David Feldman - The Joseph Chalhoub Collection of Egypt I. Commemoratives Monday, December 3, 2018, at 13:00 CET

Joseph Chalhoub developed an interest in collecting Egyptian stamps at an early age. His father used to bring him large volumes of stamps cut from correspondence received at his firm. Joe, with the occasional help of his sisters, used to soak the pieces of envelopes in the bathtub to remove the stamps. He would then dry them and prepare bundles of 100 stamps, which he took to a stamp dealer by the name of Michel Hagopian, in Cairo’s city centre. He would exchange these bundles for higher value stamps, using also his allowance to further augment his collection. This early experience developed the love of stamp collecting and gave him an early flavour for business dealing. In his late teenage years, he stopped collecting stamps as he prepared to emigrate to Montreal, Canada, which he did at the age of 19 in 1965. As he graduated from University in 1968, he considered selling his collection. Coincidently, Mr. Hagopian, had also emigrated to Canada and had a small store in Montréal. Joe visited him and offered to sell his collection, but the stamp dealer suggested that he keep his collection as the market was poor for Egyptian stamps; Joe decided to keep it. He reactivated his hobby about 20 years later. His initial contact was with Peter Feltus, a stamp dealer and collector from Berkeley, California. Initially, he filled all the gaps he had in his basic collection based on the US Scott Catalogue. Peter introduced Joe to the Zeheri catalogue and prominent stamp collectors Peter S Smith and Charles F Hass. Joe then discovered the vast domain of Egyptian Philately. He was fascinated with the scope and rarities of the Royal Collection of Egypt. He quickly developed good friendship with all three collectors. His first love of Egyptian philately was centered around the Royal Collection material, such as proofs on card, “cancelled” on reverse, colour trials, imperforate, oblique perforated stamps and other varieties. He was determined to build a vast collection of unique material auctioned at the Koubbeh Palace in 1954 after the overthrowing of King Farouk of Egypt. With a laser focus, he was successful in achieving his objective in the 1990s. Three important people played a major role in helping him meet it: Dr. Abdallah Mishrik, a prominent surgeon and collector who lived in Garden City, New York, who offered his collection of sheetlets; Clyde Feigenbaum, a former Chairman of Stanley Gibbons, who had obtained a complete set of oblique perforation stamps that were issued for the Palace, and Vahan Andonian, a chemist who lived in a humble way, but was never hesitant in spending top dollar to acquire unique or rare essays or proofs, and who had, by far, the best essay collection ever formed and key “cancelled” on reverse and other important varieties. It took Joe a very long time to understand the postal history of Egypt. Egyptian collectors were lucky to have had the resources of Professor Peter S. Smith, a researcher and a chemistry teacher at the University of Michigan. His research mind and love for Egyptian stamp collecting has rewarded us with a terrific book in which he shared his research and knowledge regarding the postal history of Egypt. Joe met Peter in the fall of 1989 together with Charlie Hass and Peter Feltus in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, during a stamp exhibition. Early in his stamp collecting, Joe Chalhoub had also focused on King Fouad, Young King Farouk, Farouk Military, King of Egypt & Sudan overprints and the 3-bars overprint issues. These areas have become very popular today. In the early 1990s, Joe had the opportunity to purchase the Lars Alund collection, offered by Argyll Etkin, a stamp dealer based in London. The collection contained some postal history and, at that time, he was not able to properly evaluate it. He called Peter Smith and asked him if he would be willing to join him to evaluate the collection. They met in New York City and he was lucky to purchase the Alund collection as it had several treasures. Over the years, Peter was generous with his time and coached Joe in his postal history knowledge. As he advanced in age, he was requested by several people to sell or auction his collection. He remained firm about not selling until a short period before his death, when he informed Joe of his change of plans. Joe visited him and Peter shared his specific strategy to auction his collection. It is unfortunate that he did not live long enough to see the high level of interest by many Egyptian stamp collectors and dealers. Peter Smith’s collection contained treasures in many aspects of Egyptian Philately. The total hammer price was approximately four times the estimate. He would have been very pleased to see how popular his postal history material was. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Joe spent several years putting together the stamp catalogue “The Nile Post Handbook and Catalogue of Egyptian Stamps”, for which he sought the knowledge and expertise of several collectors. One person that he would like to recognise is Charles F. Hass, who loves Egypt philately, particularly stamps that are overprinted. He helped greatly in developing The Nile Post. Joe also learned a lot from him in postal stationery, officials, Palestine overprinted stamps, 3-bar overprints, French Post Office stamps in Alexandria and Port Said, crown overprints, and all areas related to overprinted stamps of Egypt. During these years, they spent plenty of time together and Joe developed an interest in building his collection of Egyptian Stamps in these areas. As the years went by, he expanded the scope of his collection to include booklet stamps, Postage Due, Airmail, the Suez Canal, and pre-stamp material. Over the last 30 years he has collected every aspect of Egyptian Philately. David Feldman, S.A. has agreed to publish under their GPC (Grand Philatelic Collections) programme, a series of volumes to represent the vast scope of the above collections. The first volume, from which some of its items constitute this auction ctalogue, presents the Commemoratives of the Monarchy period (see page 119 for a list of the books already published and those soon to be published.) The Joseph Chalhoub Collections of Egypt