Wappen-Sammlung

Heraldry of the World Heraldic collector's items catalogue > Heraldic albums

Wapen-Sammlung

Album information :

• Issued by : A. Weller's Verlag, Kahla in Thüringen, Germany
• Date of issue : 1900-1920 (?)
• Number of stamps/cards : ? over 8000
• Image variants : ?

Background

This is a huge collection of stamps with the arms of countries and families, issued around 1900-1920. The total number is not known, the largest collection I have seen on offer had 3800 stamps. The stamps were issued in sheets, which were numbered, but the stamps itself were not numbered.

I have no idea how these stamps could be collected. The sheets could be bought for 50 Pfennige and each stamp for 2. But I do not know where, I presume in bookshops or similar all over the country. How often the sheets were issued I do not know.

The sheets were not always properly perforated, resulting in a number of different formats for the stamps. The actual format should be 4x5.5 cm, but can differ up to 1 cm in width.

The stamps could be glued on pages, which were then kept in boxes, see image above.

An example of a sheet :

The company also issued indexes, normally per 1000 arms per section. The indexes have quite a number of mistakes in the numbering though. The best numbering is by the sheets themselves.

The actual date of issue is not clear. In an advertisement in a German heraldic journal from 1907, arms of cities nr 371 and arms of Nobility nr 1315 are mentioned. The index 1-1000 of the city arms (Section 2) is dated 1913. But most index booklets are not dated.

Series and stamps issued

I have no idea how many were issued. I have based the numbers shown here on the largest numbers I have seen on sheets (mainly in auction sites).

• Series 1: Rulers and Countries (at least 300 stamps)
• Series 2: Cities and regions (at least 1225)
• Series 3: Nobility (at least 3550)
• Series 4: Bishops and commoners (at least 3000)
• Series 5: Guilds and associations (at least 275)