Philipp Von Ferrary - Philately

Philately

Ferrary started collecting in his youth, then inherited a great fortune of approximately 120,000,000 French francs, 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 of Sweden and the 1856 one-cent "Black on Magenta" of British Guiana, which he bought in 1878 for 150 pounds sterling 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" 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 said that his expenditure with them averaged from £3,000 to £4,000 a year.

According to the F. J. Peplow, 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 degree 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 wrappers. 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".