Georges Henri Kaestlin
Georges Henri Kaestlin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1892 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Died | 18 February 1981 Zurich, Switzerland |
| Occupation(s) | Banker, Philatelist |
| Known for | Curating one of the finest collections of Russian Imperial and Zemstvo stamps |
Georges Henri Kaestlin (1892 – 18 February 1981) was a banker renowned for curating one of the finest compilations of Russian Imperial and Zemstvo stamps. His family fled Russia following the 1917 revolution, prompting him to assemble this significant collection. In 1984, his widow fulfilled his wish to keep the collection intact by donating it to the Smithsonian Museum, thereby avoiding its fragmentation as occurred with other prominent collections.
Early life
Kaestlin was born in 1892 in Saint Petersburg to Swiss parents, with his father serving as head of the Russian Bank for Foreign Trade. He received his education at the Prince Tenisheff Private School for Boys and later graduated from the Imperial Polytechnic Institute with a degree in political economy. An enthusiastic sportsman, he had already scaled numerous Swiss mountains by age 17 during family vacations in Switzerland.
Life in England
Starting his banking profession in Russia, Kaestlin married before being compelled to flee with his family amid the revolution. After temporary residencies in Sweden and Norway, they established themselves in England where he continued working in banking, residing initially in London and subsequently in Twickenham. Though his professional trajectory was steady, it remained modest; his primary passions were collecting stamps and playing tennis well into his seventies. Following the passing of his wife and son, he retired to Switzerland and later wed Vera Bock, a Russian-born artist who had also emigrated from St. Petersburg post-revolution.
Philately
Kaestlin’s interest in philately originated with Russian Imperial stamps but broadened to include Zemstvo stamps after relocating to England, ultimately dedicating himself exclusively to them. Zemstvo stamps were locally issued from 1865 by regional authorities to compensate for the Imperial Post’s limited rural service.
While he refrained from joining philatelic societies or participating in exhibitions and publications, Kaestlin kept meticulous research notes, analyzed counterfeit issues, and compiled an extensive typewritten catalogue supplemented with hand-drawn maps. It is probable that he collaborated with Karl Schmidt, an important figure in Zemstvo stamp cataloguing. Despite limited public involvement, he made financial contributions to the Stamp Centenary Exhibition 1940, took part in Fabergé auctions, and maintained correspondence with Sir John Wilson of the Royal Philatelic Collection.
His assemblage consists of 13 volumes containing stamps and covers along with 15 staging albums featuring stamps and postal stationery dating from 1865 to 1917—amounting to over 1,500 pages and approximately 14,000 stamps, many acquired from the collections of Agathon Fabergé and Philipp von Ferrary. In 2012, an extensive scholarly work on the Kaestlin collection was published by Thomas Lera and Leon Finik through the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Death and legacy
Kaestlin passed away in Zurich, Switzerland on 18 February 1981. He explicitly requested that his philatelic collection remain intact and not be sold piecemeal, unlike what happened with Agathon Fabergé's collection which was auctioned contrary to his wishes. In 1984, his wife Vera Madeleine Kaestlin-Bock donated the entire collection to the Smithsonian Museum as per his instructions.