Friedrich Breitfuss

Friedrich Breitfuss (before 1911)

Friedrich Andreas (Fjodor Lwowitsch) Breitfuss ( Russian Фридрих Андреас (Фёдор Львович) Брейтфус ; born September 16, 1851 † September 7, 1911 in Karlsbad Austria-Hungary ) was a well-known Russian philatelist, member of the Royal Philatelic Society, London from 1874 1875 corresponding member), founder of the Moscow and Saint Petersburg sections of the Dresden International Philatelic Association, of which he was uninterrupted president from December 1883.

Life

His father was the court jeweler Gottlieb Karl Breitfuss. Friedrich Breitfuss was also related to the Russian-German zoologist L. L. Breitfuss. From birth he belonged to the rank of honorary citizen of the Russian Empire . He was co-owner of a warehouse for photo accessories of the company Bruno Singer & Co. From December 1888 he was a member of the Imperial Russian Technical Society.

He was buried in the Volkovo Lutheran Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.

Contribution to philately

On October 10, 1883, Friedrich Breitfuss founded the Moscow section of the International Philatelist Association Dresden, the first philatelist organization in Russia, and in December of the same year the St. Petersburg section, which he headed for 24 years without interruption.

Breitfuss was an expert on Zemstvo postage stamps as well as Russian , Finnish and South American stamps.

collection

Friedrich Breitfuss collected postage stamps from 1862 to 1907; he had already laid out the basis of his collection as a schoolboy.

Recollections of contemporaries show that Breitfuss owned the best stamp collection in Russia and - after the collections of Philipp von Ferrary in Paris and Thomas Tapling in London - the third best collection in the world. His collection was characterized by a high degree of completeness. Brands from many countries were fully represented by him, including local editions. He collected both mint and canceled stamps. In addition to postage stamps, he also collected essays, drafts, proofs, envelopes, postcards, misprints, post forgeries and other philatelic material. In 1866 Gottlieb Karl Breitfuss gave his son Friedrich a copy of all the postage stamps in the world for his 15th birthday.

Breitfuss lived and worked for several years in France, where he added to his collection. In December 1873 he went to London, where he made the acquaintance of Dr. Charles Viner who introduced him to the London Philatelic Society (now the Royal Philatelic Society London). In 1875 Breitfuss moved to Odessa and in 1877 he returned to his hometown of Saint Petersburg.

Friedrich Breitfuss acquired a large number of complete collections, of which he arranged the most interesting pieces in his own collection. In 1887 he bought the collection of Prince Golitsyn-Ostermann for 1,500 pounds sterling and in 1898 the collection of the banker Theodor Notthracht for $ 35,000 .

Friedrich Breitfuss conducted a lively correspondence with the Semstwa administrations, from whom he ordered stamps for his collection, often entire sheets. He was not only interested in Zemstvo brands, but also seals. Since seals could not be bought, he enclosed the envelope with his request for a Zemstvo seal to be sent with official postage stamps.

Breitfuss was with the Grand Duke Alexej Michailowitsch , a nephew of Emperor Alexander III. , friends. With the consent of the emperor, the archives of the postal administration were handed over to Breitfuss. So all Russian rarities ended up in the collections of the Grand Duke and Friedrich Breitfuss. Some time later, Breitfuss decided to sell his collection, with the proviso that it would be taken over in its entirety by the St. The Grand Duke had offered to act as an intermediary, but he died before the deal even came about.

Shortly before his death, Breitfuss sold his collection to an American dealer. This took over everything, with the exception of the Russian stock. The collection was divided into two parts: the international holdings went abroad as part of the collection of the English company Stanley Gibbons in 1907, while the Russian part went to Agathon Karlowitsch Fabergé . The Gibbons part of the collection contained a Red Mauritius with Moens No. XVI, which was auctioned on January 8, 1908.

The British Guiana

Research by the Danish philatelist Otto Hornung has shown that the collection that Friedrich Breitfuss received from his father in 1866 included an extremely rare British Guiana One Cent . However, this specimen was damaged under unexplained circumstances and Breitfuss therefore donated it to Grand Duke Alexej Michailowitsch .

Honors

In 1921 the name Friedrich Breitfuss was included in the " Roll of Distinguished Philatelists " (Great Britain).

literature

• Carlrichard Brühl: History of Philately. Volume 1, Olms, Hildesheim 1985, ISBN 3-487-07619-5 , pages 204-209

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} "Sale of the Breitfuss Collection" in The London Philatelist , Vol. XVI, no. 187, July 1907, pp. 167-168.
2. ^ De Worms, Baron Percy. The Royal Philatelic Society London 1869 - April 10th - 1919 . Bath: 1919, p. 30th
3. ^ "Death of Mr. F. Breitfuss." in The London Philatelist , Vol. XX, No. 237, September 1911, pp. 234-235.
4. ↑ Several Russian-language sources give 1907 as the year of death, cf. z. B. см., Например: Брейтфус; 290; August 5, 2011
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Панькина Е. В. 120 лет филателистической организации Санкт-Петербурга (Pankina, EW: 120 Years Philatelic Organization Saint Petersburg) ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. // История Петербурга (History of Petersburg), 2003, No. 6, pp. 73-77. 
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Олещук Н. Александр Илюшин: Марка - визитная карточка государства (Oleschtschuk, N., Alexandr Ilyushin: the brand as a business card of a State) ( Archived copy ( Memento of the original on 10 October 2011 at the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ) // Почта России (The Russian Post), 2010, No. 2, pp. 60–63. 
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Олещук Н. Александр Илюшин: Марка - визитная карточка государства (Oleschtschuk, N., Alexandr Ilyushin: the brand as a business card of a State) Gurnal_PR / PochtaRossii_2_2010.pdf  ( page no longer available , searching web archives )  Info: The link is automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. // Почта России (The Russian Post), 2010, No. 2, pp. 60–63.  
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} Служебные марки Российской империи . Библиотека антиквариата AntikLib.ru. Archived from the original on August 16, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Мир коллекционера. Сборник. Сост. О. Г. Рачков, И. Э. Гринберг, С. М. Гинсбург и др. - Алма-Ата: Казахстан, (The world of the collector. Anthology, edited by OG Ratschkow, IE Grinberg, SM Ginsburg, etc., Alma-Ata: Kazakhstan), 1967, p. 79
10. ↑ Брейтфус; 290; July 23, 2011
11. ↑ Коллекция марок, первый каталог 1861 года . Филателия-фауна .. Archived from the original on August 16, 2012. Retrieved on July 23, 2011.
12. ↑ Jan Billion, David Feldman, Andreas Hahn: The biographies of all Mauritius post office stamps. In: Lieselotte Kugler, Andreas Hahn (Ed.): The Blue Mauritius. The meeting of the queens in Berlin. A publication by the Museum Foundation Post and Telecommunications. Exhibition catalog in German and English, 2011, ISBN 978-3-9813202-1-3 , p. 218 f