Page 13 - Gustaf Douglas: Classic Sweden

Prologue

First to be mentioned is Jan Berg FRPSL, previously Quite a number of these items from Hedberg’s
collecting the ”Lying Lion Type”; Lars Ekberg with the collection are still in my property because I couldn’t
”Circle Type”; Leon Nordin’s collection of ”Swedish part with them. But I should also have kept the three
postal history”; late Björn Levin who collected items Einar convinced me to purchase during the
”Official Stamps Large Size” and ”Postage Due dinner – two of them are now impossible to aquire.
Stamps”. There are also two friends that are absolutely This brings me to another story regarding my
indispensable in forming the current collection. collection. Many years ago when Elisabeth and
First Olle Pettersson who is a master in philately, I started to seeing each other, in 1962 we went up to
philatelic provenance of classic items, ”memory” and the attic of Rydboholm (Elisabeth’s home) to
different shades on the stamps from the classic perod. investigate some correspondence regarding the farm.
I could have a rather precise view on what I thought We were there two times, discovering that somebody
essential, but Olle has the knowledge, sees the had removed the stamps. It was hard to convince
significance and knows their whereabouts. He does Elisabeth to make a new attempt, but we did.
know the difference between perfection and just nice. Elisabeth then knew what to look for. I gave her a
He has been a friend and provider since the 1960:s, bundle of covers and studied another bundle myself.
enthusiastic and keeping a secrets. Then she asked “is this something to have?” I imme‐
The other friend is Jonas Hällström FRPSL who is a diately performed an ”Indian dance”. There were
“master of presentation and story‐telling” and who some other covers of enough importance to make me
has convinced me to include all sorts of supporting very happy. But the cover Elisabeth showed me was a
items in the treatment and presentation, such as star – a block of four 12 Öre Coat‐of‐Arms Type II
ships, maps and enlargements. ”Öre” in an ultramarine shade – still unique on a
Without Olle and Jonas I would not have had the cover. I got this item as a gift from my father‐in‐law
current collection. It is like it is in life – you never on my 40 years birthday, and I have never dreamt of
build anything single‐handed on your own. Together selling it. This in turn had a domino effect. When
is the way – this is the summary of what I have I sold off most of my collection in 1975, I thought this
learned over the years. wonderful item should not be all alone so I literally
selected a number of covers never to sell – five to be
Closing notes on two great moments precise – to keep company. They are all still present in
Many years ago, in 1968, Einar Lundström bought the collection.
Lars Hedberg’s Grand Prix collection. Einar couldn’t
keep that secret.
Einar Lundström told me that I could show up at
Frimärkshuset immediately, but nothing was for sale
he said – I will auction them later, Einar stated. I went
there and started to leaf through the collection. When
I was through a few hours later, Einar asked if I didn’t
want to buy anything. ‐ “But you told me it is all for
your next auction.”: “Well, it is OK if you buy a few –
hmm ... you can actually buy what you want.”
Having memorized the most important items,
I started to pick, and soon a small ”mountain” emer‐
ged. It was a decisive moment and I knew I had earlier
done the right thing by selling my collection of
Iceland and therefore had some “free money”.
There were still three remaining items that I had not
made up my mind about. Einar took me to dinner and
on the way we discussed these items, we agreed and
I was out of money again – not for the first but
certainly for the last time.