Henry Stolow (Born 1901 in Riga

Riga

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

, Latvia – Died 1971) was a stamp dealer

Stamp dealer

A stamp dealer is a company or an individual who deals in postage stamps and philatelic products. It also includes individuals who sell postage stamps for day to day use or official stamps for use on court documents.-Stamps on Approval Basis:...

 in Berlin, New York, and Munich who was behind the issue of numerous stamps of doubtful vailidity.

Early life

From 1920 to 1933, Stolow worked as a stamp dealer in Berlin, together with his brother Julius Stolow.

Wholesale stamp business

In 1936, Henry and Julius emigrated to Brussels, and later to New York. There, they founded the wholesale company J. and H. Stolow, Wholesale Stamp Dealers, which existed until the 1970s. Their company became one of the world's largest stamp wholesalers.

Henry Stolow bought important stamp collections and auctioned them by order of the customer (for example the collections of President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

, King Carol II of Romania

Carol II of Romania

Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...

, King Farouk of Egypt

Farouk of Egypt

Farouk I of Egypt , was the tenth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936....

, Cardinal Francis Spellman, and millionaire Arthur Hind

Arthur Hind (1856 - 1933)

Arthur Hind , of Utica, New York, was an American textile industrialist and philatelist.-Business interests:He lived on Maple Street in Utica, New York, in the Mohawk Valley. He was owner of Hind-Harrison Plush Co. in Clark Mills, New York, which made upholstery fabrics for automobile manufacturers...

). He also worked as a philatelic expertiser

Philatelic expertisation

Philatelic expertisation is the process whereby an expert is asked to give an opinion whether a philatelic item is genuine and whether it has been repaired or altered in any way....

.

Stamps of doubtful validity

Henry Stolow prepared new stamp issues for postal administrations (first of all in Africa). He then bought the major part of the edition in order to resell the stamps to other wholesalers. He may have deliberately ordered printing errors, as well (e.g. Greenland overprints).

He also was involved with bogus stamp issues for the nonexistent country Republic of South Moluccas.

Later life

After World War II, he returned to Germany and worked as a stamp dealer in Berlin and later in Munich. After his death, his Munich stamp empire was continued under the name Firma Henry Stolow by the owner, Rolf Müller.

Gregory Stolow, son of Julius Stolow and nephew of Henry Stolow, is a stamp dealer in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Further reading

• Briefmarken-Mauritius, No. 38/1971
• Ulrich Häger: Großes Lexikon der Philatelie, Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh-Berlin-Munich-Vienna 1973 (p. 275 Maluku Selatan, p. 449 Henry Stolow).
• FFE 7 p. 58