Press Release 8 December 2005

FRENCH PHILATELY CREATES BIDDING FRENZY IN LONDON

The Château Ramezay Collection sold at Spink today for a total of £313,000 with lots selling for as much as ten times their estimates. There was great excitement in the saleroom as collectors and dealers from around the globe were eager to walk away with at least one piece from the 140 lots offered from the Collection.

The Ramezay Collection featured a number of exquisite Boule de Moulins covers, quite possibly one of the largest and finest collections seen at auction with no less than 29 examples detailing the postal service undertaken during the Siege of Paris by the Prussian Army. Mail for besieged Paris was placed inside zinc circular containers at Moulins Sur Allier, collected and placed in the Seine which led them downstream towards Paris. Not every Boule arrived safely which would mean 500 to 800 letters contained within never reaching their intended destination. Condition of the letters due to excess of time, water and thin paper required due to 4 gram weight tariff is normally very poor, which makes the lots offered at Spink so remarkable as their condition is excellent. Many lots sold today had not been seen on the Philatelic Market for 40 years.

Highlights included:

History of The Château Ramezay

In May 1642, some forty French settlers led by Paul de Chomeday de Malsonneuve landed on the shores of Montreal. Their arrival marked the birth of Ville Marie now known as Montreal. By the early 1700s it consisted of little more than 150 houses accommodating a population of approximately 1500.

In May 1704, the commander of the colony’s troops, Claude de Ramezay, was appointed Governor of Montreal. In the Spring of 1705, Ramezay hired master mason and architect, Pierre Couturier, to build his home, which was completed in the Spring of 1706. Since Ramezay’s death in July 1724 the Château has been used variously by the Intendant of New France, the Compagnie des Indes, the American Revolutionary Army, as their Headquarters (1775-1776), Governors General of the British Colony and civil servants.

In 1893, the government no longer needed the building and decided to sell it by auction. Faced with the threat of seeing the Château demolished, the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Montreal roused a public outcry of people concerned with the preservation of their heritage. As a result, the City of Montreal intervened and acquired the property. The society rented the property and agreed to establish in it a museum, portrait gallery and library, which opened in 1895. In 1929, the City of Montreal agreed to cede the property to the Antiquarian Society, in exchange for 10,000 volumes from its collection, and within weeks the building was declared a historic monument by the Quebec Historic Monument Commission.

Since first opening its doors, the Château Ramezay Museum has organized a host of cultural and educational activities and welcomed millions of visitors.

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