A first impression ...
19.000 pounds (yes - unbelievable 9.500 kilograms) arrived here in Germany with the challenge to find a new good home for an estate with an incredible collection and holding of arabic philatelie starting about 1840 till 2013 (so over 170 years spanning fascinating philatelic story of that area) including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morokko, Jordan and Trans-Jordan, Yemen, Holyland, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Persia, Tunisia, Fezzan, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Aden, Ajman, Bahrain, Dubai, Fujairah, Kuwait, Ras al-Khaimah, Oman, Qatar, Sharjah, Umm al-Quwain and some others more.
In over 40 years the collector accumulated worldwide what he could get. He had a lot of plans to "play" with it after he retired but he died too young and too early. He was a good customer of us (and many auction houses all over the globe from America to Asia and specialized dealers). A lot of good stuff he also bought at auctions in Switzerland.
He was a successful businessmen and run own companies - so he had the liquidity to buy most of the material he wanted. And he bought not only one - he often bought many similar and also hundreds of collections to improve his collection. Some would say he bought "like a vacuum cleaner".
So over the decades he spent millions and millions of dollars. He bought not only single stamps and covers - sometimes he bought full sheets till original packages from the post offices. While he had a lot of business in the Arabic countries he often bought "directly from the source". All the material was stored carefully in a luxury home with air condition and humidity control - so the condition is really good.
If you ask about catalogue value: it is very hard to guess - but we think the catalogue value is far beyond 100 Million Euros. More precisely we can answer the question about the numbers of albums, etc. We counted 1.624 albums, 629 smaller and medium boxes, 247 big huge plastic trunks, 170 original post office packets, 90 large folders and more boxes, etc.
Where is it stored and available for viewing:
Two rooms full at the top floor (next to Mr. Gärtners personal office) at our premises in Bietigheim-Bissingen and 2 big huge archival rooms with full glasfront in the famous Castletown Ludwigsburg only 10 minutes away from our main office. So viewing with good light is no problem.
Thinking of transportation questions:
As potential buyer you may think how to get it to you. Here is the answer: If requested from the potential buyer we would (after payment) pack all the material under our costs and ship it free (under our cost) to any destination in the world. WE WILL PAY THE PACKING; SHIPPING AND INSURANCE COSTS - so only if there are any customs fees to bring it into the country are on the buyer’s side.
In this collection there are hundreds of Specialty albums - the result of at least four decades of dedicated collecting by one of those rare individuals who set out to complete the Arabic world, virtually every country is represented for the years stamps were issued up to the end- 20th century.
There are tens of thousands of unused and used stamps carefully mounted with hinges or in hingeless mounts. All Arabic countries and thousands of completely filled pages are contained in this massive collection, which is offered intact. It is impossible to describe every significant item in this collection, but the following overview will convey the “flavor” of the collection, as well as the scope and depth of representation.
In hundreds of albums, not only did the collector try to obtain a single example of every stamp, he also augmented the collection nicely with varieties (including shades on early stamps), imperforate pairs, proofs, blocks (including plate blocks), and many covers, the early issues are starting mint and used, later issues are mostly mint (some stamps are present both ways), including many high cataloguing stamps. Without any doubt, this is one of the largest collection and one of the most important stocks of Arabian countries that has been brought together in the last forty years.
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