Maurice Burrus

Maurice Jean Marie Burrus (8 March 1882 – 5 December 1959)[1] was an Alsatian tobacco magnate, politician and philatelist. Originally from Alsace but residing in Switzerland, he was a deputy in the French parliament during the 1930s. His stamp collection was considered one of the greatest ever assembled and included some of the world's rarest stamps.

Maurice Burrus
Born
Maurice Jean Marie Burrus

March 8, 1882
Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines
DiedDecember 5, 1959(1959-12-05) (aged 77)
Lausanne
NationalityFrench
OccupationTobacco magnate
Known forStamp collection

Early life

Maurice Burrus was born in Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines on March 8, 1882, to a family of tobacco industrialists. The family was based in the Alsace area, where they owned a chateau named after themselves. The family moved to Switzerland after the French government created a monopoly on the manufacture of tobacco products under Napoleonic laws.[2]

He was educated at Dole, in the Collège Stanislas de Paris and later in Hanover where he studied banking and learnt German before returning to Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines where he took over the running of the family tobacco factory. He also travelled to the United States, Canada, Mexico and Asia Minor.

Later life

During World War I his anti-German sentiment was displayed by refusing to supply the German armies with tobacco, an act that got him a prison sentence of eight months and exiled from Alsace where his property was seized and sold.[3] For this he received the French Médaille de la Fidélité. He was also awarded the Croix de guerre and the Médaille des Proscrits d'Alsace (Exiles from Alsace medal).[3] He died in Lausanne in 1959.

Politics

Between 1932 and 1942, Burrus was a Deputy for Haut-Rhin in the French Parliament of the French Third Republic, first as an independent left party member until 1936 and then with the Independents of Popular Action.[3]

Philately
The "Bordeaux Cover", bought in 1934 by Burrus at the Hind auction, with Mauritius 1d Orange-red and the 2d Deep Blue "Post Office" stamps. Auctioned for CHF 5,750,000 in 1993 by David Feldman.

Burrus began to collect stamps at the age of seven after old family mail found in their attics spurred his interest.[4][5]

In collecting, Burrus was a completist and he had the funds to allow him to be so. In a 1922 issue of The Philatelic Magazine he suggested that a collector's aim was:

to reassemble the whole of the stamps issued in one country, in a certain part of the world, or if possible, of the whole universe, and not to estimate the value of stamps according to their beauty of engraving or design.[5]

He owned some of the rarest and most expensive stamps known, such as the 1886 Dominican 6 pence Queen Victoria stamp with a "one penny" overprint error and an 1851 New Carlisle Postmaster's Provisional on cover that sold in 2010 for €280,000.[6] In 1923 he acquired the only complete known unused sheet of 20 of the 1850 “Dreier Sachsen” (Saxony) stamps previously in the collection of Philipp von Ferrary and sold it prior to the rest of his collection being sold around 1964.[7] Burrus had acquired about a quarter of Ferrary's collection.[4] By the time of his death in 1959, he owned five copies of the Mauritius "Post Office" stamp.[5]

Accolades

Burrus was a member of the Académie de philatélie for more than 30 years[1] and in 1955 he was invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists.[8][9] In the same year Life magazine wrote that in their opinion, he had one of the three "truly great stamp collections worldwide in scope".[10] He was commemorated in 1968 by the Liechtenstein post office when he was one of five notable collectors included on a set of stamps issued that year.[1][6]

Disposal of collections

The Burrus collection was connected to the Ponzi scheme run by Dr Paul Singer, manager of the Irish-based Shanahan Stamp Auctions that existed in the 1950s, one of the greatest scandals in philately.[11] In 1959 Singer negotiated the purchase of the Burrus collection for $6,000,000, to be paid in several instalments[11] and the first portion was purchased for a price above its accepted valuation. A robbery at the firm's premises took place the night before the first scheduled auction of Burrus stamps but the thieves only stole other materials and a small portion of the stamps were retrieved the following day. The robbery led to the exposure of the Ponzi scheme, several lawsuits, and the liquidation of Shanahans.[12][13][14][15] The liquidator contracted Robson Lowe to dispose of the Burrus material between 1962 and 1964.[11][16]

References
  1. "Mémorial des membres titulaires de l'Académie de Philatélie" (in French). Académie de philatélie. 2012-01-21. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  2. "Maurice Burrus". Vaison dans les musées du monde. vaison-musees.com. 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-03-30. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  3. "Maurice, Jean, Marie BURRUS" (in French). Assemblée nationale. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  4. Morgan, Helen (2006). Blue Mauritius. London: Atlantic Books. pp. 159–164. ISBN 9781590200773.
  5. Morgan, Helen (2007). "Burrus, Maurice (1882 - 1959)". helenmorgan.net. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  6. "Great collections... Revealing the stamp collection of Maurice Burrus". Paul Fraser Collectibles. 2012. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
  7. "Rarities of the World with China & Russia" (PDF). Auction catalogue. David Feldman. 5 October 2008. pp. 2–4. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  8. Stone, Harlan F. (March 1993). "Roll of Distinguished Philatelists Includes Eight from Switzerland" (PDF). Tell. American Helvetia Philatelic Society. XIX (2): 17. ISSN 1042-2072. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
  9. Background notes on The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists September 2011 , Roll of Distinguished Philatelists Trust, London, 2011. Archived here.
  10. Stanush, Claude (3 May 1954). "Stamps". Life. Vol. 36, no. 18. New York: Time Inc. p. 100. ISSN 0024-3019. Retrieved 2014-05-06.
  11. Barrett, Jr., J.F. (June–July 1982). "The Shanahan "Shenanagans"" (PDF). Tell. American Helvetia Philatelic Society. VIII (6): 135–136. ISSN 1042-2072. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  12. "Remember Ireland's infamous stamp act?". Irish Independent. 1999-12-27. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  13. "Thieves Get $1,400,000 in Stamps". Vol. 82, no. 59. The Windsor Daily Star. 1959-05-09. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  14. "Thieves' Huge Stamp Haul". Sydney Morning Herald. 1959-05-10. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  15. "Millions in Stamp Stolen as Guards Chat". Miami News. 1959-05-10. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  16. "Amazon.com: burrus stamp: Books". amazon.com. 2012. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
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