HIWEPA on tour in August

HIWEPA will be on the road later this month. Based in Ittigen, Switzerland, this auctioneer and dealer in antique stocks and bonds regulary participates at events.

This month you'll see them at

• Börsentag Zürich (Stock Exchange Day), Zurich, Saturday 24 August 2024
• 10th Ansichtkarten-, Foto- und Papierbörse (bourse of vintage postcards, pictures and ephemera), Olten, Sunday 25 August 2024
• Bourse Aux Monnaies (coin and banknote exchange), Neuchâtel, Sunday 25 August 2024

Further info: https://www.hiwepa.ch/en/blog/events-2024.html

Löwenbräu Burgdorf A-G, Burgdorf 

500 Francs share from 1903

lion logo in underprint 

image www.hiwepa.ch 

F.L.

Over 1400 lots of scripophily will be auctioned at HSK's headquarters in Wolfenbüttel

Hanseatisches SammlerKontor für Historische Wertpapiere (HSK) plans its next auction of stocks and bonds on June 1, 2024 at its headquarters in Wolfenbüttel. More than 1400 lots are described in full in a 230 pages counting auction catalogue. All lots can be viewed online as well.

Briar root wood (heather, bruyère in French) is a type of wood used for making smoking pipes. It is known for its heat and fire resistance. Due to its hardness the wood surface can be smoothed and polished, while at the same time its porosity absorbs the smoking condensates. This share in the Bruyère-Pfeifen Aktiengesellschaft from Hamburg was issued in 1921. Printed by Jagdmann & Bohm, its stunning Art Deco design is adorned with more than one hundred Bruyère pipes. Extremely rare, L(ot) 518 starts at €1400. 

The auction includes several German chapters: Bremen und Niedersachsen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany before 1945, German railways securities issued in Reichsmarks, Germany railways securities issued in Deutsche Mark and Germany after 1945. 

Leonhard Fanto (Vienna, 1874 - Dresden, 1940) was an Austrian artist known for his costume paintings and genre scenes from the Balkans. He became director for costume and set design at the Dresden Semper Opera. In his composition for this scrip receipt in the German 6th war loan of 1917, Fanto included an emerging submarine. L706 starts at €100.  

The auction features scripophily from all over the world with strong sections of European and American stocks and bonds. 

L35, stock certificate in The Berkeley Athletic Association, New York, 1891. Start price €380 

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

• Date : 1 June, 2024 
• Further info, see here; and live bidding is possible through Invaluable.com as well   

F.L.

Veissid Auctions features 850 lots of antique stocks and bonds .. tomorrow!

My apologies for the timing, but here is a late incoming announcement for the Veissid Auctions' event that ends tomorrow. The auction features 850 lots of scripophily representing all parts of the world. 

Some examples:

This share from The Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company was issued in 1859. The vignette features a surveyor and a miner, a train approaching a bridge and a real-estate development map. The embossed company seal depicting a train is stunning. L(ot)37 starts at GBP60.

This 25 shares certificate in the Roodepoort United Main Reef Gold Mining Company was issued in 1900. The company registered in the South African Republic, then an independent Boer republic. Two years later, after the Second Boer War, the British Empire annexed the republic which became the Transvaal Colony. L243, a Waterlow & Sons print, may be acquired from GBP100. 

Yukon is the westernmost of Canada's three territories. Yet, the Yukon Gold Company was incorporated in the state of Maine, with a capital stock of $25,000,000. The company conducted hydraulic mining operations on Bonanza Creek, Klondyke River and Hunker Creek, Klondyke Gold Fields, Yukon Territory. This 100 shares certificate was issued in 1910 and printed by the New York Bank Note Company. L601 starts at GBP80. 

Scottish scripophily is not that common. This Campsie Public Hall Company share was issued in 1904 to Miss Anna B. Patton, then a Glasgow resident. The company ran a library and reading room. Printed by Gilmour & Dean somewhere in the 1800s century, L530 starts at GBP25.

There is a lot more to discover, so quickly have a look at Veissid Auctions here. 

F.L.

The Case of the Missing Farmers – Egyptologist traces back Crédit Agricole d’Égypte vignettes

The share of the Crédit Agricole d’Égypte is one of the most decorative securities from Egypt. It is adorned with oriental and pharaonic elements. In the underprint you recognize lotus flowers, a temple and the harbour of Alexandria. The lower border shows a pharaoh with two agricultural drawings showing what seems like ancient Egyptian texts. 

It turns out that the certificate’s design has a connection with a lost temple from ancient times and with Germany’s Berlin from the 1850s as well. 

Crédit Agricole d'Égypte

5 shares of 4 Egyptian pounds, issued in Cairo, 1934 

click image to enlarge  

The Crédit Agricole d'Égypte (CAE) was established in 1931 with registered office in Cairo. Half of the capital of 1 million Egyptian pounds was subscribed by the government. The bank applied low interest rates to small cultivators and agricultural cooperative societies. By 1940 the bank ran over 100 branches all over Egypt. CAE changed its name in 1948 to the Agricultural and Cooperative Credit Bank. The bilingual 5-shares bearer certificate shown here, was issued in 1934.

We know of several bonds and shares that are illustrated with hieroglyphic-like texts and pharaonic elements. Scripophily from Egypt is therefore one of my favorite themes.  

On top of the CAE certificate we see the goddess Nekhbet, depicted as a vulture. She protects the symbol of the Kingdom of Egypt (1922-1953): three stars and a crescent moon. 

Some certificates have genuine Ancient Egyptian words in their design. A Belgian Egyptologist helped me to translate these texts on a number of certificates. You can read more about that in my blog article Hieroglyphs in scripophily deciphered!, Aug, 2018, and as well as in Scripophily magazine, No.111, Dec 2019. 

However, the texts on the CAE share seemed incomplete and were drawn too crudely. They could not be translated correctly. And there ended the story for that certificate … at least I thought so. 

'5 shares' in Arabic 

Four years went by and then I got an email from Sandra Ottens in Sep, 2023. What a surprise when she wrote me that she had solved the puzzle of this CAE share. 

Ottens obtained a MA at University Leiden with a speciality in Egyptology.  She wrote that she had read in 2019 about ‘scripophily’ on the Facebook page of the Leuven-based ‘Pyramids & Progress’ project (1). The post referred my blog article from 2018. 

(1) The Pyramids & Progress project was a research project on Belgian expansionism and the making of Egyptology. See here  

Intrigued by the unidentified texts on the CAE share, Ottens started researching the images because these looked familiar to her. During her study of ancient tombs with the Leiden Mastaba Study Group she had seen a lot of similar texts and images. She consulted several sources but without any results and eventually put that puzzle aside for several years.

Last summer Ottens resumed her research on the CAE certificate. On her own blog Egyptoblogie, see here, you can read about the many steps she undertook. She found the solution in a book from Karl Richard Lepsius.

Lepsius was an Egyptologist from the 19th century. In 1842, he was commissioned by King Frederich Wilhelm IV of Prussia to lead an archeological expedition to Egypt and the Sudan. With his team he documented as much as possible the ancient places. After his return Lepsius became professor of Egyptology at Berlin University in 1846. 

Karl Richard Lepsius (1810-1884)

image: Ernst Milster, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Lepsius compiled his 12 volume compendium Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien (Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia) over a time span of 10 years. These works describe plates of ancient Egyptian inscriptions, monuments, maps, temple drawings, tomb walls and landscapes.

On her quest Sandra Ottens went through Lepsius’ volumes and then came to Volume IV, Section II, page 107. That page contained an image of a tomb relief that referred to ‘Grab 2 in Sauiet el Meitin’. The tomb was located in Zawyet Sultan in Middle Egypt. The tomb owner was identified as Khunes who probably lived during the reign of pharaoh Teti (early 6th dynasty, around 2300 BC). 

Karl Richard Lepsius’ Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Volume IV, Section II, page 107, features the scenes from the CAE share certificate. 

On that page Ottens recognized the reaping scene from the lower left border of our certificate. On the original tomb relief it is part of the scene in which several men are harvesting grain with sickles (lowest line of inscriptions at right in the image above). 

She explains: “The much more clearly drawn hieroglyphs can be translated as ‘Harvesting of grain by the servants of the king’ (Azx it in Hmw nswt)”. 

The reaping scene 

And Ottens locates also the ploughing scene on the same relief drawing (upper line of inscriptions at right on the page from Lepsius' book).

She clarifies: “The ploughing scene shows two men driving an ox-drawn plough across a field. The text reads: ‘Revitalising (the land) with a plough’ (skA m hb) and ‘press your hand down’ (wAH a=k) (2). ” 

(2) Sandra Ottens: The ‘=’ is a grammatical addition in the transliteration to link the suffix ‘k’, represented by the small basket, meaning ‘your(s)’, with the ‘a’, meaning ‘hand or arm’, represented by the arm. The sentence is apparently an encouragement for the depicted farmer to press the plough firmly down to make furrows in the ground.

The ploughing scene 

And as if she can read my restless scripophily mind, she adds that the tomb with the scenes does not exist anymore. What a scripophily attraction wouldn't that have been? In 2020 the Zawyet Sultan mission confirmed that the tomb was largely destroyed by limestone quarrying several years after Lepsius visited the place.  

Puzzle solved! What a journey in history. If you think about it, it is amazing how much time jumps were made to tell this story:

• ca 2300 BC: During Teti’s reign, in Zawyet Sultan (Middle Egypt), the tomb of an Egyptian official named Khunes is embellished with relief drawings and texts.
• 1840s: Prussian Egyptologist Lepsius visits the tomb and documents the tomb reliefs.
• 1850s: Lepsius publishes his Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien.
• ca 1930: A so far unknown artist designs the CAE share and gets inspiration most certainly from Lepsius’ Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien
• 2019: A blogpost featuring the CAE certificate with ancient Egyptian texts catches the attention of Dutch Egyptologist Sandra Ottens.
• 2023: Ottens solves the puzzle in 2023 by researching the works of Lepsius.

Egyptologist Sandra Ottens 

My sincere thanks to Sandra Ottens for sharing her exciting piece of research. You can read her findings on her original blogpost here:  Sandra Ottens original blogpost The Case of the Missing Farmers .

 

F.L.

I wrote this article for Scripophily magazine No 123-January 2024, a publication by IBSS.

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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Swastikas for prosperity

Last year's Holabird Americana’s Big Bonanza Auction included a share in the Swastika Mining and Development Company. The item sold for $80. Scripophily magazine no.121 said: “The swastika was said to be a good luck symbol in western Native American culture and it appears on a few certificates”. That’s only a part of the truth.

I wrote this article for Scripophily magazine No 122-August 2023, a publication by IBSS.

Fig. 1 The Swastika Mining and Development Company owned claimes at Lakeview, Idaho, and a lime quarry at Lake Pend Oreille. This share was issued in 1910, and shows two swastikas in the masthead and one in the embossed seal. 

We usually recognize the Swastika symbol as the symbol of Nazis, which we can also find on Nazi era bonds. However it is a much older symbol. In North America, the Tlinglit and the Hopi applied the symbol to decorate objects like baskets up to the 20th century. The Ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Celts, Germanic and Baltic tribes, as well as the Vikings knew about the swastika. The swastika is one of the most common symbols on Mesopotamian coins.

Fig. 2 Detail of the tomb of Bishop William Edington (d. 1366) in Winchester Cathedral. Note the swastika on the vestments of the effigy of Bishop William Edington. Atrribution: Ealdgyth, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 

The word swastika comes from Sanskrit, the lingua franca in ancient South Asia and generally means ‘beneficial for well-being and prosperity’. The Sanskrit philologist Pāṇini from Ancient India wrote down the word approximately around 500 BC, but the symbol predates even the pyramids of Egypt.

Fig.3 Details of swastikas on Indian shares. Top row, left to right: Kesoram Cotton Mills, Gourepore Co, Scindia Steam Navigation, Bottom row, left to right: Indore Malwa United Mills, Jodhpur Commercial Bank 

The swastika icon has a spiritual significance in Indian religions. Swastikas can be seen on many buildings, statues and in homes in Asia and especially in India. It is an auspicious symbol for Hindus and can be used when starting anything new. The swastika often decorates the opening pages of personal and ledger account books. What follows are some examples in Indian scripophily. I grouped the details in figure 3.

Fig.4 The Indore Malwa United Mills Ltd, Rs100 share, 1949 

Sir Sarupchand Hukumchand was an important opium trader and a pioneer in the cotton Industry of central India. He founded the Indore Malwa United Mills in 1909 at Indore. In the 1950s the company employed about 3,000 textile workers that worked more than 1,400 looms. The underprint of its share shows the Goddess Lakshmi giving lots of coins. A minuscule swastika was incorporated in the border design right below the hoard (Fig. 3 and 4).

Fig.5 The Scindia Steam Navigation Co Ltd, 1 share of Rs15, 1948 

The Scindia Steam Navigation Company 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. The company's flag ship SS Loyalty was the first Indian owned ship to sail to the United Kingdom. The vignette on the share, Fig. 5, depicts the SS Loyalty. The ship was purchased from Maharaja Madho Rao Scindia of Gwalior. Note the tax duty stamp with swastika.

Fig. 6 The Gourepore Co, Ltd, ordinary shares of Rs100, 1929 

What appears to be a rather plain certificate, the share of the Gourepore Company comes with a surprise feature to the meticulous researcher. This jute mill was registered in 1893. Its factory at Naihati, now part of the Kolkata Metropolitan area, had its own train carrying coal to its power house. The underprint of the certificate, Fig. 6 and 3, consists of a pattern of 2.5 mm² sized swastikas covering most of the surface.

Fig.7 Kesoram Cotton Mills Ld, 100 ordinary shares of Rs10, 1955 

Registered in 1919, the Kesoram Cotton Mills from Calcutta was managed by the Birla brothers. On 16 August 1946, Direct Action Day was announced by the All-India Muslim League leading to large-scale lethal violence between Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta. More than 300 labourers of the Kesoram Cotton Mills were killed. The company’s share certificate from 1955 shows an embossed company seal with swastika (Fig. 7 & 3). The business evolved into today’s industrial group Kesoram Industries Ltd.

Fig.8 Jodhpur Commercial Bank Ltd, ordinary shares of Rs10 paid Rs5, 1946 

The Jodhpur Commercial Bank was established in 1944 in Jodhpur but soon opened branches in Kuchaman, Merta City and Pali, all three in Rajasthan, but also in Nagpur and Bombay. Jodhpur’s impressive Mehrangarth Fort is illustrated on the company’s share certificate, figure 8. Note the swastika in the 100 shares denomination. 

As a symbol of good luck the swastika had a major revival in Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century (that lasted till World War II). Scout groups used the icon on badges, even the US Army’s 45th infantry division used it as a sleeve insignia. Carlsberg has put it on its beer labels. Metal watch fobs in the form of a swastika with Coca-Cola logo are now selling at auctions for hundreds of dollars.

Fig.9 The Ericsson Shipping Co, Ltd, shares of £1, 1915, image courtesy aktien.gutowski.de 

I end this article with a share from the Ericsson Shipping Company. This company from Newcastle-on-Tyne experimented with ships built with a corrugated steel hull. This design increased the longitudinal strength of a ship without any corresponding increase of weight. Its certificate shows a sectional view of a ship’s hull on the left. 

The Ericsson shipping flag consists of a swastika for good luck. However, its SS Monitoria was sunk on 21 Oct 1915 by a U-boat. Their SS Willingtonia, built in 1918, was hit by a torpedo the very same year. So much for good luck.

FL

Previous posts

• The new Scripophily magazine is out! 
• George Bellows's Men of the Docks  

FHW's 125th auction is online with exceptional antique stocks and bonds

Jörg Benecke has scheduled FHW's 125th sale for 2 March 2024. With his team he brought together 2000 lots of scripophily and related documents. The event, a live auction held at FHW's home base Wolfenbüttel, offers historic and beautiful antique stocks and bonds from all continents. 

A highlight in FHW's auction is L(ot)962, a 1858 share in the Eisenhütten-AG Blücher, an early steel company from Dortmund. Germany's Ruhr area counted almost 300 coal mines by the 1850s. Coal was exported or processed in coking ovens into coke, used in blast furnaces, producing iron and steel. This 200 Thaler share depicts Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher who won several battles against Napoleon’s troops. He joined Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, his army playing a decisive role in the final victory. The vignette shows von Blücher wearing the Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross awarded only twice in history. This rare and spectacular lithoprint by H. Kaufmann from Münster starts at €2,800. 

The Eisenhütten-AG Blücher certificate is part of the Deutschland bis 1945 chapter that includes about 650 lots. Some of the other historic items here are:

• Deutsche Bank, Berlin, 200 Thaler share, 1881, extremely rare and a top object in any international finance collection 
• Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG, 1000 shares certificate, from the Reichsbank archives
• LLoyd-Werft Aktiengesellschaft, builder of boats, 10000 Mark share 1923, underprint of a sailboat and a hand emerging from the water rescuing a canoe.
• Münchener Trambahn-Actien-Gesellschaft, 400 Mark share, 1882, rare founder's share 

Part of the 200 lots in the Deutschland ab 1945 chapter, is this BASF specimen 1000 shares certificate. BASF as we know it today was reorganized in 1952 and became the largest producer of chemicals in the world. In the 1960s and 1970s BASF succesfully sold computer tape and other storage devices. At the end of the 1970s the company marketed Hitachi's mainframe computers and soon thereafter launched their own line of business microcomputers like the BASF 7120 model. The certificate dates from 1967 and shows the Ludwigshafen production site.  L1457 starts at €500. 

A surprise is the sale of a complete collection of stocks and bonds related to Israel. About 130 certificates, spanning two centuries, are initially offered as one lot at €20,000, L24. In case of no bids, buyers have the opportunity to bid on the individual lots. 

This certificate from The Arab Cigarettes and Tombac Company Ltd is part of the Israel collection. The company was founded in Nazareth, which is the largest Arab city in Israel today. The company traded in cigarettes and tombac, a unwashed natural tobacco leaf used with the waterpipe. This unissued share of 1 Palestine pound with text in English and Arabic might be available from €240. 

Over 350 lots are comprised in the USA chapter. Among the many interesting items are: 

• L1743 Florida Land Rock Phosphate Company, Western Bank Note engraving, 1894, unique vignette of phosphate miners in forest 
• L1835 New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Westeren Rail Road Company, stock certificate, 1855, large train vignette, signed by Benjamin Franklin Flanders, Governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans, who formed the 'Friends of Universal Suffrage' 
• L1680 Central New England Railway Company, preferred stock, 1906, large Poughkeepsie Bridge vignette 
• L1652 Apperson Bros. Automobile Company 

Steel engraving is the trademark of the American Bank Note Company. With no sales recorded during the past ten years in the coxrail.com database, this stock from the Tennesee based Morristown and Cumberland Gap Railroad can find a new home from €500 onwards. L1824 

The auction catalog counts over 200 pages. You'll find several more chapters in it, including two with items offered at half of their previous start price. So, lots to discover there. Here are the details :

• Location : The event takes place at the company headquarters in Wolfenbüttel.
• Date : 2 March, 2024
• Further info, see here; PDF catalog see there; live bidding is possible through https://connect.invaluable.com/dwa/  

L277: Sociedad del Teatro Chapi de Villena, 25 pesetas share from 1915, vignette of the Spanish composer Ruperto Chapi, lovely Art Nouveau design, €150 

F.L.

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The new Scripophily magazine is out!

Scripophily is the world’s most comprehensive and insightful publication for passionate collectors and active researchers of antique securities. This three-yearly periodical, printed on high quality paper, is the flagship of The International Bond and Share Society (IBSS).

Its 2024 January issue brings over 40 pages of scripophily news, in depth articles, book reviews, and pictures of collector friends. Scripophily magazine is illustrated with tons of gorgious stock certificates. This one from the A/S Spitzbergen company is a highlight featured in one of the many auction reports included in the publication. 

A significant part of Scripophily magazine brings reports on auctions in this collecting field. This 1905 stock certificate from the AS Spitzbergen company shows a vignette of a whaler harpooning a whale. That year, the Tønsberg-based whaling company built a whaling station on Finneset, a peninsula located on the east side of Grønfjorden on Spitsbergen. The certificate sold for NOK6,200 at the auction of the Norwegian Scripophily Society. 

Here is a summary on the main topics brought in the new issue :

• Unique War Bond, a remarkable discovery of a World War I prisoner camp library bond 
• Gatling Ordnance Co Misfires
• The Case of the Missing Farmers, an Egyptologist traces back Crédit Agricole d'Égypte vignettes 
• Taking Stock of Pittsburgh 
• David and Goliath, The Winona and Southwestern railroad takes on The Chicago and Northwestern railroad 
• Scripophily Frozen, winter scenes in scripophily

Become a member of IBSS and receive three times per year this great magazine. The 1 year membership costs £28 or $35 or €32. And the magazine is not the only benefit you'll receive. 

More info can be found on-line here at the website of the International Bond & Share Society: https://scripophily.org/ 

F.L.

HWPH's 66th auction

Happy New Year! 2024 kicks off with Matthias Schmitt's 66th auction. It takes place as an online-only auction and includes almost 600 lots of antique shares and bond certificates.

For the time being this will be the auctioneer's last auction. The prime part of HWPH's business, Russian scripophily, is badly affected by the war of Russia against Ukraine. The auction offers mainly unsold items from previous auctions. With all lots starting at €5, you may strike a bargain!

Part of the sale is a section of roughly 100 lots of American railroad stocks and bonds. Illustrated here is L(ot) 171, a bond from the Savannah and Charleston Rail Road Company, South Carolina, issued in 1869. 

The sale features several shares designed by artists of the time. L224, a share in the Goedkoope Antwerpsche Beenhouwerij, literally translated: 'cheap Antwerp butchery', was designed by one of Belgium's most talented sculptors: Jef Lambeaux. Among the other artists to be hammered are Hermann Gradl, L452, and Demetrios Galanis, L239. 

About 100 lots span three centuries of German insurance activities. Shown here is, L476 a 1961 specimen share certificate from the Allianz Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft. Allianz, one of the largest insurers in the world, is part of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. 

All major themes are represented such as railways, mining and government bonds. By means of the online search features you can find the lesser obvious themes as well. A few examples: 

• Bridges, L121 The Main Street Bridge Co, Indiana 
• Music, L242 EMI Ltd 
• Ceramics, L79 Ceramica Industrial de Osasco (Brazil)
• Casino, L461 Casino im Frankfurter Hof 

Another example is a share from the Tsingtao Brewery Company Ltd, China. The company originates from the Germania-Brauerei Tsingtao brewery founded in 1903 by English and German entrepreneurs. In 1993 it became the first Chinese firm listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. L23 was issued in 1996 to scripophily pioneer Wilhelm Kuhlmann. 

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

• Location: this is an Internet only auction
• Date: 18 January 2024 
• Further info : online catalog see here on the auctioneer's website, or via the Invaluable platform, see there  

F.L.

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Dhotis not allowed at the Willingdon Sports Club

A victim of its own success, membership to the Royal Willingdon Sports Club is closed. Only children of current members, wealthy ones, can become members, and even that on a selective basis depending on the applicant’s family background and profession.

The private club was founded by Lord Willingdon in 1918. Willingdon (1866-1941) ruled as Governor of the Bombay Presidency from 17 Feb 1913 through 16 Dec 1918. This administrative subdivision of British India, more or less the size of today’s Germany, counted then nearly 30 million people.

A highlight in the Willingdon Sports Club’s existence is the visit in 1921 of Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales. The Prince played four chukkers at polo on the club’s ground. This non-interest bearing irredeemable debenture, issued by the club in 24th Nov 1916, is issued to the Maharaja of Gondal and signed by Sir Stanley Reed as Secretary. 

From the beginning Willingdon maintained good relations with the Indian Princes and India’s important business men. The crème de la crème of British India often met on official events. 

However, on one occasion he invited some friends, Maharajas, to the Royal Bombay Yacht Club. The Governor and his Indian guests were denied access. The club only accepted European members. Willingdon did not agree with the situation and discussed the incident with his friend Stanley Reed.

Sir Herbert Stanley Reed (1872-1969) joined the Bombay based journal The Times of India as correspondent in 1897. When George V, then Prince of Wales, and Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, made their royal tour of India in 1905 and 1906, Reed traveled along as special correspondent of the Times of India.

Stanley Reed became the newspaper’s longest serving editor from 1907 until 1924. He maintained close ties with the British political elite. Mahatma Gandhi corresponded with Reed and occasionally paid him a visit at the newspaper office to discuss the questions of the hour. 

Reed was one of the first persons to whom Gandhi revealed his Swadeshi pledge. The Swadeshi movement strived for India to be self-sustainable and self-reliant. Gandhi's swadeshi pledge in 1919 was a pledge to boycott foreign goods.

Stanley Reed improved the coverage of The Times of India and made it ‘the leading paper in Asia’. He is credited with extending the deadline for carrying news from 5 PM to midnight. Earlier, news that came after 5 PM would be kept over for printing the next day. During his tenure the cover price of the paper was reduced from four annas to one, which gave a phenomenal boost to its circulation. 

At the end of World War I, Reed exposed the grievous sufferings of the Indian troops in a newspaper article in which a change in the High Command was argued. Lord Willingdon supported him in that. The latter took responsibility for treating the thousands of wounded that returned from the Mesopotamian campaign by ship to Bombay in appalling circumstances.

Reed and Willingdon discussed the latter’s experiences in the Royal Bombay Yacht Club. It was decided to start a private club that would bring together the best elements of Indian and European society on an equal basis. Lord Willingdon was its President and Stanley Reed became its Honorary Secretary. 

Willingdon found a piece of land in what is now south Mumbai where he established his club. To finance his project, he had to attract funds. 

Stanley Reed writes in his book The India I Knew 1897-1947: “British residents subscribed handsomely, but it was the generosity of the Indian Princes which made realization possible. They contributed not less than £25,000 in non-interest-bearing irredeemable debentures, and asked no more than life membership.” Note that 'irredeemable debentures' are debentures that cannot be redeemed during the lifetime of the company. Investors can only redeem if the company is winding up. 

Freeman Freeman-Thomas & Maria Adelaide Brassey, also known as Lord and Lady Willingdon, 1916. Attribution: Parasnis, Dattatraya Balwant, Rao bahadur, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Lord Willingdon formally opened the club on December 8, 1917. The princes came be-jewelled and robed, the Maharaja of Idar standing out in his gold earrings. Lady Willingdon wore a mauve dress, the colour of the Club’s crest, its curtains and, until 1975, the hue of the waiter’s waistcoats and neckties. In the temporary parking place stood Rolls-Royces, Duesenbergs, Alfa Romeos and other fabulous cars.

Sport amenities were constructed for playing polo, golf, cricket, tennis, badminton, swimming, billiards, poker, and a rifle range as well. The club was not meant to be a sports-only club but also promoted intercultural activities by means of music performances, lectures, ballroom dances, banquets and dinners, etc. Its first name was the Willingdon Club, but Lord Willingdon didn’t like the club’s shortened name. Hence, the Willingdon Sports Club.

The exclusive club attracted maharajas, high government officials, upper rank army officers and India’s top business men. To name a few: the Maharaja of Mysore, the Raja of Ratlam, Sir Dorab Tata, Sir Sassoon David, the Aga Khan, Ibrahim Rahimtoola and then later JRD Tata. Top financier FE Dinshaw was a club’s recurring bridge player.

Lady Willingdon was equally thrilled with the founding club and was the driving force for opening it up for the members’ wives as well. It was said that she got the ruling princes to contribute towards the establishment of the club. One story about her was that she would admire the diamond rings and necklaces that the maharajas used to wear (some even wore them while playing tennis). The recipients of the compliment had no alternative but to present her with the valuables. It is said that soon the maharajas made sure not to wear anything expensive at the club. 

His Highness Maharaja Thakore Shri Sir Bhagwant Singhji Sagramji Sahib Bahadur, Maharaja of Gondal, 1911. Attribution: Photographs from the Lafayette Studio Archive of the V&A, London, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Several Indian princes invested in the Willingdon Sports Club. This certificate shown here was issued for two debentures of 500 Rupees on 24th November 1916 to Bhagvatsinghji, His Highness the Thakore Saheb of Gondal, the ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Gondal (1865-1944). Back then, the Indian princely states were sovereign entities within the British Indian Empire, not directly governed by the British, but by an Indian ruler.

Bhagvatsinghji reformed the administration of his state, provided free and compulsory education for men and women, and made Gondal a tax-free state. The Thakore Saheb was one of the first maharajas to welcome at his residence Gandhi and his wife after their return from South Africa in 1915. The maharaja would meet with Gandhi several times more. On some of these occasions Gandhi deemed it necessary to appeal to the maharaja’s conscience to be a good ruler for the people of Gondal. On the 50th anniversary of his accession to the throne the maharaja gave his weight in gold to charity.

Lord Willingdon also met Gandhi on several occasions. In 1931 he became Viceroy of India for five years. During his reign Gandhi and the Indian National Congress party organized a mass Civil Disobedience Movement. Of course, all of this was covered in Stanley Reed’s Times of India. Eventually Willingdon would imprison Gandhi, the INC members and tens of thousands of Indian activists.

A bouquet for the author, picture taken from Stanley Reed’s book “The India I Knew 1897-1947”.  An expert on Indian current affairs, Reed wrote and compiled several year books such as The Times of India Directory, and The Indian Year Book Including Who's Who. 

I wonder whether Stanley Reed got along with Gandhi. In his more than 260 pages counting memoires The India I Knew 1897-1947, he mainly describes his experiences with British India’s politicians. Though Gandhi made the headlines all those years, Reed dedicated merely five pages to the Mahatma.

I’ll end this article on the Willingdon Sports Club, with an interesting note. In 1954 a post-awards banquet was held at the club to celebrate the first Filmfare awards ceremony. The event was attended by actor Gregory Peck. One of the award winners, influential director Bimal Roy, was denied entry into the club because he was dressed in a dhoti, a type of sarong, fastened in between the legs in a manner that it outwardly resembles trousers. The most photographed person in the world wearing a dhoti must be Gandhi. He was never invited to the Willingdon Sport Club. 

F.L. 

This article was originally written for Scripophily magazine No 122-August 2023, a publication by IBSS.

References

• A commemorative Volume to mark the sixtieth year of the Willingdon Sports Club Bombay 1917-1977, by Behram Contractor, Naval J. Ardeshir 
• His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Tour In India (1921-1922), by O’mealey M
• The India I knew 1897-1947, by Stanley Reed 
• The TOI Story, by Sangita P. Menon Malhan [ed.: about The Times Of India] 
• The Royal Tour in India - A Record of the Tour of T.R.H. The Prince and Princess of Wales in India and Burma, from November 1905 to March 1906, by Stanley Reed. The book has been digitized by Google and is available to the public here 

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