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The La Fayette Collection of French Classics - the biggest stamp auction in France for 70 years

Initial impressions from Tim Hirsch, Chairman of Spink Collectables
"This collection is remarkable for its focus on quality and rarity"

When I boarded the 8.28am Eurostar at Waterloo bound for Paris and the House of Behr on the Avenue de l’Opera on the 9 June I was filled with a sense of trepidation and immense excitement; trepidation because my knowledge of Classic France is somewhat limited to having read the relevant books, the Yvert et Tellier specialised catalogue and of course past auction catalogues on the subject; and immense excitement at the prospect of physically examining closely for the first time the La Fayette Collection on its exhibition pages prior to being broken and described for auction.

Naturally, I had viewed a number of the pieces at past exhibitions but this is not the same as physically holding the pages in one’s hands and examining each item closely.

Pascal Behr was awaiting my arrival and over the next four hours we examined and discussed this phenomenal collection page by page. Pascal, and of course his father Bernard, know the collection with an expert intimacy, the House of Behr having handled many of these rarities over several decades.

My first impression, the collection is remarkable for its focus on quality and rarity; my second impression, this will be first time that there will be a public auction of one of the most important collections of French Classics ever formed and finally the auction will take place in its rightful home, Paris.

There have of course, been public auctions of important French Classics such as Ferrari and Burrus over the last eighty years or so but nothing to compare with the La Fayette Collection.

Now to the collection itself. Sitting down with Pascal reviewing the individual pieces my thoughts strayed to the long held belief that if you want to form a Grand Prix collection of any country you must be able to obtain at least twelve of the top twenty rarities of the country concerned before making an attempt. One must also be aware of where the remaining pieces are and, most importantly, when they may appear, if ever, on the market. The La Fayette collection does more than fulfil this criteria.

Back at Southampton Row, Spink’s London base, Graham Carey and I have now completed the English descriptions of the La Fayette collection, following on from Pascal Behr’s French renditions.

There are 129 lots in the sale, some 123 of French Classic ‘varieties’ and some 6 lots from the ‘Colonies Générales’.

The first 17 lots take us from the 1849/50 10c to the 40c value, with all the tête-bêches unused, used and on cover including the wonderful cover front bearing the unique 15c tête-bêche pair. One could argue this is the second most important piece in the collection and indeed French philately as a whole (lot 7) after the 1fr tête-bêche in a block of four (lot 50). This piece was certainly considered so by Hillmar and Hubbard when Hillmar owned both pieces. The 15c tête-bêche has always been undervalued by French collectors. In this section I would also like to note the corner strip of the 40c (lot 15) showing the retouched wide '4' - unique and superb in all respects.

The next 66 lots are devoted to the 1fr. Where to start? The 1fr. tête-bêche in a block of four (lot 50) needs no introduction. Placed at No. 8 in Dr Hubbard’s Aristocrats of Philately, it is without a doubt a world rarity. As is the 1fr. ‘Vervelle’ block with tête-bêche (lot 83), in a way the companion piece. The whole section is replete with rarities, including outstanding usages on cover too numerous to mention in this short article. Before moving on I would like to note three further ‘stamp’ pieces. Firstly lot 39, the unique bisect circular which is just extraordinary, secondly the unused marginal strip of three with fascinating contemporary ink notations in the margin which surely must lend itself to further research (lot 40) and finally the unbelievably superb 1fr 'terne estrusque' strip of three with tête-bêche (lot 80). Following the 1fr section, one can settle down to the final portion of the sale which starts with the superb corner block of ten of the 20c with tête-bêche pieces. Covers are abundant including the 1853/60 20c block of thirty – the most spectacular and largest block of three recorded of the variety (lot 87). The 80c unique unused tête-bêche (lot 90), discovered by Champion in the early 1930’s, is included as is the Champion/Ballat famous unused strip of three with tête-bêche (lot 92).

Finally the small ‘Colonies’ section closes the sale and here one finds the unique unused 10c tête-bêche, one of the very few items I have viewed prior to handling the La Fayette Collection, having examined it at the Sotheby’s London sale in the 1980’s and admired it then, as I do now.

The Sale of the La Fayette Collection of French Classics will be held at the Hotel Grand Intercontinental on Monday 17 November 2003. Catalogues will be available soft and hardbound from October 2003.

More information about this prestigious collection will shortly be available on these pages - in the meantime, you may find our recent press release of interest.