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Permalink Reply by michelle on December 16, 2014 at 9:31am

really interesting.  If we can find a copy of the stamp book he' s talking about we may be able to work out who the Hal might be & put it all into context or an autobiography of Oleg  Have   found the stamp book  but the copy I have seen is  in German.  He must be using the term 'uncle' loosly to describe Hal as I don't think they are biologically related if you see what I mean. from what I know  Its fascinating.  How did you get hold of it?

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Permalink Reply by Kirby Shofner on December 16, 2014 at 10:15am

Years ago, I bought a book about Faberge Eggs at an estate sale and these letters were inside.  Hal is the person whose estate had the book for sale.  He lived here in Little Rock, where I am from.

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Permalink Reply by michelle on December 16, 2014 at 10:26am

Do you want to keep it or sell it?  If it is the latter it may be a good idea to try and fiind out a bit more about Hal.  Its a really nice letter.  The people who will be most interested are stamp collectors I would imagine or an antiquitarian (sic??) bookseller who may have a first edition of the book they are chatting about but I really enjoyed reading it . 

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Permalink Reply by Kirby Shofner on December 16, 2014 at 10:33am

Sell, if I can find out what they are worth.

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Permalink Reply by michelle on December 16, 2014 at 10:40am

On its own IMO I don't think its worth loads but for someone who collects rare stamps or an antiquitarian (I don't know how to spell it) book seller I think its worth something but not worth thousands of dollars.  However, you need IMO to try and find some facts re Hal ie) what were his daughters that Oleg was talking about called?  what was the event that Oleg was talking about?  I assume it was something like a bankruptcy or something like that & if you are a resident in the area I would imagine you could find something out.  That will help you push the price up if you are going to sell it.

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Permalink Reply by Hillsbro on September 3, 2016 at 11:05am

Oleg was an old and very dear friend of mine until his untimely death in 1993. In case it is of interest, here is an example of Oleg's full signature. He always used green ink!

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Permalink Reply by Kirby Shofner on September 3, 2016 at 5:38pm

Thank you for this information.  Does he have family in the US or in Europe?  I have a photo of his daughters (I think they are) and would like to send it to them.

Kirby

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Permalink Reply by Hillsbro on September 3, 2016 at 10:07pm

Unfortunately I lost touch with the family after Oleg died, but it might be worth writing to the address where he lived - Stenbäcksgatan 20B, 00250 Helsinki, Finland.

I wonder if "Hal" could be Hal Vogel, a prominent collector of Russian and Finnish stamps, though the address I have for him is in New Jersey.

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Permalink Reply by Hillsbro on September 5, 2016 at 2:25am

I forgot to mention that in c. 1995 I heard that one of Oleg's daughters moved into Stenbäcksgatan 20B, partly so that she could care for her mother, Sirkka-Liisa Fabergé. Sirkka-Liisa has since died; I do not know if the daughter still lives in the house.

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