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| Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 1 |
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| Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 1 |
Note: on my website many of the
pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the catalogue;
contact me if you want to purchase it.
R.P.H. Wolle was a stamp forger around 1900 (see 'Philatelic Forgeries, their Lives and Works' by V.E.Tyler for more details). It is mentioned there that Wolle converted proofs and stamps into rarities (inverted centers, bisected stamps etc.). He worked with several aliases (Fischer, Stein, Kaiser?).
The following text was found in The London Philatelist Vol 13, 1904, page 98, which quotes the 'Boston Herald' of March 14:
"Richard
H. P. Wolle was brought before United States Commissioner Fiske
on March 13th, and was charged with counterfeiting and having in
his possession counterfeits of United States stamps. Secret
service and special agents of the Government and stamp collectors
of this city are filled with glee to-day over the capture of
Wolle. Mr. J. M. Bartels, a stamp collector, with offices in the
Old South building, is the United States Government expert in
these matters, and is the special agent of the Post Office
Department to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, empowered to buy
United States and foreign stamps for the exhibition, and to
instal the exhibit. To him is due much credit for the capture of
Wolle."
It appears that Wolle sold some stamps to Mr. F. C. Foster, which
were promptly declared bogus by Mr. Bartels, and that the
prisoner subsequently had the impudence to call himself at Mr.
Bartels' office, where he was recognised and handed over to the
police.
" Wolle employed eight different methods of counterfeiting
stamps and raising Government bills. The 2 - cent Pan - American
stamp, which was suppressed as soon as it was discovered that a
part of the issue had the centrepiece upside down, was one that
he delighted to counterfeit. He would erase the centrepiece in a
regular stamp, and then cleverly paste an inverted centrepiece
from another stamp in its place, making an almost perfect
reproduction of a stamp of the suppressed issue. A counterfeit
which cost him 4 cents and a little labour was raised to a value
of $150. He is alleged to have sold hundreds of these stamps for
$150 each. Being an artist of wonderful ability and persistency,
he was able to make stamps with the pen and brush, which would
pass the critical gaze of experts, even when using a powerful
magnifying glass. He bought stamps worth 90 cents, and so
manipulated them as to make them saleable to expert collectors
for $10 each. He procured imperforate stamps, perforated them,
and engraved the scroll work upon the borders, making them
saleable for $40 and $50 each. Some of these perforate stamps
cost him 6 cents and his labour, and he sold them for $50 each.
When John Wannamaker was Postmaster-General, Congressman, and
politician, almost anybody could procure from the Government
proofs of rare stamp plates upon thick, heavy cardboard. Wolle
secured many of these and shaved the board to a very thin paper,
pasted the stamps upon envelopes, and applied counterfeit
cancellation marks, and then sold these counterfeits for fabulous
sums of money to collectors. His work was so marvellous that only
the best experts could detect them."
Wolle by no means, however, confined his attention to American
stamps, but operated on all classes, notably those of France, and
it appears that his "fakes" have unfortunately obtained
a wide circulation, as for instance only last month Mr. Bartels
discovered some of Wolle's work in the collection of a
millionaire New York collector, and told the man that his stamps
were " fakes," and undoubtedly the work of Wolle. These
particular stamps were traced back, and shown to have been sent
out of the Jefferson City, Mo., prison by Wolle.
It is stated that Wolle is wanted in Chicago, St. Louis,
Cleveland, New York, and nearly every large city of this and
foreign countries. His trial in Boston will probably be a long
and sensational one, and we sincerely trust that the effect will
be to put a stop to the sale of these dangerous forgeries.
The
following text appears in The Evergreen-State Philatelist Vol. 9,
No.4, 1898, probably referring to Wolle
The St. Louis weekly seems to have secured what would be called a
"scoop" in newspaper parlance in its reports of
"Fischer, the Philatelic Fraud. His Second Capture and
Subsequent Escape. A Thrilling- Detective Story." The
narration of how Fischer alias Kaiser, alias Wolle, alias Stein,
was recognized by a Louisville collector, his arrest and hearing
and his daring esape at Cincinnati, while on his way to Cleveland
in charge of a detective, will satisfy the most ardent lover of
philatelic sensations.
