Jean-Baptiste Philippe Constant Moens (27 May 1833,
Tournai
Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...
– 28 April 1908) was a
Belgian philatelist recognized as the first
dealer in stamps for collectors. He was one of the original
philatelic journalists.
Youth
Moens began
collecting stamps from his family's mail as a boy in
Tournai
Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...
. He was the son of Colette Blangenois and Phillipe Moens, a soldier. He began with a small business in coins. By 1853, at age nineteen, he was buying and selling new and second-hand books, and
stamps, from the
Galerie Borthier
The Bortier Gallery (french: Galerie Bortier, nl, Bortiergalerij) is a glazed shopping arcade in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed by Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer in 1847, in a neo-Renaissance style, and opened in the following year. As well as bei ...
, a covered walkway in central
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. Within a decade he was putting out a
stamp catalog
A stamp catalog (or stamp catalogue) is a catalog of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices.
The stamp catalog is an essential tool of philately and stamp collecting. Stamp catalogs are part of philatelic literature.
Similar catalog ...
with illustrated supplements.
First catalogue
In March 1862, with
Louis Hanciau
Louis Francois Hanciau, (9 April 1835Background notes on The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists September 2011', Roll of Distinguished Philatelists Trust, London, 2011Archived here./ref> – 11 November 1924) was a Belgian philatelist who signed th ...
, Moens published a catalog of stamps, the ''Manuel des collectionneurs de timbres-poste'' (Handbook for Stamp Collectors). This work is the first of its kind in Belgium and the second in the French language, following that of the Parisian,
Alfred Potiquet
Alfred Potiquet
Alfred Potiquet was a French official who was responsible for the first stamp catalogue in the world. The 1861 first edition is held by the Royal Philatelic Society London.
Alfred Potiquet developed his catalogue on the basis of ...
. Also in 1862, he published ''De la falsification des timbres-poste'' (On the falsification of postage stamps) to alert stamp enthusiasts to the abundance of
forgeries
Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...
. He began the first French language philatelic monthly, ''
Le Timbre-Poste
''Le Timbre-Poste'' was the first French language philatelic magazine. It was published by Jean-Baptiste Moens of Brussels from 1863 to 1900. ''Le Timbre Fiscal'' was included as a supplement from volume 17 of 1879 and incorporated from January 189 ...
'', which ran from 1863 until 1900, as well as a series on
fiscal stamps from 1874 until 1896.
The Mauritius "Post Office" stamps
Moens became the owner of eight of the
"Post Office" Mauritius stamps. In 1878 Moens published the first of his works on the early stamps of Mauritius, ''Les Timbres de Maurice depuis leur origine jusqu'à nos jours,'' (The Stamps of Mauritius from their Origin until Today), benefiting from the studies of
Edward B. Evans, the
Philatelic Society of London, and Judge
Frederick Philbrick. Helen Morgan noted, "All that is known of the discovery of the first specimens of the Post Office issue, indeed of much of the history of the handful of those stamps eventually found, came from his pen in the late 1890s. He handled most of the Post Office stamps discovered by Madame Borchard in the late 1860s."
Organised philately
Moens was an Honorary Member of the
Fiscal Philatelic Society
The Fiscal Philatelic Society (11 January 1902 – 1928) was an early twentieth-century British philatelic society that is seen as a predecessor to today's '' The Revenue Society''. The principal object of the society was the study of fiscal stamp ...
until his death.
[''The Bulletin'', Fiscal Philatelic Society, Vol.I, No.1, October 1908.]
Retirement
As Moens' business prospered, he assembled a large stock of collectibles of all kinds and a library devoted to music and antiquities, as well as stamps. By 1 November 1899, to preserve his health, Jean-Baptiste announced in ''Le Timbre-poste'' that the time had come to free himself from the duties of publication and to liquidate most of his stock in trade. After selling his rarities, the residue of Moens' stock, with a catalogue value of £196,000 (1882 catalogue), was sold the following year to M Rubens, a stamp dealer of Copenhagen for an undisclosed figure.
['']The Philatelic Record
''The Philatelic Record'' was an important early Philatelic literature, philatelic magazine published in 36 volumes between February 1879 and 1914. It was originally published by Percival Loines Pemberton, Pemberton, Wilson and Company of London ...
'', June 1900, p. 156 His
philatelic publications were eventually sold to
H. Edgar Weston
Herbert Edgar Weston (28 October 1874 in Chichester – 21 November 1961 in Twickenham),"The man who never was" by Colin Baker in ''The Postal Stationery Society Journal'', Vol 19 No 3, August 2011, pp.18–20 or H. Edgar Weston, was a stamp deale ...
, in London, in 1907.
Death
Jean-Baptiste Moens died in
Ixelles in 1908 and was interred there in the
Ixelles Cemetery
Ixelles Cemetery (french: Cimetière d'Ixelles, ; nl, Begraafplaats van Elsene), located in Ixelles in the southern part of Brussels, is one of the major cemeteries in Belgium. ''Ixelles Cemetery'' also refers to a neighbourhood with a lot of ...
. His passing was noted by the philatelic press, many referring to him as ''The Father of Philately''.
References
Further reading
* Leclercq A. and G. Waroquiers. ''Jean Baptiste Moens, 1833-1908: La nomenclature de son oeuvre avec criteres de rarete''. Bruxelles: Les editions Corneille Soereman, 1981 58p.
* Phillips, Charles J. The First Stamp Dealer: M. Jeane Baptiste Philippe Constant Moens. ''Stamps''. Feb. 1933 p. 81.
* Winchester, John. Jean-Baptiste Moens 1833–1908: One famous Belgian! ''Stamp Magazine''. Vol. 74 No. 5 (May 2008), pp. 68–71.
External links
* Université Libre de Bruxelles (archive.org) (Fr).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moens, Jean-Baptiste
1833 births
1908 deaths
People from Tournai
Belgian businesspeople
Stamp dealers
Belgian philatelists
Philatelic fakes and forgeries
Burials at Ixelles Cemetery
Fathers of philately
Philatelic authors