Monday, November 29, 2010

Book : The Emergence of the Railway in Britain

  
  • Title : The Emergence of the Railway in Britain, Scripophily Library Nr. 2
  • Authors : Udo Hielscher
  • ID: ISBN 0-9511250-4-4, published by International Bond & Share Society, 2001
  • Languages : English
  • Number of pages : 32
  • Images : black and white, almost on every page and often more than 1 per page
  • Indexes : 1. bibliography, 2. index on company names

This booklet describes the early railway history of Great Britain. Illustrated with early certificates from railway, canal and even turnpike companies.

Chapters

  1. The technical, demographic and financial background
  2. Developments in antiquity
  3. Britain's transport before the railways
  4. The technological revolution
  5. The role of the Stockton and Darlington railway
  6. The Liverpool and Manchester railway
  7. The growth of the nationwide railway system
  8. British railway scripophily
I will occasionally briefly describe a reference book or catalogue in my postings.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Ilha Formosa

With more than 165 mountains over 3000 metres above sea level, Taiwan is one of the most mountainous islands. In the 16th century, the Portuguese named the island "Ilha Formosa", meaning "Beautiful Island". Most of Taiwan's population lives in the plains in the west.

share certificate of the Taiwan Industries company
Red seals on the left, a Japanese style embossed seal at right upper corner
click image for details

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Fencing in Soerabaya

Fencing is a very uncommon topic in scripophily. This share was issued in 1897 for the establishment of a gymnastics and fencing school in Soerabaya, now the capital of the province of East Java. Under Dutch colonial government, Soerabaya became a major trading center, competing with Singapore, and hosted the largest naval base in the Dutch East Indies.
Share of the Gijmnastiek en Schermschool in Soerabay
Maatschappij tot exploitatie van een gebouw ingericht voor gijmnastiek en schermschool
English: Company for the exploitation of a building fitted for a gymnastics and fencing school

Modern fencing evolved from the methods taught at the Ecole Française d'Escrime, founded in 1567. This explains also the origins of the french fencing terminology still in use. Fencing has been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games since 1896. The organization of world cup competitions and Olympic fencing is the responsability of the french Fédération Internationale d'Escrime, founded in 1913.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Uncharted - American engraver Wallace

Who can provide me some information about the American engraver Wallace ?
Any kind of information is fine (date of birth, other engravings, ...).


This beautiful vignette, engraved by Wallace, is one of two vignettes on a share certificate from the Richardson's Centennial Farm Gate company (patented Sep 5th, 1876).  The share was issued in 1883 and is signed by Richardson.
Click images for more detail.
 


Sunday, November 7, 2010

A better alternative for emailing large images



Société Minière Intercoloniale
1945, Berberati, French Equatorial Africa
rough diamond in underprint
(click image for details)
 
Suppose you want to email someone a high resolution scan of this certificate. Creating high resolution images of your beautiful certificates can result in large files.
However, emailing these files to others may result in the following problems : 
  1. Once the image is sent, your email program stores a copy in the Sent folder which becomes larger and larger.
  2. The receiver may experience long download times when receiving his e-mails just at a moment where he or she probably quickly wants to get his emails. 
  3. The receiver might be out of the office for a few days. In that case, your images could fill up his emailbox, preventing him from not receiving any further emails.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Reference catalogue : China's Foreign Debt 1865-1982

                                                 

front cover of the Kuhlmann catalogue on foreign bonds for China
  • Title : China's Foreign Debt 1865-1982 (Excluding the debt of the ROC Taiwan)
  • Authors : Wilhelm Kuhlmann
  • ID: ISBN 0-9610400-0-9, published by Wilhelm Kuhlmann, 1983
  • Languages : English
  • Number of pages : 131
  • Images : mostly in black and white, a few in color, almost on every page and often more than 1 per page
  • Indexes : no index, but certificates of bonds are ordered by date of issue
This catalogue describes bonds issued for financing China's debt, including development loans, debt reorganization and many railway construction loans.

F.L.