Adolf Passer

FRPSL The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as ''The Philatelic Society, London''. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History, at its he ...

(c. 1864 – 14 August 1938) was an Austrian

philatelist Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible ...

and authority on the stamps of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

and the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. A stamp collector from a young age, Passer was able to exploit his professional connections in the shipping industry to expand his collection when he worked in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in the late 1880s. He continued to develop his collection on his return to Austria, joining philatelic societies and winning gold medals for his collection at international exhibitions. He was the organiser of the Vienna Philatelic Exhibition of 1911, for which he was awarded a medal by

Emperor Franz Joseph I Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death in 1916. In the early part of his reig ...

. He wrote a book on the stamps of Bosnia and Herzegovina and another on those of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and Turkey, published by the Royal Philatelic Society, London, in 1938 and regarded at the time as almost the last word on the subject.

Early life and family

Adolf Passer was born in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

around 1864, then in the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

, which three years later would become part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

(Dual Monarchy)."Adolph Passer", ''

The London Philatelist ''The London Philatelist'' was first published in January 1892
by issues of the German states at a fair. He sold his collection on entering compulsory military service in Austria.

Philatelic career

Passer travelled to London in 1885 where he worked in a shipping firm, his interest in philately being rekindled by the opportunities to collect stamps that arose from his employer's business. He was able to acquire many stamps from British colonies in Africa and Australia, and by exchange with professional colleagues, and continued to expand his collection of British colonial stamps when he returned to Prague in 1888. He was elected to the Philatelic Society of London (later the Royal Philatelic Society London) in November 1891 on the proposal of Dr Franz Kalckhoff, president of the Berlin Philatelic Club. Passer sold most of his collection in 1893 when he had just met the woman who would become his wife and he was "more bent on wooing than collecting postage stamps". After his marriage in 1894, he began to collect again, specialising in the stamps of Austria and trying to obtain them in pairs and blocks. He observed that the early stamps of his country were a difficult study due to the numerous

perforation A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...

changes, but cheaper than they should be because so few people understood them. An active exhibitor at and organiser of philatelic exhibitions, Passer won a gold medal at the 1904 exhibition in Berlin for a display of stamps from Austria, Hungary,

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

and Bosnia. He organised the Vienna Philatelic Exhibition 1911, for which he was awarded the '' Goldene Verdienstkreuz mit der Krone'' (Gold Cross of Merit of the Crown) by

. However, his membership of the London society was severed during the First World War, probably during the cull of 11 "

enemy aliens In customary international law, an enemy alien is any alien native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secur ...

" by the society. From the 1920s, Passer increasingly specialised in the stamps of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, becoming known as the "greatest authority" on them and writing a book on the first issue that was published in 1925. In 1927, he published a book on the postage stamps of the provisional Turkish government in Angora (

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

) and in 1930 a work on the stamps of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Among his collection, which at its height was of 63,000 stamps, was an 1863 ''

tête-bêche In philately, ''tête-bêche'' (French language, French for "head-to-tail", lit. "head-to-head") is a joined pair of Postage stamp, stamps in which one is upside-down in relation to the other, produced intentionally or accidentally. Like any pa ...

'' block of 20pa black on yellow tughra stamps of the Ottoman Empire, the first stamps of the empire and of Turkey, which in 2013 was reckoned the largest known multiple of these stamps. The block later entered the Orhan Brandt and Tevfik Kuyaş collections. Passer rejoined the Royal Philatelic Society London in 1931 and was elected a fellow the same year. In 1934, he visited England and gave a display of tughra stamps before the members of the Royal Philatelic Society London for which he received the Tilleard Medal in 1935. His ''

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

'', ''The Stamps of Turkey'', was published by the society in 1938 and was described by them as "monumental" and "very nearly the last word on this extensive and difficult subject."

Death and legacy

Passer died in

Františkovy Lázně Františkovy Lázně (; ) is a spa town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,600 inhabitants. Together with neighbouring Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně, it forms the West Bohemian Spa Triangle. Th ...

(Franzensbad), in what is now the Czech Republic, on 14 August 1938 at the age of 74. He received obituaries in ''The London Philatelist'', and '' Stamp Lover'',''Stamp Lover'', Vol. 31, p. 116. the journal of the National Philatelic Society. In 2013, the auction of the former Kuhut Alanyali collection by David Feldman S.A. in Geneva included many items formerly in the Passer collection.

Books

* ''Die türkischen Postwertzeichen von 1863''. Mit 5 Lichtdrucktafeln, Prague, 1925. * ''Die Briefmarken der provisorischen Türkischen Regierung in Angora''. Die Postmarke, Vienna, 1927. * ''Die Postwertzeichen von Bosnien und der Herzegovina''. Grass, Barth & Comp., Prague, 1930. * ''The Stamps of Turkey''. Royal Philatelic Society, London, 1938. (Edited by J. H. Barron and John Simons)

References

External links