Philip of Ferrary

Philip of Ferrary

Philipp la Renotière von Ferrary (born January 11, 1850 in Paris , † May 20, 1917 in Lausanne ) was one of the most famous philatelists worldwide and owner of what is probably the largest and most valuable stamp collection that has ever existed.

His real name was Marchese de'Ferrari, Duke of Galliera (French: Gallière ), Prince of Lucedio , he called himself only Baron von Ferrary . He used the pseudonym Philipp von Ferrary on his business card , so most collectors only know him by this name. In the end he called himself Philipp Arnold .

Life

Childhood and youth

Philipp von Ferrary was born on January 11, 1850 in Paris to a very wealthy family. His father was the Marchese Raffaele de'Ferrari, Duke of Galliera, Prince of Lucedio, his mother the patroness Maria Brignole Sale De Ferrari . It was also rumored that he came from a love affair between his mother and an Austrian officer, Emanuel La Renotiere, by whom he was adopted in 1886. He must have fallen out with his genealogical father because of his homosexuality, La Renotiere also adopted his childhood friend Eduard Boulenger.

As a child he was very interested in collecting stamps . Through inheritances from his relatives in Italy, who had come to immense prosperity through financial transactions and railway speculation, but especially shares in the Suez Canal, he had a large fortune, he was considered one of the richest Europeans of his time. This enabled him to acquire rarities from philately from all over the world even in his youth .

Collectors and patrons

Ferrary began to travel extensively to look for missing pieces in his collection. His own servants drove him to all the well-known stamp dealers in the world and found new, interesting offers.

For Ferrary, the price of his "treasures" was secondary because of his financial situation. The philatelist usually paid for his latest acquisitions on the spot in gold, which word got around from numerous dealers and counterfeiters . Scammers tried to sell their best fakes to Ferrary. The ironic term Ferrarities was coined for counterfeits that were specially made to offer them to Ferrary as a special rarity . Although Philipp von Ferrary mostly recognized them, he bought the most successful fakes to protect other collectors from them.

Ferrary kept his collection in Paris. He hired the prestigious Parisian stamp dealer Pierre Mahé to examine, catalog and store the pieces in his collection. Philipp von Ferrary had his own stamp room set up with numerous lockers for this purpose.

Philipp von Ferrary owned almost all the rarities known at the time. Over time, his collection included not only seven different copies of the famous red and blue Mauritius stamps , but also the two valuable unique items, the Tre Skilling Banco misprint and the British Guiana 1 ¢ magenta . Ferrary was closely connected to the Viennese philatelist Sigmund Friedl , who had become famous as a forger ( Zinnoberroter Merkur ), but also worked as a consultant for Ferrary.

In the course of his life, Ferrary renounced the use of his nobility titles and only appeared as Philipp von Ferrary , he avoided luxury, but on the other hand was known for his generosity and willingness to donate. He was a great patron and lover of the Attersee region in the Salzkammergut , where he appeared in worn-out clothing and fitted himself into village life. Later he also called himself Philipp Arnold in memory of his intimate friend Albert Arnold Fillatraud. He is buried under this name.

War and death

On his travels, Ferrary made numerous contacts in Austria and Germany . He was very fond of these two countries. He became an Austrian citizen , but continued to live in France. When he saw his unique collection almost complete, he wanted to make it available to the public. He decided not to do this in France but in Berlin and therefore bequeathed his collection to the Reichspostmuseum in Berlin on January 30, 1915 , including 30,000 guilders for maintenance and further expansion.

During the First World War , he had to flee to Switzerland as an Austrian and therefore hostile citizen in 1917 . He could not take his collection with him and left it in the care of the Austrian embassy . A year before the end of the war, on May 20, 1917, Ferrary died in Lausanne . He found his final resting place in Steinbach am Attersee in Austria.

Dispersal of the collections

After the war, France claimed the collection as part of the reparations payments from defeated Austria and had it auctioned. In 14 auctions organized by the French government between 1921 and 1926, it brought in a total of 30 million French francs. The individual collectibles were sold all over the world. Ferrary's numismatic collection was auctioned from March 27 to 31, 1922 at Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in London. His name was not mentioned in the catalog, which appeared under the title Catalog 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 catalog comprised 710 lots with 15 photo panels. The coins from France and other territories were auctioned in Paris.

Honors and afterlife

• 1968 Postage stamp of the Principality of Liechtenstein ( Michel no. 504) with a portrait of Ferrary in the phrase “Pioneers of Philately”.

Honorary citizenships:

• in Steinbach am Attersee : He was a regular summer guest at the Hotel Post in Weißenbach . He was buried at the Steinbach cemetery at his own request. Because the grave was abandoned, a marble plaque at the entrance to the parish church indicates it (under the pseudonym Philipp Arnold ).
• in Unterach am Attersee : in addition to Steinbach, Ferrary also bequeathed a large sum of money to this community.
• in Schellenberg in the Principality of Liechtenstein : Ferrary donated 1000 crowns to the community for the poor fund, after which the community citizens granted him honorary citizenship in 1899.

Buildings:

• Villa Friedle (Ferrary) in Burgbachau , a district of Sankt Gilgen : Ferrary donated this property to his philatelist friend in the early 1890s, and he also financed the rebuilding after a fire in 1906.
• Ferrary Chapel : In Burgbachau, in 1891, he also had a votive chapel built for rescue from mountain distress.

literature

• Wolfgang Maassen: The mysterious Philipp von Ferrari , Phil Creativ, Schwalmtal 2017, ISBN 978-3-932198-06-9
• Wolfgang Maassen: Philipp von Ferrari - a Short Biography. (Continuation Article) In: The Philatelic Journalist , No. 153 to 154 from 2017
• Peter J. Bohr: The stamp king. The life novel Philipp Arnold from Ferraris. , 3rd edition, Verlag Helwig, approx. 1982.
• The World's Greatest Stamp Collectors. Fell Publishers, Inc., Hollywood, Florida, ISBN 0-8119-0668-X , pp. 20-50.
• Carlrichard Brühl: History of Philately , Volume 1, Hildesheim et al., Olms 1985. ISBN 3-487-07619-5 , pp. 169-203.
• Wolfgang Jakubek: Knaurs stamp book. The whole world of philately. Publisher: Droemer Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1976, ISBN 3-426-02244-3 , pp. 255-257.
• L. Flimmerstad: The Yellow Treskilling (German edition), Stockholm 2005, ISBN 91-975456-0-0 , p. 48 ff.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} According to Philipp von Ferrary. In: Atter Wiki (accessed April 19, 2017).
2. ↑ Cornelius Goop: Rich and famous Schellenberger . In: Schellenberg My Magazine . Schellenberg July 2020, p. 34-37 ( gmgnet.li ).