FORTUNE FOR AN OLD STAMP.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3135, 18 September 1922, Page 2

FORTUNE FOR AN OLD STAMP.

for the possession of a faded bit of colored paper barely an inch square a dozen men gathered in the back rooms of a Paris auction market from points as far awav as America doubled and trebled their bids until the price had', passed one hundred, two hundred aim 1 three hundred thousand francs, and finally halted at 352,000 francs. For that sum, the equivalent of a thousand acres of rich farm land in any of the fertile vallevs of southern France, the cost of an exclusive chateau or the amount of money required to entirely rebuild anv of the hundreds of small towns levelled bv the waste of war. the lucTTv bidder received a one cent. British Guiana postage stamp ol the issue of 1856, the rarest thing known to philatelists. The occasion was the disposal of one lot of the great stamp collection of M. Ferrari de La Renotiere at the Hotel Drouot. in Paris, early this summer, when onlv the most valuable of the manv postage stamp jewels in the collection brought a total of over seven million francs under the hammer ol the auctioneer. The receipts of the sale go into the coffers of the French Government, M. Ferrari de La Renotiere having been adjudged an alien and his property seized during the wai\ only to be disposed of now by the French alien property custodian. The history of the collection is an interesting one. chiefly through the personality of the collector, who was widely known generally. M. Ferrari de La Renotiere was the' son of the Duchess de Galliera, upon the death ol whom he inherited a large fortune. But La Renotiere was a man of precise views and did not like the origin of the money left him. He therefore spent much'of it in chanties and lived, himself, in the most inexpensive manner, practically as a hermit. Becoming interested in stamp collecting, he devoted much of his time and money to this activity. Having long been an amateur admirer of great collections, he set about with his inherited fortune to build up for himself the greatest collection in the world. There are many who contend that the collection which the present King of Fngland maintains is the greatest, but it i.-, doubtful if even that Sovereign has stamps of the value that have been found in the ha Renotiere collection. The collection of the British Monarch is one of the most complete to-day. especially as regards the thousands of surcharge issues which came with the war. but it lacks the valuable early issues which were a feature of the collection just broken up. The collection of King George is limited, moreover, io the stamps of Great Britain and BriI ish colonies. Wnen the war broke out ha. Renotiere was found to be a foreigner and adjudged to he an Austrian, although he pleaded that the place of birth.(if his ancestors had nothing to do with, his fidelity for France. His pleadings were in vain, however, and early in the war his precious stamps—the work of years ol' collection—were boxed up and stored away in the caves of the Bibliotecque Rationale. La Renotiere did not give up his light to regain the results of his life work and declared repeatedly that he was. in fact, without nationality another man without a country. The courts nevertheless decided that he was an enemy alien and impounded his colled ion. ha Renotiere brooded over his loss and died shortly after, .lust before his death and when he realised that his days were few he wrote to Government officials emphasis'iig the importance of keeping intact the great collection and urged that if if were not to be returned to him, it be placed in one of the public museums where the stamp lovers of the world would have an opportunity lo view his gems. The Government, apparently determined that the Treasury needed far more the ten million francs at which it is valued than the public needed the collection, decided upon its sale by lets. Five such sales have already been held, attracting buyers from North and South America and all over the Continent. There remain thousands of stamps to he disposed of at a sixth and subsequent auctions. The stamp which brought the highest price ever pa-id for a postage; issue is the onlv known example of its kind. It was found by a young man in British Guiana in 1573. and was not known to stamp collectors until IS7S, when it was sent to Great Britain to be sold. M. Ferrari bought- it that year and if was in his collection for fortyfot;v years. Meanwhile dealers and stamp lovers scoured the world in search of another spec'ineu. .Many forgeries were perpetrated, the most- famous one being in 1909. when the false copy was sold for 20.000 francs. Previous lo the transaction in Paris the highest sum ever paid for a postage stamp was 200.000 francs, also for an issue from the same British colony. The sale of the world's rarest stamp was the occasion of some dramatic bidding. The amount offered at the start was of). 000 francs. Then an offer of 51,000 was bade. An American in the corner offered (50.000. M. Drouiex, a French collector, cai'scd the bi<7 te

70,000 and so the bids kept leaping by tens of thousands of francs. One hundred thousand was reached, and soon two hundred thousand was passed, whereupon the bulk of the dealers withdrew to watch the battle between M. Drouiex and Mr H. Gnebert. of London. The French coUector went ahead cautiously by bounds of 5000 francs, with Mr Griebert following him up. M. Drouiex then made an offer of 295.000. The Englishman went a thousand francs better. The Frenchman hesitated, then raised the amount another thousand Mr Griebert capped this by offering 000.000 francs. The Frenchman grew pale, .stuttered, wrung his bands and assumed a look of utter despair as he sadly shook his head to signify that the bid was bevonci his resources. Applause greeted the success of the English buyer. The real price paid for the stamp, including taxes and commission, was 352,000 francs. Although it has been rumored that the jewel was purchased for the collection of King George V or for Mr William "Randolph Hearst, the American publisher, the bit of paper rests to-day in the collection of Mr Arthur Hind, a manufacturer, of Utica. New York, tor whom Mr Griebert purchased practically all of the best stamps in La Renotiere s collection.