We are very proud to offer this outstanding collection, awarded multiple Gold Medals. Atle has during many years built an exhibit covering all aspects on postal history from these exciting years during WWII, with several unique and rare items. All his items are marked “Ex Fossmark” and presented according to the chapters used in Atle´s exhibit.

Here you can read Atle’s own words about the story of the building of his exhibit:

“I started collecting stamps as a young boy, the same did my friends. We collected stamps with bright colours and nice appearance. My friends stopped collecting, but I didn’t. Soon I collected Norwegian stamps by the book, always looking for the stamps I was missing. When I came of age I became member of the local philatelic club, that is 50 years ago. In the club I had a mentor, introducing me to other areas of collecting and the provincial issues from the Faroe Islands, were very interesting. My mentor sold me (cheap) two envelopes, without addressee with the 50 on 5 øre and 60 on 6 øre, cancelled first day of use. That started my interest in Faroe Island postal history during World War II. During the 80´s I was just accumulating and in 1994 I was ready for my first exhibition. Which my exhibit won. Since then, countless hours has been spent, browsing auction catalogues and web sites, searching for new items, and new information. And many hours spent in archives and harbour journals. During the years many new discoveries were uncovered, including new information for the exhibit. My exhibit has been shown many times at Nordic and international exhibitions, being awarded many Gold Medals. The last 10 years or so, it has been difficult to find new items or information that would improve the exhibit. Therefore, it is now the right time to let others have an opportunity to acquire new items for their exhibits.

”But I keep the two FDC envelopes of 50/5 øre and 60/6 øre as a memory.”

Silhouette Issues

Page 225, lot #1049-1094

It is a great honour for us to present what is probably the best ever collection of these issues, built over a large number of years and exhibited on numerous occasions including at many NORDIA exhibitions. The last time at Huddex 2026.

The collection includes Jón Sigurdsson 1911, Frederik VIII 1912 as well as the surcharged stamps issued 1924-26 and Official stamps. It will be offered in single lots as well as remainder collections (lot # 1049-1094).

Our friend Leif is a well-known collector and a great force in the Swedish society, “Islandssamlarna”, member since 1968, member of the board and editor of the magazine “Rapport” 1992-2023. He has also handled their website, archive etc.

In 2024 he was chosen as Islandssamlarna’s 10th Honorary Member.

Leif started collecting the Silhouette issues in 1983 and included all aspects of the area, such as plate flaws and other varieties, postmarks including a large number of ship, and foreign cancellations as well as a great variety of covers. In later years he has reached the point when no more material, for expanding the collection, is available and has therefore decided that the time has come to let someone else enjoy these items, of which many have been locked up for decades.

Erland Brand
Gold Medal Collection
”Swedish Prephilately 1558 onward”

Page 259, lot #1264-

Introduction by Claes Arnrup

Erland Brand had, like most boys at that time, started to collect stamps in the normal “schoolboy” way. His more advanced interest in phila-telic collecting started when he, still at a young age, was shown an old cover without stamps, but with beautiful handwriting. A very good friend of Erland in Arvika, where he was born and grew up, had found it in an old building under a floor and asked if he was intere-sted. Erland asked for the price and bought it immediately. This was the start of a long and successful journey in the prephilatelic world.

He started to look for more old covers by visiting dealers, stamp exhibitions and auctions on the hunt for rare and special items, but like the artist and skilful painter he was, always following his aesthetic heart. Beauty was the strongest argument for him to acquire new covers and documents.

Personally, I was always very impressed when I saw his collections at exhibitions, by the contents, but even more by the quality and beauty. I remember sometimes thinking, how is it possible to put all this together?

When he started to exhibit in the 1970s, the success came quickly and was extremely well deserved.

Erland is one of few exhibitors who was twice awarded “The Silver Postiljon” trophy, the most prestigious award at Swedish exhibitions. That was in 1978 and in 1985. The year after he was awarded Gold Medal at the International World Exhibition STOCKHOLMIA 86 and in 1992 the Swedish Philatelic Federation assigned him their highest recognition, the Strandell Medal.

Erland and his wife Inga, who always joined him on his philatelic trips, were very welcome and recurring visitors at the Postiljonen auctions. Their friendliness was highly appreciated, especially at various social events, not only by us, but by everybody around them.

His collection was, of course, rearranged between exhibitions, as he had many more items than he was allowed to exhibit. In this book we have chosen what mainly represents his eight-frame exhibit. For the auction of his whole estate, we have produced a special section in the catalogue, where everything from his collection is described and offered. More or less all pages will be shown on our website before and during the auction period. That gives you the possibility to study it all.

You will find many fascinating items like the letter with full contents from 1612 signed “Gustavus Adolphus” (Gustav II Adolf) and another signed by Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar and written 4 October 1631, when he accompanied King Gustav II Adolf on his march to the Rhine. Duke Bernard was the one who took command of the Swedish army after the King was killed at Lützen and secured the Protestant victory. These are documents of historical importance far above the philatelic.There are numerous feather covers in various shapes, colours, and number of feathers, often the quality and beauty are overwhelming. This was the way to tell the courier or the postman that the letter was urgent, often in combination with various threats on the front, explaining the consequences of delays.

Finally, I want to thank the Brand family, Inga, Klas and Anna for their trust and for allowing us this great pleasure that it means to my colleagues and me, to handle this remarkable collection of Swedish philately and history.

Erland was a fantastic person whom I had the privilege of being very close to since childhood. A harmonious man with a sharp intellect and always with a smile on his face. My parents, Margareta & Lago, were best friends with Inga & Erland and our families spent a lot of time together. There are countless memories of Christmases, birthdays, crayfish parties and summers spent with us in Särö and them in Dalen. It was easy to be friends with Erland who was natural, caring and happy. The friendship has now been passed down to the next generation as his son Klas and I are also very close friends today.

Two important areas united dad and Erland, namely philately and modern art. Within philately, Erland is known for his fantastic collection of swedish pre-philately, one of the best collections ever presented in that category. He was a passionate philatelist and historian, and he saw the beauty in the exquisite manuscripts, crown seals and feathers of the time, and became a recognized expert in the subject. In 1974, he wrote, among other things, the book "Bland kronor, slingor och fjädrar".

But he is of course best known for his artistry, as one of the great Gothenburg colorists. He had the talent already in his genes from his father and developed it further at Valand Art School in 1947, where he also became teacher in 1963. He worked first and foremost with graphics and oil, which he unfortunately had to stop using in 1968. Thereafter he focused on watercolor, drawing (skraffering), ink and collage. He also made many fine public tapestries together with his equally talented wife Inga. Within modernism, his artistic periods have ranged from Landscape, Space to Drawing and Self-Portrait.

Erland participated at a large number of solo-and group art exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. The most recent was a solo exhibition in 2014 at Gothenburg Art Hall with over 300 self-drawings and 130 paintings. Erland passed away in 2020 at the respectable age of 98.

”Luxury of Finland”

Separate Catalogue #249

The name of this sale is influenced by the consign ment of “Luxury of Sweden” entrusted us in the early 2010s from one of the top-ranked collectors of the 5, 5, 5 quality, which is special in our country. This grading system is established by the Swedish Philatelic Federation and can be studied at the beginning of the FACIT Special Classic catalogues. Due to the extraordinary number of stamps, in this top-quality grade, we offered over a few auctions at that time, we got worried that our clients would think that this quality was not especially unusual.

But it really is rare! Everything must be in place; no short perfs, no other faults, a perfectly centered stamp with a clear and well-placed postmark. Each copy is one of several or many thousand stamps! Having been established as the main auctioneer at that level, we have been happily blessed with plenti ful offers of this quality in every auction. If you want to know how rare this quality is, please have a look at other auctions and see how many you will find.

Sorry, it is Finland’s early issues we should be talking about! That is another story, but we wanted to highlight the similarities. The first issue of the Ovals can be found in exquisite copies, with large margins and beautiful postmarks. In that quality, very rare of course! You will find some real beauties and some great rarities in this section.

The Roulette issues are a different story, just to find them with complete roulettes is a challenge. Well placed postmarks on the stamps were not in the instructions for the postal clerks (which it in fact was in Sweden) and the rouletting often made a mess of the centering.

This auction is built around a consignment from a collector, who during a 20-year period searched for only exquisite quality and beauty of single stamps, multiples and covers of the first ten stamps of Finland, Ovals and Roulettes. Our outstanding Gummesson sales of course gave him possibilities for many additions.

It is amazing how many single stamps in this sale that would qualify for the Swedish 5, 5, 5 top rating!

If you take examples in this sale of well centered stamps described as EXCELLENT and compare to other auction catalogues, old and current, you will be amazed by how few matching copies you will find.

We hope you will enjoy reading this catalogue and wish you welcome to participate in the auction!

The Gary T. Athelstan Collection
Coins & Banknotes

Separate Catalogue "Connoisseur" II

This is the fourth time we give a presentation of Gary, it has become quite a pleasant habit. The previous times have been when we offered his philatelic collections, mainly of Icelandic stamps, some of the greatest ever formed, covering many areas and specialties.

This time we have been entrusted Gary’s amazing collections of coins and banknotes. Most impressive is the collection of banknotes, mainly from the Nordic countries. The sections of Iceland and Norway are most probably among the best outside of museums, but also Danish West Indies, Greenland and Faroe Islands includes many interesting and rare items.

We are very grateful to Gary and his wife, Gail, for having entrusted us these vast and amazing collections, which were brought together by Gary during many decades. It is a great pleasure for us to present these fantastic items, covering most time periods.

We welcome old and new clients to take part in the auction and we sincerely hope that you will enjoy studying this catalogue.

Gary was born in Minneapolis Minnesota in 1936 and started collecting at an early age. His interest began with his Icelandic grandparents. His grandfather came from Akureyri and his grandmother from Seyðisfjörður.

Gary has a PhD in psychology and his career was as a professor at the University of Minnesota. His interests were helping people with physical disabilities as well as with psychological and vocational issues. He lectured at the University of Iceland as a visiting professor in the 1980s on these topics to help develop care for disabled people.

He also travelled to Iceland to visit relatives, to play in bridge tournaments and to explore the country. His great-great grandfather was the founder of the Good Templars organization, and his home is kept as a museum in Akureyri.

In addition to collecting stamps, coins and banknotes, he also enjoyed fishing, bridge, and travel. He is married to a second generation Hungarian-American, which got him started also on collecting Hungarian philately.