Philip Ferrari de La Renotière (January 11, 1850 – May 20, 1917) was a noted French-born
stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is likely to exist. Amongst his extremely rare stamps were the unique
Treskilling Yellow
The "Treskilling" Yellow, or three schilling banco error of color ( sv, Gul tre skilling banco, literally "yellow three skilling banco"), is a Swedish postage stamp of which only one example is known to exist. This stamp was cancelled at Nya Kop ...
of Sweden and the
1856 one-cent "Black on Magenta" of British Guiana.
Background
Ferrary was born in the sumptuous
Hôtel Matignon
The Hôtel Matignon or Hôtel de Matignon () is the official residence of the Prime Minister of France. It is located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, at 57 Rue de Varenne. "Matignon" is often used as a metonym for the governmental action o ...
,
Rue de Varenne
''Ruta graveolens'', commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of '' Ruta'' grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Balkan Peninsula. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for its bl ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where he resided until two years prior to his death. Once the festive gathering place for the ''
Ancien Régime
''Ancien'' may refer to
* the French word for "ancient, old"
** Société des anciens textes français
* the French for "former, senior"
** Virelai ancien
** Ancien Régime
** Ancien Régime in France
{{disambig ...
'' society, at the start of the
Bourbon ''Restoration'' in 1815,
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...
traded the Hôtel de Matignon for the Élysée Palace. It is now the official residence of the Prime Minister of France.
Ferrary was the son of the Duke and Duchess of Galliera. His father,
Raffaele de Ferrari
Marquis Raffaele Luigi De Ferrari, Prince of Lucedio, Duke of Galliera (6 July 1803 – 23 November 1876) was an Italian philanthropist and politician.
Raffaele was born at Genoa from an aristocratic family, he was a senator of the Kingdom of Sa ...
, came from an ancient and rich family of Genovese bankers and was a wealthy businessman made
Duke of Galliera
Duke of Galliera is an Italian noble title that has been created several times for members of different families. The name of the title refers to the ''comune'' of Galliera, which is located in the Province of Bologna in Emilia–Romagna.
Hist ...
in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
by
Pope Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He h ...
, and Prince de Lucedio by
Victor-Emmanuel II, King of Italy. Raffaele de Ferrari was co-founder of the
Crédit Mobilier
The Crédit Mobilier (full name Société Générale du Crédit Mobilier, "general company for movable ollateral-backedcredit") was a French banking company created by the Pereire brothers, and one of the world’s most significant and influenti ...
with the
Péreire brothers
Émile Pereire (3 December 1800, Bordeaux - 5 January 1875, Paris) and his brother Isaac Pereire (25 November 1806, Bordeaux – 12 July 1880, Gretz-Armainvilliers) were major figures in the development of France's finance and infrastructure durin ...
, rivals of the
Rothschilds, who financed many of the major construction projects of the second half of the 19th century: railroads in Austria,
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, upper Italy and France (
the Paris-Lyon-Marseille line), the digging of the
Fréjus Rail Tunnel
The Fréjus Rail Tunnel (also called Mont Cenis Tunnel) is a rail tunnel of length in the European Alps, carrying the Turin–Modane railway through Mont Cenis to an end-on connection with the Culoz–Modane railway and linking Bardonecchia i ...
and the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
, and the reconstruction of Paris designed by
Baron Haussmann
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...
. It is said that Raffaele de Ferrari died stuck in one of his immense safes.
Ferrary's mother, the Duchess of Galliera, born
Maria de Brignole-Sale, was the great-niece of the Princess of
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
and daughter of the Marquis Antoine de Brignole-Sale, ambassador of the
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
in Paris, under the Restoration and during the reign of
Louis-Philippe
Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France.
As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...
. After the death of Ferrary's father, the Duchess proposed that
Philippe, Count of Paris (heir apparent to the French throne) take up residence at the Rue de Varenne. He came to occupy the ground floor of the Hôtel Matignon. The Duchess soon became disenchanted with the adverse social environment for the monarchists, quit Paris, and left Hôtel Matignon to the
Austro-Hungarian Emperor, who made it his embassy in France. Upon the death of his father, Ferrary renounced all of the titles. He was then adopted by the Austrian Count de La Renotière von Kriegsfeld and he adopted Austrian nationality. It is said that Ferrary was illegitimate and that he was adopted by his natural father. Thereafter, he preferred the name "Ferrary"; his
calling card reads "Philipp von Ferrary". Collectors and dealers usually refer to him simply as "Ferrary".
Philately
Ferrary started collecting in his youth, and then he inherited a great fortune of approximately 120,000,000 French francs (£5 million), which he dedicated to the purchase of rare stamps and coins. His collection is believed to have been the greatest ever assembled, and it may never be equalled. Amongst his extremely rare stamps were the unique
Treskilling Yellow
The "Treskilling" Yellow, or three schilling banco error of color ( sv, Gul tre skilling banco, literally "yellow three skilling banco"), is a Swedish postage stamp of which only one example is known to exist. This stamp was cancelled at Nya Kop ...
of Sweden and the
1856 one-cent "Black on Magenta" of British Guiana, which he bought in 1878 for £150 and which after his death was sold at the third bid of his collection, in 1924, at Paris for 36,000 US dollars. He also owned the only unused copy of the
Two Cent Hawaii Missionary of 1851, for which its owner, Gaston Leroux, had been murdered by a fellow collector. Another piece owned by Ferrary was the only known cover featuring both values of the first
Mauritius "Post Office"
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
stamps, which has been called "the greatest item in all philately".
He purchased many important old collections, including those of Judge
Frederick A. Philbrick (1835-1910) for £7,000,
Sir Daniel Cooper's for £3,000, and W. B. Thornhill's Australians, and was a large buyer in the leading capitals of Europe for a great many years.
Stanley Gibbons
The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and philat ...
said that his expenditure with them averaged from £3,000 to £4,000 a year.
According to
F. J. Peplow of Great Britain, in his book ''The Postage Stamps of Buenos Aires'', the first clue that an inverted cliché existed on the Buenos Aires “In Ps” plate of the “barquitos” (steamships) was the report of a single stamp with part of the adjoining stamp rotated 180 degrees and it had been acquired by Ferrary for his collection.
He employed
Pierre Mahé, a leading Paris stamp dealer, as a consultant or curator to examine and keep order in his collection from 1874 until Mahé died in 1913. Also, he had two secretaries, who were paid large salaries: one to look after the postage stamps and the other the postcards, envelopes, and
newspaper wrapper
In philately a wrapper is a form of postal stationery which pays the cost of the delivery of a newspaper or a periodical. The wrapper is a sheet of paper, large enough to wrap around a folded or rolled newspaper and with an imprinted stamp to pay ...
s. Ferrary had his own stamp room furnished with numerous fan cabinets.
Although he lived in Paris, Ferrary travelled frequently, meeting with dealers along the way, and often paying them in gold on the spot. He was impulsive in his buying and seemed to be indifferent to price, so dealers and counterfeiters took advantage of him. Exceptionally dangerous forgeries gained the nickname "Ferrarities".
Numismatics
Ferrary also assembled a large collection of rare coins. His British numismatic collection was sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in London over five days from 27–31 March 1922. The title of the sale did not mention Ferrary by name, but read as follows: “Catalogue of the Famous and Remarkable Collection of British and Colonial Coins, Patterns & Proofs from George III to the Present Day, Formed by a Nobleman, Recently Deceased.” The catalogue had 710 lots and 15 plates. Other sales of his French and ancient coins were held in Paris.
The "Nobleman" Sales
Wishing to make his unequalled collection accessible to the public, in his will dated 30 January 1915 he bequeathed it to "the German nation" for display in the
Postmuseum in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, along with funds for maintenance, 30,000 guldens. He also stipulated that the collection was "not to be integrated into the existing postal museum collection" but was to be "exhibited in a separate room". But as a citizen of Austria living in France,
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
put him at risk. Leaving his several hundred albums in the Austrian embassy, he fled to Vienna early in 1915 and then to
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
where he died soon afterwards, and so did not see the dismantling of his life's work after the war. The French government confiscated Ferrary's collection, claiming it as a war reparation. The massive assemblage was auctioned off between 1921 and 1926, in 14 separate sales, realizing some 30 million francs.
These sales enabled several famous collectors at the time to acquire the rarest philatelic items known, which, arguably, contributed to the development of the hobby in the first part of the 20th century. The
British Guiana 1c magenta
The British Guiana 1c magenta is regarded by many philatelists as the world's most famous rare stamp. It was issued in limited numbers in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1856, and only one specimen is now known to exist. It is the only major p ...
was bought by American collector
Arthur Hind, who outbid King
George V of the United Kingdom
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...
.
The
Treskilling Yellow
The "Treskilling" Yellow, or three schilling banco error of color ( sv, Gul tre skilling banco, literally "yellow three skilling banco"), is a Swedish postage stamp of which only one example is known to exist. This stamp was cancelled at Nya Kop ...
error of Sweden, after changing hands several times, was acquired in 1937 by King
Carol II of Romania
Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. The eldest son of Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I in 1914. He was the first of th ...
. The "Bordeaux cover" of
Mauritius "Post Office"
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
stamps was acquired, at different time by collectors such as
Sir Ernest de Silva
Sir Albert Ernest de Silva (26 November 1887 – 9 May 1957) was a Ceylonese business magnate, banker, barrister and public figure, considered to be the most prominent Ceylonese philanthropist of the 20th century. A wealthy and influential polym ...
, Arthur Hind,
Alfred F. Lichtenstein, and
Alfred H. Caspary. Caspary (a well-known New York collector) also acquired the only unused copy of the 2 cent
Hawaiian Missionaries
The Hawaiian Missionaries are the first postage stamps of the Kingdom of Hawaii, issued in 1851. They came to be known as the "Missionaries" because they were primarily found on the correspondence of missionaries working in the Hawaiian Island ...
stamp, which had also belonged to Ferrary. The Buenos Aires “Barquitos” (Steamships) horizontal
tête-bêche
In philately, ''tête-bêche'' (French for "head-to-tail", lit. "head-to-head") is a joined pair of stamps in which one is upside-down in relation to the other, produced intentionally or accidentally. Like any pair of stamps, a pair of ''tête- ...
pair appeared in the Ferrary sale held on June 13, 1923. It realized FFr 37,600 (US $2,400) (including the 17.5% surcharge), an extraordinary sum for the time. It was acquired by Alfred F. Lichtenstein.
Lieut. Colonel
G.S.F. Napier compiled an index of the fourteen catalogues from the sales which was sold in aid of funds for the
Royal Philatelic Society London
The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as ''The Philatelic Society, London''. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History, at its he ...
.
After the dismantling of Ferarry's collection, these stamps have never again been (and are unlikely to ever be) part of the same philatelic collection. In that respect, Ferrary's collection remains unique in the history of philately. Today, many of the rarest stamps extant on the philatelic market proudly bear an "ex-Ferrary" in their
provenance
Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
, which tends to raise considerably their desirability and value.
Death and legacy
Ferrary died in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
, 20 May 1917. His last resting place, as "Philipp Arnold", is in
Steinbach am Attersee, a village on
Lake Attersee
Attersee, also known as Kammersee, English sometimes Lake Atter, is the largest lake of the Salzkammergut region in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. It is Austria's third largest lake by area, surpassed only by Lake Constance and Lake Neusied ...
in the province of
Upper Austria
Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, a ...
. He had been a frequent visitor to the Attersee, where he bought a house in 1890, and had been a generous benefactor to the community in the guise of "a friend of Austria".
AtterWiki - Philipp von Ferrary (in German)
/ref>
Ferrary is featured on a 1968 stamp of Liechtenstein, 30 rp red brown, Scott no. 448, SG no. 496.
See also
* Buenos Aires 1859 1p "In Ps" tete-beche pair
The Buenos Aires 1859 1p "In Ps" tete-beche pair are the only existing pair of a postage stamp error on a tête-bêche pair of stamps issued by the government of the State of Buenos Aires and one of philately's great rarities. One cliché, in p ...
References and sources
;References
;Sources
František Žampach, "Pan Filatelista - Pan Filip de Ferrari", ''Japhila'' (in Czech)
* O. Gross, K. Gryżewsky - "Incursiune în lumea timbrelor". (Romanian translation, Ed. Albatros - Bucharest - 1983)
Further reading
* ''Die Ferrary-Auktionen: Paris 1921-1925, Zurich 1929''. Stuttgart: Joachim Erhardt, 1987 c.1000p.
* Bohr, Peter J. ''Der Briefmarkenkonig: der Lebensroman Philipp Arnold von Ferraris''. Vienna: Verlag Ludwig Helwig Prien/Chiemsee, 1982? 79p.
* Maassen, Wolfgang. ''Philippe de Ferrari, cet inconnu, collectionneur, philatéliste et philanthrope = The mysterious Philippe de Ferrari, collector, philatelist and philanthropist''. Monaco: Le Musée des Timbres et des Monnaies de Monaco, 2017 398p.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrary, Philipp von
French philatelists
Counts of Austria
1850 births
1917 deaths
Philatelic fakes and forgeries
Fathers of philately