is the only one that is on display for the public.

Bidding started at €44,000. The hammer fell at €120,000 and that's without buyer's premium.

F.L.

Further references

• International Bond and Share Society (IBSS), publisher of Scripophily magazine 
• The Compagnie des Indes, by Howard Shakespeare, Journal of the IBSS, Feb 1997 
• Swiss Finance Museum on the Compagnie des Indes Orientales 

Previous posts

• Banks in Transition : From Counters to Apps 
• The smallest company in terms of equity capital, is it ? 

Over 1500 lots of historic securities go on the block in FHW's upcoming sale, including an amazing share from Frederick the Great's Chinese trading company !

Freunde Historischer Wertpapiere (FHW) has scheduled its next sale for October 8, 2022. This time the auctioneer selected more than 1500 lots of historic bonds and share certificates. Major sections have been reserved for scripophily from Germany, the German DM era, USA and a series of more than 200 lots from other countries worldwide.

One of the highlights in the sale is this share in the Hippodrom-A.-G. Frankfurt am Main. The company was founded in 1897. Its main building was used to promote equestrian sports in public events and festivities and had the largest indoor riding arena of Germany. Allied bombing destroyed the hippodrome during WW II. Reportedly only four of these shares were discovered in the 1980s. L(ot) 756 in the auction is expected to realize €2,800. 

The German chapter presents over 750 lots from the pre-DM period and covers all regions and branches. A dedicated Deutschland Top 20 section, lot range 748-767, bundles the high-end items.  The auction also includes the Klaus H Reifenrath Collection consisting of 69 rare Kux and mining shares from the Siegerländer Erzrevier mining area.

The auction includes several shares designed in Art Deco. This one, issued in 1922 by the Mechanische Buntweberei J. Sim. Fleißner Aktiengesellschaft, a textile company from Münchberg, illustrates one of the company's modern fabric designs. L730 starts at €100. 

All lots are well-illustrated with high quality images on the Invaluable online platform. However, the Top 20 section includes even more in-depth information with extra illustrations in the catalog's PDF version (links see further below). 

Some examples from the German chapter  :

• The Central-Afrikanische Seeen-Gesellschaft operated gold mines and saltworks in the African Great Lakes region, then part of German East Africa. Seeen is German for lakes. This 1000 mark share was issued in Hamburg, 1902 and starts at €900, L384.
• The 1855 share from the Steinkohlenbau-Verein zu Rochlitz, a coal mine company, shows the city of Rochlitz, gnomes at work and an explosion in their mine, mined rock with imprints of fossilized plants and lots more. Extremely rare, this is in my opinion the most awesome German share certificate. L763, a top item, starts at €9,000.
• L926 starts at €320. The share from the Sundwiger Eisenhütte Maschinenbau-Actiengesellschaft displays a lovely Jugendstil design.

Time to highlight the absolute top item in the auction.

Four years after Frederick the Great became King in Prussia he annexed in 1744 the independent city-state of Embden (Emden), then the most important trade port on the North Sea. Eager to give Prussia a share of the Asian trade similar to the V.O.C. or the British East India Co., Frederick the Great granted the privilige in 1751 to found the Emden Trading Company. 

The company, also known as the Königlich Preußische Asiatische Compagnie in Embden nach Canton und China (Royal Prussian Asiatic Company in Emden to Canton and China) was allowed to conclude contracts with foreign Asian rulers in the name of the King of Prussia. The Emden company owned four ships that made six voyages to Canton bringing back tea, porcelain and other goods. 

The company operated independently - the king's main interest was filling the Prussian (war) treasury - and became the first modern German stock corporation, i.e. without state influence.

The share, L760 in the auction, issued in 1752 for 500 Reichsthaler in Friderichs d'Or is the oldest German share known. 

It is also the oldest share in the German language. A complete translation of the text on the obverse, as well as a hint on its non-German provenance, can be found in the latest issue of Scripophily magazine, No. 119 August 2022. 

The clipping shown here says [..the Company's ships which shall sail] to Canton in China as well as other places in India .. . The document must be the oldest known share mentioning the word China as well. Start price €50,000.

The sale's Deutsche Mark section comprises of more than 230 lots, including a Top 20 chapter. To mention a few : L1146 is a 20 shares certificate in the Erste Kulmbacher Actienbrauerei AG (EKU), 1990, showing the company's logo with crown and prize medals, €75; L1249 Teutoburger Wald-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, Hamburg, 1951, unissued share, starts at €200. 

The Aachener Kleinbahn-Gesellschaft and the Rheinischen Elektricitäts- und Kleinbahnen AG merged in 1942 into the Aachener Strassenbahn und Energieversorgungs-AG (ASEAG). The company provided local public transport in the Aachen city region. During the Battle of Aachen, 1944, Allied troops used tramcars loaded with explosives and ammunition as rolling bombs on the sloping routes from Siegel and Grundhaus to the city center, which, however, caused little damage. This share, from 1954, shows a high voltage power pole and tram car in the underprint. Bids for L1088 are welcome from €40 onwards. 

The USA section features more than 200 lots. Here are some interesting examples to look for:

• L1429 is stock certificate in the Lamb's Run Oil Company coming from an old collection. Printed by Chandler from Philadelphia, 1865, it shows two vignettes of early oil derricks. The company was incorporated in Venango County, Pennsylvania where the biggest oilboom sparked only a few years earlier. €100
• Confederate States of America, 8% $100 bond from 1862, large vignette of the city of Richmond and portrait of C. G. Memminger, L1378, €300
• €380 may buy you a Laramie, Hahns Peak and Pacific Railway Company 100 common shares certificate issued in 1912. The company was incorporated in Wyoming. The shares of this company are illustrated with 3 vignettes of a locomotive, lumberjacks and miners at work, Cox cat nr LAR-083-S-51. L1430

This share from the Compañia Ron Bacardi can be found in the sale's Ausland section (foreign countries). The company was founded in 1862 in Cuba and became worldwide known for its white rum and derived cocktails such as the Cuba Libre and the Daiquiri. The share depicts bats, the company logo, a bottle of Bacardi rum and many of its prize medals won at contests. It is issued to Emilio Bacardi y Rossell, great grandchild of Facundo Bacardi Massó, founder of Bacardi, and grandchild of Emilio Bacardi Lay, mayor of Santiago de Cuba. Note that the certificate was issued in 1955 during the Cuban Revolution. The Bacardi family left the country in 1960 after the government confiscated the company's assets in 1960. L102 starts at €150. 

There is a lot more to discover in the sale, so here are the details :

• Date : 8 October, 2022
• Location : Wolfenbüttel 
• Further info, see here; PDF catalog see there; live bidding is possible through https://connect.invaluable.com/dwa/  

F.L.

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HWPH auctions Friedrich Wilhelm III scripophily, a VOC bond from the Dutch Golden Age and nearly 2000 lots of historic stock certificates.

Historisches Wertpapierhaus AG (HWPH) scheduled its next double-session sale for 3 and 4 September 2022. For this occasion specialist Matthias Schmitt and his team brought together some 2,000 lots of scripophily and related documents . 

Included are several top-notch items such as a unique share from the Preussische See-Assecuranz-Compagnie issued to King Frederick William III of Prussia and one of the oldest securities from the mother of all joint stock companies, a Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie bond from 1623. 

L(ot) 568 in the auction is this wonderful share from the Actien-Verein für den zoologischen Garten zu Dresden. The Dresden Zoo opened in 1861 and was bombed in World War II by the Allies. Reopened in 1946 it now welcomes about 1 million visitors per year. This 50 thaler share from 1863 starts at €1800. 

The first leg of the auction is both a live and an online event and takes place in Zorneding, near Munich. The second part is an online only sale and happens the next day. 

A major part of the offerings consists of antique bonds and shares from Germany, spread over several sections in both parts of the event. Among several German highlights you'll find these two :

• A radical democratic anti-monarchist, Gustave Struve's Gesellschaft deutscher Republikaner tried to finance the German revolutions of 1848-1849 with the issue of bonds. L515 is one of these rare certificates. Illustrated with several allegorical vignettes, it is propably the earliest known scripophily showing the colors of Germany's flag.
• AEG, worldwide known today for its eponymous home appliances brand, originated as the Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektrizität. The auction features a 1883 share from this company, L538. The company changed its name change into Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft. L539 is a share, 1887, from the first issue using the new name. Both are extremely rare. 

Perhaps the most spectacular object in HWPH's auction is this share in the Preussische See-Assecuranz-Compagnie. The company provided insurances against sea and fire risks and was organized in Szczecin, Poland, then capital of the Prussian Provence of Pomerania. The share shows a three-master with the flag of Prussia (click image) and is issued in 1825 to Frederick William III King of Prussia (1797-1840). He joined the coalition against Napoleon, and unified the Protestant churches in Prussia. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II are two of his grandchildren. L546, a unique historic document from Germany's and Poland's prehistory, is expected to realize €25,000 

The sale includes many more lots from all over the world. The auction's online catalog allows searching for your interests by means of country as well as thematic indexes. I tried out Luftfahrt (aviation) which refered to several airline companies : 

• Linhas Aereas Paulistas S.A. (LAP), Brazil map vignette, L68
• Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, L69, La Paz, aircraft vignette
• Badisch-Pfälzische Luft-Hansa A.G. Mannheim, L221
• Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, L734
• Japan Air Lines Company, Ltd., L770 and L771

Founded as Pan American Airways in 1927, Pan Am became the largest international airline of the USA in the 20th century. Its advertisements and so-called "Clippper" airplanes featured in movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Live and Let Die, Blade Runner and Catch Me If You Can. The company ceased operations in 1991 and reincarnated several times. The Pan Am Corporation owned and controlled the airline and services division. This share was issued in 1998 to scripophily pioneer Wilhelm H. Kuhlmann. Bidding on L1761 starts at €50  

There is plenty to discover in HWPH's auction catalogs. The live auction concludes with a meeting for EDHAC members. Here are the details of the event:

• Dates
• 3 September 2022, Zorneding, Germany, public auction
• 4 September 2022, online auction
• Further info and catalogs, see here on HWPH. 
• Live bidding is possible through Invaluable.com, see here, where you can find high quality images of the lots.

Collectors of 18th century scripophily, and even older items, will find more than 50 entries in their category. The most iconic lot is a 1623 bond for 1000 Flemish Pounds from the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (V.O.C.), aka Oost-Indische Compagnie aka Dutch East India Company.  Securities from this historic company are extremely rare and considered the crème de la crème in our field. Why can be read on this blog here. In 2019 HWPH auctioned a similar bond, issued for 500 Flemish Pounds, at €46,000 without buyer's premium. L500 starts at €40,000. 

F.L.

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April sees a new Spink London auction of world bonds & share certificates

SPINK's Bonds and Shares Department has put its latest sale of 2022 online. The auctioneer offers over 600 antique securities from all continents. This online auction ends at 11AM, April 19, 2022. One of the highlights in the auction is this China Mercantile Co. share from the Qing dynasty, L(ot) 102.

The China Mercantile Co. was founded in 1903 as a trading and holding company. The company owned a bank, a porcelain factory, and an export freight company. San Fransico was one its major destinations. The company traded in Chinese and oriental products, tea, silk goods, baskets, brooms, brushes, brass goods, jewelry and art goods. This $20 shares certificate, printed in London by Gilbert & Rivington, dates from 1905 and shows two flags : the Qing dynasty flag with dragon, and possibly the company flag. Rare, L102 

Scripophily from the UK is richly represented. More than 170 lots are divided in separate sections: aviation, bridges/docks/piers, commercial & industrial, hotels & entertainment, mining, motors & cycles, railways & engineering, shipping & shipbuilding. Some of the many interesting items are: 

• L258 is a stock certificate in the Southport and Cheshire Lines Extension Railway, issued in 1890, with vignette and embossed seal of early locomotive. 
• Shares certificates from The Fairey Aviation Company Limited are rarely seen. The company built biplane torpedo bombers and other aircraft. Its share, L282 in the sale, was issued in 1956, a year before Fairey built the Rotodyne vertical takeoff airliner. 
• Roach River Oyster Fishery Company, Limited, 1913, vignette and fine embossed seal of fishing boat, L406 

The UK Mining section consists of 51 lots. This is L323, a 5 shares certificate from the St. Gennys Mining Company, St. Gennys, North Cornwall. Printed on vellum and issued in 1835, this is an early and striking example of using guilloches as a security printing feature. 

The auctions includes stocks and bonds from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and South America. Dedicated sections contain scripophily from the USA, Confederate States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 

New Zealand counts 17 lots in the sale. This is L65, a bilingual 5 shares certificate from 1904 in The New Zealand Consolidated Gold Mines, Limited. Maori warriors adorn this print by Eden Fisher & Co. 

There is lots more to discover in this sale, so here are the details :

• Location : this is an Internet only sale
• Date:  Apr 19, 2022, 11 AM
• Further info : see here , PDF catalog there 

F.L.

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Spink London launched its E-auction of world bonds & share certificates

Precisely 560 lots of scripophily will go on Spink's E-block. This online sale already started at 15:00 Oct 11. The bidding window closes on Oct 25 at 11:00. At stake are antique stocks and bonds from all continents.

Large sections are reserved for scripophily from Australia, Russia, USA Railways, China, South Africa and Canada. More than 200 lots of British bonds and shares are offered representing many themes such as Banking, Canals and Railways, Mining and Shipping.

The Cunard Steamship Company certificate for 5 shares of £20 was issued in 1880. Its two vignettes show an ocean liner and the company's emblem with lion. The share was issued to and signed by William Cunard. L(ot) 261 in the auction 

The British shipping section counts more than 30 lots including this early Cunard Steamship Company share (illustrated). Here are a few of the interesting lots from this part :

• L266, F. B. Woodruff and Co. Ltd., ship and country flag vignettes in color, issued in 1915 and signed by Fred. B. Woodruff
• L288 is a share from The White Star Line, Limited. The company was the owner of the "unsinkable" Titanic that perished with more than 1500 passengers after striking an iceberg. 
• The sale includes three shares of the famous P & O  shipping line, founded as the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation, L276 through L278

The Royal Bank of Scotland was established about 300 years ago, in 1724. The bank invented the overdraft in 1728 which allowed merchants to withdraw money from an empty account. Today the bank counts around 700 branches, mainly in Scotland. L349 comprises of 5 capital stock certificates from this pioneering bank, all issued between 1891 and 1914.

A large British banks section consists of more than 60 auction lots. The Royal Bank of Liverpool is rarely seen on the collector's market: L348 includes two early shares from 1865. With illustrations of the York Minster and city walls, York City and County Banking Company shares are among the prettiest financial scripophily collectibles from the UK, see L357 through L362. Other famous names include Westminster Bank, L356, Midland Bank Limited, L341 and Barclays Bank, L306.

Antonio Salviati was an Italian glass manufacturer. His first company produced the mosaic glass for the altar screen for the high altar of Westminster Abbey, among other. In 1866 Salviati founded the Compagnia Venezia Murano with British capital that became an important producer of Venetian art glass. The Salviati factory in Murano remains a well known brand today. The Venice and Murano Glass Company, Limited (Salviati and Company, Limited) share bears a vignette of the Venetian lion and dates from 1889. L174 in the auction.

There is lots more to discover in this sale, so here are the details :

• Location : this is an Internet only sale
• Date : October 11 15:00 - October 25 11:00
• Further info : see here 

F.L.

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The Compagnie des Indes Orientales : Boone reveals the oldest share ever auctioned in upcoming international collectors event

Mario Boone is a major player in the field of antique share certificates and financial documents. The auctioneer scheduled his 67th scripophily auction and bourse on 16 and 17 October 2021. On the agenda are about 1400 scripophily lots that will go on the block in Antwerp.

Boone succeeded in compiling exceptional rare and beautiful stocks and bonds from all continents, such as the oldest share to be auctioned, the oldest French railway share, a share purchased by Nobel prize laureate Max Planck, and many more amazing historic securities like this one.

Prior to the late 1890s color photography was the domain of a small number of researchers that build their own equipment. This share from 1897 is signed by the Belgian color photography pioneer Louis Ernest Dugardin who invented one of the first commercially available color cameras in the world. He founded in 1897 the Paris based Société Nationale de la Photographie des Couleurs et de Reproductions Artistiques Procédés L. Dugardin. This share was designed by the French Belle Epoque artist Lucien Métivet and printed by Imprimerie G. Richard. An amazing document, L(ot) 557 in the sale starts at €2000.

I'll point of out some more highlights of the sale in a moment, but first I'll say something about the bulky auction catalog that counts over 200 pages of data and images. Auction lots are grouped first by region, then by country. The main index lists over 90 countries. Large sections include Belgium, France, Russia, Germany, USA, Spain, Egypt, China, Great Britain and Italy. Collectors of scripophily from seldom-seen places like Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Ghana, Monaco, Martinique, etc, will be surprised by what's going under the hamer.

The Monte Toro Fábrica de Quesos operated on the island of Menorca. This share shows scenes from the town of Es Mercadal at the foot of the Monto Toro, the highest point on the island, a woman making cheese, and grazing cows. The certificate was printed in 1901 in Barcelona by Imp. Luis Tasso. L1075 in the auction, bids accepted from €100 onwards. 

So, what about the top item of the sale ? Well, it's a share from the Compagnie des Indes Orientales issued more than 350 years ago in 1665. That was an eventful year :  the Second Anglo-Dutch War begins, King Charles II of England leaves London fleeing the Great Plague, the Qing invasion of Taiwan fails due to a typhoon, and the Compagnie des Indes Orientales sends twenty settlers to start the colonisation of Réunion.

 

The Compagnie des Indes Orientales was founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English and Dutch colonial trading companies. The company was granted a 50-year monopoly of French trade in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan, with a concession in perpetuity for Madagascar and ‘all other islands and lands it could conquer’ (*).  The company also had to build churches and train priests in its territories. Several ‘comptoirs’ were established in various parts of India such as Puducherry and Chandannagar. 

This share of 6000 French Livres, 2000 Livres been paid, unique and of great historic importance, is the earliest share ever auctioned. Bids for L467 start at €44,000 

(*) The Compagnie des Indes, by Howard Shakespeare, Journal of the IBSS, Feb 1997 

At the end of the printed catalog, you'll find a list with over 100 indexes on themes, Belgian provinces, famous signatures, artists and printing companies. On top of that you can search through the online version with keywords.

There is nothing as fascinating as antique securities produced in gold print. A search through the digital catalog on keywords like "gold print", "printed in gold" and "gold, black" (co-occuring colors), yield some great results. You should see these. I've listed them by start price in ascending order : 

• €30, L440 Basilique de Sainte Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus à Lisieux, 1933, Lisieux, Calvados
• €40, L1173 The Port Rowan and Lake Shore Railway Company, 1880s, Port Dover, Ontario
• €80, L702 Cooperative des Médecins et Pharmaciens de Grèce, 1924, Athens (see image below)
• €200, L230 Szegedi Kereskedelmi es Iparbank, 1909, Szegeden, Hungary
• €200, L524 Compagnie L'Union Service par Bateaux à Vapeur et Autres, 1840, Rouen, France
• €1000, L459 Casino et Concerts Paganini, 1837, Paris
• €1200, L1274 The Gold Mining Company, 1888, registered in West Virginia, mines at Mojave County, Arizona
• €2000, L758 Barkschip: Grootmeester Nationaal, 1857, Dordrecht
• €2000, L1169 Great Cariboo Gold Company, 1905, New York, but operations in British Columbia, Canada

L702 is a wonderful 5 shares certificate in the Cooperative des Médecins et Pharmaciens de Grèce. Issued in 1924, Athens, and produced in gold print. 

Boone auctions always include scripophily related to that little country somewhere near the center of Europe, Belgium (about 220 lots). Here are some interesting lots from that chapter in the sale :

• L234 Algemeene Nederlandsche Maatschappij ter Begunstiging van de Volksvlijt, a Dutch share from 1825 to finance a new canal between Pommeroeul and Antoing (Hainaut province) 
• L241 the oldest certificate seen, a bond, from A.C.E.C., and highly decorative too
• L245 Société Européenne d'Automobiles, 1898, far ahead of its time targeting the European market, rare and prehistoric automobile manufacturer 

I didn't know that Belgium once tried to colonize Guatemala, did you ? Here's a share, L292, in the Compagnie Belge de Colonisation, Communauté de l'Union, issued in 1844. The company was founded with the help of King Leopold I of Belgium to administer Santo-Thomas de Guatemala, today known as Santo Tomàs de Castilla, Puerto Barrios. Leopold's goal was not only to exploit rich natural resources, but also to reduce crime in Belgium by sending the unemployed, the underprivileged and adventurers to the "promised land of Verapaz".  Many colonists died in the harsh conditions and the project was given up after 20 years. A rare object of Belgian international history, bidding starts at €200.

There is a lot more to discover in the auction. I almost forgot, if you are into Russian scripophily, then don't forget to check out that chapter as well. It includes interesting railway certificates but also a large section of Russian banking and credit securities. 

Before giving you further details and links for the event, I'll end this post with an incredibly beautifully produced work. Extremely rare and of historic economic importance, L451 is a share in the Chemin de Fer de Paris à St. Cloud et Versailles - Rive Droite de la Seine, the oldest French steam-powered railway. The share dates from 1837 and is signed by politician and financier Emile Pereire.

The auction catalog fully describes the history of this French railway company, the Chemin de Fer de Paris à St. Cloud et Versailles. Click the image above and below to see more details of this wonderful print. In the detail below, you see two angels below a column. They present the coat of arms of Paris. Above and at the left of the figures you can detect two light grey rosettes. All those details are produced in such a way that it gives the viewer a feeling of depth just like the raised relief on a medal. But that is only an optical illusion. In fact, the only color used for this print is black. The certificate's design was created by the best engraver of its time, Jacques-Jean Barre, who designed and engraved the first postage stamps of France. He was master engraver at the Monnaie de Paris producing designs for coins and medals. Absolutely stunning. Start price of L451 is €12,000.

Even if you are not a collector the weekend of 16 and/or 17 October is an opportunity to see some great antique securities. As for me, I am looking forward to meet again collector friends that I haven't seen for a long time. Here are the details :

• Location : Antwerp, Belgium
• Dates
• 16 October 2021, Boone's 67th live and internet auction
• 17 October 2021, bourse of historic bonds and shares
• Further info : 
• online catalog & bidding, see here 
• or via the Invaluable platform (large images), see there 
• and the PDF version of the catalog can be found here 

F.L.

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Collectibles from the undersea world and other rarities emerge in Boone's scripophily auction

The 66th auction of Mario Boone takes place online with an exceptional wide range of scripophily collectibles. More than 1,100 antique stocks and bonds span 4 centuries of financial history.

The sale includes several historic items and a number of old collections have been consigned for this occasion. Very special, and unseen before, is a scripophily collection of the undersea world. The companies represented here had goals that captured our imagination. Their shares often featured fantastic vignettes.

During the American Civil War hundreds of ships  were destroyed. This share from the Life Saving Raft Company, was issued in 1866 just after the war. The amazing vignette shows the company's life raft with shipwrecked sailors. Early lithograph produced by Henry Seibert and Brothers, New York, and part of the Diving/Submarines collection 

The Diving/Submarines collection consists of about 90 certificates from companies involved in diving operations, the ship wreck salvage business, underwater treasure hunting, production of submarines, insurance of maritime losses, diving and life saving equipment and maritime archaeology. The collection, L(ot) 1051, offered as a whole, starts at €4,000. In case no bid is received, it will be offered again in smaller lots. 

I'll come back to the other collections consigned for this sale but let me discuss first some of the top items in the sale.

One of the highlights in the auction is this previously unseen share from 1747. Formed in 1720 the Compañia Real de la Havana organized the trade between Spain and Cuba. The company controlled the export of tobacco, sugar, wood and other Cuban products but also slaves, as well as all import of European products needed in the colony. L771 in the auction starts at €5,000. Detailed image provided on the auctioneers Invaluable.com portal, see link below.

Here are some more lovely items from the Spanish chapter in the sale :

• L772, an early copper engraving on vellum, boundless vignette all over the design, is a share from the Real Compañia de Comercio Establicida en Barcelona, dated around 1748 but unissued which explains the moderate start price of €400! 
• Printed with a "gold" vignette of a mining operation, the San Juan Bautista (Teruel) silvermine share, 1857, belonged to the Duke of Rianzares, second husband of Queen Maria Cristina de Borbon, L775 
• A great example of Art Nouveau design, L782, a share in the Nueva Plaza de Toros, shows off the bullring of Barcelona

Let's jump to the present. Everyone knows how to download a PDF auction catalog and read it with the Acrobat Reader application. Both PDF and Acrobat Reader were developed by Adobe Systems. The company was founded in 1982 by ex-Xerox PARC employees John Warnock and Charles Geschke. This specimen stock certificate bears the facsimile of Charles M. Geschke. In 1992 he was kidnapped from Adobe's parking lot. Four days later the FBI found and saved Geschke. L1043, a very interesting collectible from the software industry, starts at €50 

Regarding American scripophily there is lots more to find. This auction chapter includes a top collection of ninety early USA (1816-1860) certificates, lot range 884 through 976. A few examples :

• L886, Thomaston Coal and Mineral Company, 1819!, then part of Massachusetts, today Maine
• L910, Philadelphia Museum Company, previously Peale's American Museum, share from 1840
• L943, West End Land Association, 1854, vignettes of villa and native Americans

The American 'regular' section, lot range 977-1044, has some more surprises, so don't forget that part. 

The Russian chapter consists of nearly 100 lots and kicks off with another highlight :  L678, a share in the Warsaw-Vienna Railway Company. In 1814 Alexander I of Russia was made king of Poland at the Congress of Vienna. His succesor Nicholas I approved the construction of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway. Its 1839, unissued, share shows the vignette of the Russian imperial double-headed eagle. Besides tsarist era scripophily, the chapter includes several soviet certificates as well.

The Azoff Steam Ship Company, founded in 1871, serviced the harbors at the Sea of Azov and the River Don. In the Soviet period the company became an asset of the Ministry of the Maritime Fleet (Minmorflot). This 1895 specimen share was printed by Typography Brothers Schumacher. The printing house finds its origins in the 18th century print shop of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The shop was founded by Johann Daniel Schumacher, secretary of the academy and librarian to the Tsar, and his brother Johann-Jacob, professor of architecture at the St-Petersburg university. L691 

Here is an overview of the other collections that will go on the block in this auction : 

• L5, Collection of 16 Red Cross certificates
• L187, Collection of 46 Austrian World War I bonds 
• L321, Collection of 84 royal loans of France under the form of life rentes (cfr. the catalogue France, The Royal Loans by Howard Shakespeare), period 1689-1787 
• L322-333, Corsica collection
• Lot 625-677: Rolf Büchsenschütz collection of Romania (part)
• L1080-1117, Fire fighting collection

The printed catalog contains several indexes to help you find what you are looking for.  The online versions can be searched by keywords. 

At the start of the 20th century, Ghent, Ypres, Bruges and other Flemish cities still counted many female lace workers. During WWI, war lace was bought by soldiers as a gift for the home front in England or America. This handicraft would disappear, partly because in the Congo, then a Belgian colony, nuns taught lace-making techniques in the missions. The Congolese women and children produced large quantities of lace at very low wages. De Vrouwelijke Beroepsbonden, in English: The Women's Occupational Unions, was a cooperative from Ghent founded in 1914. This unissued share shows vignettes of a lace worker and two seamstresses. Printed by Litho. F. & R. Buyck Frères. L229 

It is impossible to mention all items in this sale, but there is a way to find out more about them. Here are the auction details :

• Location : Internet only
• Date : 10 April 2021
• Further info : 
• online catalog & bidding here, 
• or via the Invaluable platform (large images), 
• PDF version of the catalog there 

F.L.

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Crossing Latin America by rail with SPINK

SPINK's Bonds and Shares Department has put its last sale of 2020 online. The auctioneer offers over 600 antique securities including an impressive set of bonds and shares from Latin American railway companies.  This online auction ends at 11 AM GMT on Dec 15, 2020.

Several bonds and shares from South American railroads are ready to be hammered at Spink's scripophily auction. The Central Argentine Railway issued this share in 1911. Railway construction started in 1863 with the building of the terminus in Rosario. Nearly 100 years later the Juan Perón administration nationalized the British owned railways in 1948. L(ot) 394 in the auction was printed by Waterlow and Sons. 

Spink and Son Ltd specialises in the auctioning of stamps, coins, banknotes, medals, autographs, books, wines and more. This time antique stocks and bonds from many countries go on the block. 

The Mexican International Railroad Company was formed in 1882 to link the Southern Pacific to the Mexican Central Railway. In 1910 the business was acquired by the government controlled National Railways of Mexico. This £100 specimen bond from 1897 was printed by American Bank Note Co., L435 

Major sections in the auction include Africa, Asia, Europe, Great Britain, the Americas, and the United States. Special interest themes that can be discovered are : Russian oil, American mining, Norway, British automobile builders, and more. 

The British entertainment section includes some historical items from the theatre, film and television world. Let's take a look at lot 335, a group lot of two specimen bonds from the Alexander Korda Film Productions Ltd company. Film director and producer Alexander Korda (1893-1956) became one of the leading figures in the British film industry. He founded London Films and became owner of British Lion Films. World famous is The Third Man which he produced in 1949.  

The auction features over 60 lots of scripophily from the African continent. This share in the Abyssinian Corporation was issued in 1918. The British company was involved in trading activities with the Ethiopian Empire, then ruled by Empress Zewditu. Frederick Lugard, then Governor-General of Nigeria, signed the share as Director. His wife, the journalist and writer Flora Shaw coined the country's name "Nigeria", derived from the Niger river. Vignette of elephant and lion head, rare, L12 

The sale also provides an interesting cross-section of British motor cars and cycles. Here are some of the highlights with lot numbers : 

• British Motor Company Ltd, preference shares, 1898, signed as director by Harry Hewitt Griffin, cycling journalist, editor of Bicycling News, and director of the New Beeston Cycle Co, L302
• Argylls, Ltd, 1909, Scotland's largest car manufacturer before World War I, motor car vignette, L289 
• Clément, Gladiator and Humber (France) Ltd, £1 shares, 1897, company in 1903 divided to form Clement Talbot in England and Clement Gladiator in France, L310

The British Motor & Engineering Company was based in Caversham, Reading where they produced four models between 1905 and 1907. One of these was a 6.5 h.p. two-cylinder two-seated car that sold at £105.  L303 

There is a lot more to discover! So, here are the sale's details : 

• Location : online auction only
• Date : ends on 15 December, 2020 at 11:00 AM
• Further info : see Spink's online catalogue with full color images here 

F.L.

The Great Northern Central Railway of Colombia was founded in 1907 and planned a first rail section between Puerto Wilches and Bucaramanga. This rare 5.5% £20 Mortgage bond, 1909, one of the South American railway certificates in the sale, illustrates the coat of arms of Colombia and a locomotive. L432 

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Watermarks in Scripophily – part 1 Introduction

This article is an introduction into a lesser known aspect of securities : watermarks. If you don’t know what a watermark is then hold a banknote toward a light source. Against the light a design appears, at least this is the case on many banknotes. 

Watermarks can be seen on official documents, banknotes, stamps, cheques and also bonds and shares. When you investigate a new entry for your collection, you want to look for a watermark. 

However, most certificates don’t show watermarks; no wonder that many collectors overlook this feature. Yet, now and then you will be surprised by what emerges from the dark side. 

image 1a. The shortlived Nira Valley Sugar Co had a factory at Malegaon in Maharashtra, India. It operated a narrow gauge railway at its sugar cane mill. This share was issued to Maharaja Ganshyamsinhji Ajitsinhji of Dhrangadhra, Bombay, 1920.  

image 1b. Viewed against a window on a sunny day, the share reveals in the lower border a watermark of the paper manufacturer "STANLEY". The four black dots in the corners of the ‘watermark’ image are the silhouettes of little magnets used to hold the certificate in place on a semi-transparant screen when photographed. Click image to enlarge

Watermarks were first developed as the paper manufacturer’s hallmark. Early Italian paper manufacturers from the 13th century started experimenting with this idea. Watermarks that were created by the paper makers themselves are a first category of watermarks in scripophily. See image 1a en 1b as an example. 

How are these things created ? Watermarks are drawings created in paper during the paper manufacturing process. They are produced by having a design raised on the rolls through which the paper pulp is passed during manufacture. 

The designs applied on the rolls cause density variations in the produced paper. In turn, these density variations make an image or a pattern appear in the paper in the form of various shades of lightness and darkness.

image 2a. The Tambracherry Estates & Wynaad Gold Mining Co Ltd had mining operations in the Indian state of Kerala but eventually purchased estates for the cultivation of coffee, tea, and the like. £1 shares, London, 1882.  

image 2b. Written upwards along the right border, a watermark shows “WATERLOW & SONS”, the printer of this certificate. The watermark image was taken on a cloudy day, hence the darker appearance.

Printers of banknotes realized that watermarks in notes could be used as an extra anticounterfeiting device. Halfway through 17th century Stockholms Banco was the first bank that applied a watermark in a banknote; it revealed the word ‘BANCO’. 

Later, security printers adopted the technique and occasionally applied tailor-made watermarks that identified the printing house. This type of watermarks forms a second category. See the Waterlow & Sons example, images 2a & 2b.

In addition to watermarks from paper manufacturers and printers, governments and companies have issued certificates that were produced with customized watermarks. In most cases these comprise the name of the issuer, or the latter’s coat of arms or logo. This is a third category of watermarks in scripophily. As an example, see images 3a en 3b. 

image 3a. Some issuers of securities ordered their own watermark. Here is a Reserve Bank of India certificate for Rs100 issued in 1935. 

image 3b. The entire watermark design almost forms a share on its own including the name ‘RESERVE BANK OF INDIA’ in front of large sun with rays, and a triple line border, all around the certificate. Click image to enlarge

There is little scripophily literature that addresses these features. I know of two books : World War II Remembered, by C Frederick Schwan & Joseph E Boling, and Alexander Kipfer’s Historische Wertpapiere der Spanischen Königlichen und privaten Handelsgesellschaften des 18. Jahrhunderts. 

The comprehensive Schwan/Boling volume describes numismatics, in the broadest sense, including bonds, issued by the WW II powers, and where applicable watermarks are described or illustrated. You can find more details on this work here.

Kipfer’s book describes the securities of the 18th century Spanish trading companies. Also here a handfull of these have been identified as bearing watermarks. 

images 4a and 4b. The Real Compañia de Filipinas took over the Real Compañia de Comercio Establecida en Barcelona in 1785. As a result the company obtained a trade monopoly with the Philippines. Depending on the paper that was used, some of its 250 pesos shares from 1785 display a watermark, others don’t. Alexander Kipfer spotted the stylishly elaborated letters 'AF' on some shares from this company. 

The Schweizer Finanz Museum provided the left image. The other one  was taken from the Alexander Kipfer's book with permission of the publisher Haag & Herchen GmbH.

I'm planning some follow-up articles for later to illustratie the variety that exists in these watermarks on bonds and shares : 

• Watermarks by paper manufacturers
• Watermarks by printers
• Watermarks by companies & governments
• Watermarks that really stand out

image 5a. and 5b. Examples from the third category, custom watermarks used by companies or governments, can be astonishing. 

This Indian Post Office 5-Year Cash Certificate for 20 Rupees, 1935, shows off its watermarks created in several shades of dark and light. You can detect a repeating pattern made up of the words GOVT of INDIA and the Star of India emblem. Joe Boling, co-author of WW II Remembered, identified the dark letters as the British royal cipher, GRI, which stands for Georgius Rex Imperator, or George, King (of Britain) and Emperor (of India). Click image to enlarge

If you have a certificate with a remarkable watermark, then you can email me an image. But be carefull while handling the certificate. You don't want to end up with a torn corner or a heavy fold.

F.L.

This article was published in Scripophily magazine No. 113, August 2020.

You might be interested to read : Watermarks in Scripophily - part 2 Paper manufacturers 

Previous posts

• (Finnish scripophily) Book : Osakekirjat Kertovat 
• Taxonomy of a certificate : Iowa Union Telephone and Telegraph Company