The Raritan Auction #93 presents several stamps, including a description reading
“ex-Zakhary Umikov”.
Since the Auctioneer put this in the text, I assume, he wants to get a message to the potential buyer. Perhaps: Signed by an expert; or ex collection of a serious collector who spent a lot of time researching the material. He added some more well formulated text:
“very rare, only a few stamps recorded”
Let us have a look at the stamp so lovely described.
Lot #847
To make a long story short: this is an abysmal badly executed forgery. Certainly, there are well executed forgeries, who need an expert opinion or some extensive research. A dealer cannot be an expert in all areas. But this is such a crude attempt.
We also learn, that ex Zakhary Umikov is not something which helps distinguish forged from genuine overprints.
More forgeries ex Zakhary Umikov
Another “old friend” are these newspaper forgeries. Beware!
I agree that signature ex Zakhary Umikov (З.У.) is not an argument which helps to distinguish forged from genuine overprints. Umikov had an extensive collection of Armenian stamps, without any postal entires. I met forgeries among philatelic material signed З.У.
Zakhary Umikov was one of the few philatelists in former USSR and Russia as of the end of the 20th century, who had an extensive collection of Armenian stamps, although he did not have at that time such opportunities to acquire philatelic material as modern collectors now have.
He started collecting Armenian stamps since childhood in his hometown of Tiflis, where his father, Nerses, was a famous doctor. As a member of the Imperial Caucasian Medical Society in Tiflis, his father had extensive correspondence with government, public and private institutions and at the request of his son left him letters franked with postage stamps. Young Zakhary, as an ethnic Armenian, also collected Armenian postage stamps, which was very popular in Tiflis, almost half of the population of which at that time were Armenians.
In 1920-1930s Umikov’s family moved to Leningrad (St.Petersburg), where Zakhary received a higher education. Unfortunately his unique collection of Imperial postal history, as well as his collection of Armenian stamps perished during the blockade of Leningrad in 1941-1944. After the WW2, he started collecting Armenian stamps almost from scratch. The З.У. mark was put on almost all of his stamps as part of his collection but not exclusively as a sign of authenticity. I would like to note that the quality of the overwhelming number of stamps was satisfactory, since Umikov had to store them in selfmade mounts.
I had the happy opportunity to meet Zakhary Umikov and still remember those days with a bright feeling. He was extremely positive, friendly and hospitable person, very willing to share his knowledge on Armenian postage stamps. I learned a lot from him. The bright memory of Zakhary Umikov will always remain in my heart.
Very interesting. Thanks for the valuable insight!