Collection of Moise Behar (1876-1930)

A Philatelic Discovery

This is a story about stamps, a stamp collection and a stamp collector. I have worked in the profession of philately (buying and selling stamps for collectors) for over 25 years. This story illustrates one of the reasons I enjoy what I do.  I wanted to tell this story the way it unfolded for us. I believe it illustrates well "that quiet excitement" , a phrase my old friend and employer Henry Gitner uses in his promotion regarding philately.

At present I am a partner in Romano Auctions  (a family business owned and run by my in-laws) in Tel Aviv. It is a new adventure for me, new company, new country, etc. How a WASP from Minnesota ended up in Israel is another story, perhaps I will tell it in the future.

About 4 months ago I was just getting acquainted with my new position when I received a phone call at home in the evening from my father-in-law, Moshe Romano. He told me he just got a consignment in for the auction which was ‘very special’ from Syria and Lebanon. He wanted me to have a look and give him my thoughts. I have known Moshe a while and could tell he was excited. I was anxious to see what he was talking about.  He and I suffer from a similar love of all things philatelic, the rest of the family thinks we are a bit crazy.

I went to the office the next day. The office is actually a room in the back of a storefront in the Dizengoff Center Mall, a large rambling modern mall with office towers and apartments in the center of the city. 

I have a couple photos:

Interior of one wing of the Dizengoff Mall

Moshe Romano in the front of the store

Moshe was busy with someone when I came in the next morning. He and his wife Mira have run the store (which sells stamp and coin supplies) and the auction for a long time and have a solid reputation. There are a steady stream of people with stamps, coins, banknotes and anything else you can imagine coming and going all day.  It can be a bit like working in ‘Antiques Roadshow’.  

He broke away from what he was doing and told me to sit down in back with 2 old springback albums. He explained that the person who brought it in was the grandson of the original collector who (he thought) worked at the post office somewhere in Syria. The grandson was now in his 70s. I thought to myself, being an experienced and somewhat cynical stamp dealer, ‘ok, the collector was a postal clerk who managed to put a collection together’.  I had seen many such collections in the US, put together in the 30s and 40s , most were mint accumulations worth very little.

I sat down and began to look. There was one large book which seemed to have mostly errors and varieties. I started with that.

What I noticed immediately were pages like this, which I found quite perplexing:

Inverted overprints on miliseme blocks, unlisted anywhere.

I have bought a few French Collections in my day, and had some experience with miliseme pairs (the cross gutter pairs with the plate number in the middle unique to early French stamps) as well as with the usual inverted overprints from Lebanon. (Many tend to be inexpensive, in the $5-$20 range, at least those you normally see) I had not, however, seen anything like this. Errors on the miliseme blocks. I began to slow down, grabbed a catalog, and take a detailed look. 

Then I saw something in an old mount.......

I verified what I thought was the case in the catalog and went out and dragged Moshe back to look at this:

I knew this stamp (Yvert 67a) from watching it in a Kelleher auction in 2012, they has a block of 6 which sold for over $20,000. The stamps catalogue now for 9000 Euros each in Yvert & Tellier for hinged singles. This was a block of 10 which was fresh and never hinged. I pulled up the auction record from the Kelleher sale on line and printed out for Moshe. 

It was exciting, but at this stage we had our doubts that these things were genuine.  As any one who works in the stamp business knows, there have been many fakers and forgers throughout the years. I have also learned that the story told by the seller needs to be taken with a ‘grain of salt’.  You know ‘people say the darndest things’ when they are selling. We both have learned over the years to not get our hopes up or inflate the expectations of the consignor until we were certain.

But…..

There were many other things throughout the book which defied the logic that a postal clerk would have them. Furthermore, we couldn’t see how they could be faked. 

Like this:

Top row with no perforations on 3 sides.

And these types of things:

Paperfolds during overprinting caused many interesting errors

Paperfold during perforating caused this error.

OK you get the idea.  There were so many things in this album which were unusual that it was overwhelming at first viewing. We decided to get some expert advice.  We could not ignore the expensive 67a block and some of the key  and seemingly unique items in the collection. We knew from experience no one would pay the proper price without the comfort of an expert’s signature. 

I got on the phone and inquired who would be the best expert in France Colonies overprints. It is important that rarities be expertised by the right person. We decided at this point to use Jean Francois Brun in Paris. We decided the company should bear the expense and Moshe and Mira should take a few key items to Paris to have them expertised by Brun. I had some commitments in the US. We decide not to do anything further until June when we both returned to Israel.

About a month later we all got back to the office and compared notes. I had managed to research a few things while traveling and we talked about strategy for selling the lot. The trip to Paris had been instructive. Brun signed as genuine each stamp on the expensive 67a block  and signed the imperf on 3 sides Merson items, saying he had never heard of them before. He also signed some “PIASRTES” instead of “PIASTRES” Merson errors. 

There were a couple other things he said “could not (or do not) exist like this”. These items caused us some consternation about the collection as a whole. After all, our main mission was to represent it correctly and sell it. We discussed whether it might make sense to sell the errors as collections, leaving the responsibility of authenticity on the buyer. When we sell things as individual lots, the company stands behind each lot as genuine. When things are sold as collections they are 'as is'. The sheer volume of material made individual expertisation prohibitive, both in money and time.

Moshe called the consignor and asked him to come in so we could update him. He also asked more questions about the original collector, and if he had found any more material. The consignor he said he would look for more stamps and thought he had some documents about his grandfather’s work at the post office.  Moshe told him to bring them and any old envelopes, etc. or anything else he had a question about.

When the gentleman arrived at the office I was relieved to learn that he was fluent in English. He had found an additional key album of the “normal stamps” (without any errors) from the area, in singles and blocks of 4. Getting the story directly from him with the photos and paperwork he provided gave us a much clearer picture of who this collector was and how he managed to put together such a collection. We made a trip to the consignors home the following day to get more information, look at more family documents, and see if there was any additional material.
What follows is my synopsis of the collector, Moise Behar:

Moise Behar (left) with his father, sister and brother in Adana, 1890's

The short story is this:  Moise Behar was born into a Turkish Jewish family in Adana in 1876. He left Turkey for Beirut after the turn of the century. There is little documentation of his early days in Beirut other than his travel document, which listed his occupation as 'banker'. There were some documents regarding early investments he made, including a couple French bonds for the Panama Canal. Indications are from letters addressed to him that he worked with the Ottoman Post in Beirut in 1915.  WWI arrived in the middle east and there was nothing we could see about him from that time. The government changed from Turkish to French at the end of the war. 

Solid documentation puts him with with the Haut Commisariat (High Commission) in the (occupying) French Department of Postes in finance and accounting office in Beirut from 1920-1930. This is when he assembled the collection. In 1930 he was able to get a full pension for health reasons and came to Eretz Israel (then British Palestine) He died that year, in 1930, and is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetary in Tel Aviv. There is some memory in the family of Behar's widow taking some of the collection to Europe in the 1960's or 70's to try and sell it. No other details are known about the trip but that she returned with the stamps. Otherwise the collection has basically been sitting with family in Tel Aviv for the 83 years since then.

Here is some of the documentation......

Behar's Business Card in Beirut

Photo of Moise Behar in Beirut, 1920s

Document from the Inspector General verifying service and pension.

The Collection

Behar loved blocks with margins, he tried to get everything that way.  In the errors he seemed to like blocks of 6 or 8,  In errors occurring in only one position in a sheet he tried to get it in different blocks showing exactly where it occurred in the sheet. The miliseme pairs he tried to get with a second pair attached. He got these for almost everything including the unissued stamps, and if an inverted  or double overprint exists, he got a milseme block of 4 for himself. How he got these things for his personal collection is anybody’s guess. But he definitely had the access to put together something comprehensive over a 10 year period. There is actually very little duplication in the collection. The number of multiples showing errors from different viewpoints makes it seem overwhelming.

There are so many things which are rare and/or unique in this lot that we decided to break it up and tell the story.  In the second set of books the grandson brought was a fairly comprehensive collection of “normal stamp” blocks of 4 and singles including the first and second TEO overprints, Magenta boxed ‘POSTE PAR AVION’   PA1-8,  and the black and red 1920-21 Fleurons d’ Alep overprints. It was interesting to me that he did not have errors in these, the double and 2 color overprints listed by Yvert, perhaps because these were done in Aleppo and he was in Beirut.

Business

  

To us the questions regarding authenticity were put to rest by the trip to Paris and the now well- documented provenance of the collection. We decided to include a document signed by us with each lot sold which pictures and describes the item. Not the usual certificate of authenticity per se, but a statement of provenance for the buyer stating that it came from the Moise Behar Collection assembled in Beirut from 1920-30. If anyone wishes to get further expertisation at their expense that is fine, we are standing behind the stamps as genuine. 

The statement of provenance will look like this:

The consignor had always been clear that he wanted to auction the collection, not sell it. How to do so and get the word out to the right people became the challenge.  I enjoy this type of challenge and set to work trying to create auction lots which would make sense to people and give opportunities to dealers and collectors alike who wished to participate. 

We made our estimates based on a realistic assessment of the current market, but decided, as a collection  this comprehensive can have an effect on prices, to start the lots at half the low estimate or less.  What follows are a few examples from the 200+ auction lots that the collection became. The descriptions underneath the lot are pulled from the catalogue, which will be online soon at www.romanoauctions.com.

If a set made sense I left it in a set:

1923 Yvert # PA14a-PA17a, Syria French Occupation Airmail set 'O.M.F. Poste par Avion Syrie - Grand Liban' 2-6 piastres to 40 centimes to 2 francs Merson. A complete set of the OVERPRINT ERROR Liabn" In blocks of 4 (with 3 normal stamps in each block) very rare and hard to find, as only 30 sets were printed. Extraordinarily fresh, hinged (Maury 14-17KW). Catalog Price. €4080 for singles. Estimate $1000-2000 

Where a single item was special I put as a lot, the NH singles were taken from blocks of 6 or 8, we decided that blocks of 4 would suffice and people may want singles:

1924 Yvert # 3A, GRAND LIBAN 50 C. on 10c red Sowers instead on 10c. green, French Mandate in Greater Lebanon, Unissued Value - NH. CV 280 euros. Fresh and obviously under-catalogued, as sold at ROUMET #533 for € 355.00, Estimate $250-400

Of course if he had the stamp the miliseme block began to seem inevitable, he obviously was enamored with these, many of the errors in these blocks are likely unique:

1924 Yvert # 3A, GRAND LIBAN 50 C. on 10c red Sowers instead on 10c. green, French Mandate in Greater Lebanon, Unissued Value- NH., miliseme gutter block of 4NH. Catalog €1000 as singles. Mil. block unlisted. Rarity. Estimate $800-$1200. 

Behar didn't stop with the overprints on French stamps. He followed the same pattern of acquisition (single, margin block of 4, blocks of 6 or larger on the errors) right up until he left for Tel Aviv in 1930.  He also indulged his desire to get different 'points of view' to show the position of the error in the sheet. The errors and varieties on the later issues include some of the "recto/verso" errors, with the entire overprint on the front and back of the stamp (on the gum). Also unlisted or unissued overprints, etc.  A few examples:

1926 Yvert # PA18a,+PA18 Airmail Greater Lebanon Secous aux Refugies  2pi on 3pi brown in multiple (5) showing the variety "missing 2 in overprint" Great postion piece. NH with minor toning spots. A pair with this variety sold for E529 in Roumet Sale #533, block of 10 sold for E975.  YT cv €1290. Estimate $500-$800.

They are the same error but you can see how he wanted to show the error from the bottom of the sheet as well as get his usual block of 6.

1925 Yvert #7a, Airmails Overprinted ALAOUITES and vertically with AVION in green 5pi violet - Overprints on Grand Liban instead of on Syrian stamps(Alaouites n° 7a ** superbe erreur surcharge sur timbre du Grand Liban) left sheet's margins( two corners) block of 10, Thin in selvedge, all stamps fresh and NH. YT cv €3900. Estimate $800-$1200. 

In conclusion, the few albums that have been residing with the collectors descendants in Tel Aviv for 83 years are now 250 auction lots in Romano Auctions Sale #30. The lots range in (start) prices from $30-$15,000. We believe it is the most comprehensive offering of this type of material ever, made more exciting by the fact that these stamps have never been offered in the philatelic world. Anyone with further questions or who would like to receive a printed catalog please email me or contact us through the web site. (www.romanoauctions.com) 

I decided to append a short history of the area post WW 1. These are simply cut and pasted from wikipedia, and much more detailed information is available. It does give a good framework for these stamp issuing entities during the time this material was issued and collected (1920-30) :

SYRIA

Syria) (French: Mandat français pour la Syrie et le Liban, Arabic: الانتداب الفرنسي في سوريا و لبنان al-Intidab al-Firansi fi Suriya wa Lubnan‎) was a League of Nations mandate founded after the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.

During the two years that followed the end of the war in 1918 – and in accordance with the Sykes-Picot Agreement that was signed between Britain and France during the war – the British held control of most Ottoman Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and the southern part of the Ottoman Syria(Palestine and Jordan), while the French controlled the rest of Ottoman Syria (modern Syria,Lebanon, Alexandretta) and other portions of southeastern Turkey. In early 1920s, the British and French control of these territories became formalized by the League of Nations' mandate system, and France was assigned the mandate of Syria on 29 September 1923, which included the territory of present day Lebanon and Alexandretta (Hatay) in addition to Syria proper.

The administration of the region under the French was carried out through a number of different territories including the Syrian Federation (1922–24), the State of Syria (1924–1930) and theSyrian Republic (from 1930) as well as the smaller states of the State of Greater Lebanon, theAlawite State and Jabal ad-Druze (state).

LEBANON

The state of Greater Lebanon, the predecessor of modern Lebanon, was created in 1920 as part of the French scheme of dividing the French Mandate of Syria into six states.

The French Mandate for Syria was a League of Nations Mandate created at the end of World War I. When the Ottoman Empire was formally split up by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, it was decided that four of its territories in the Middle East should be League of Nations mandates temporarily governed by the United Kingdom and France on behalf of the League. The British were given Palestine and Iraq, while the French were given a mandate over Syria, of which Lebanon was a part.

On September 1, 1920, General Gouraud proclaimed the establishment of State of Greater Lebanon (Arabic: دولة لبنان الكبير‎ Dawlat Lubnan Al-Kabir; French: État du Grand Liban) with its present boundaries and with Beirut as its capital.^[1] The newterritory was granted a flag, merging the French flag with the Lebanese cedar.

ALAOUITES

The State of Alawites (French: État des Alaouites; Arabic: دولة العلويين) was located on the Syrian coast and incorporated a majority ofAlawites, a branch of Shia Islam. The port city of Latakia was the capital of this state. Initially it was an autonomous territory under French rule known as the "Alawite Territories". It became part of the Syrian Federation in 1922, but left the federation again in 1924 and became the "State of Alawites". On 22 September 1930, it was renamed the "Independent Government of Latakia". The population at this time was 278,000. The government of Latakia finally joined the Syrian Republic on 5 December 1936.

CILICIA

From December 1918 to October 1921, after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the French controlled Cilicia. According to the Treaty of Sèvres signed in 1920, Cilicia was to become an independent Armenian state under French Authority. That treaty had never gone into effect because of the Turkish War of Independence. Measures were taken to repopulate the region with Armenians. More than 170,000 refugees, the majority of whom originated from Cilicia, were to be taken back to their homes by the French and British.^[36] The Armenians formed the Armenian National Union which acted as an unofficial Cilician Armenian government composed of the four major political parties and three Armenian religious denominations.^[37] However, rivalries between the French and British, andKemalist incursions shattered Armenian aspirations for an autonomous Cilicia. On October 21, 1921, France signed the Treaty of Ankara with the Kemalist revolutionaries and relinquished Cilicia to Turkey.^[36]