Exploring the Collection

10 Hartford County locations and businesses referenced in the

1. City Hall: the collection includes a letter from the mayor of Hartford, Thomas Seymour.

2. The Mark Twain House: Two letters are from Samuel L. Clemens.

3. Hartford Union Station: several letters are sent on the Hartford, Providence, Fishkill Railroad.

4. Ezekiel William Jr.’s House: Williams served as the postmaster for Hartford from 1795 to 1803.

5. The Captain Elisha Phelps House: there is a letter from Phelps to William Bristol. Phelps served as a representative for Connecticut (1819-21, 1825-29).

6. Connecticut Missionary Society Monument: the collection includes a letter from the society to Rev. Milton Badger.

7. Hartford Insurance Company: several letters include advertisements for the long-standing company that still holds headquarters in Hartford today.

8. Connecticut General Life Insurance Company: an advertising cover was sent to New York by this established company.

9. Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance: an illustrated cover advertised this company that is still in downtown Hartford.

10. The Hartford Courant: Several unique pieces of mail come from the oldest continuous newspaper in the country.

About H.R. Harmer

Harmer very quickly became synonymous with high-quality philatelic auctions in our namesake’s native Great Britain. By 1940 it was time for the company to branch out, and a satellite office was opened across the Atlantic in New York City.

H.R. Harmer first rose to prominence in the United States when our firm was selected to sell the collection of the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. These auctions were front-page news even in the non-philatelic press, as never before had the stamp collection of such a beloved public figure been made available to collectors.

Over the coming decades, H.R. Harmer would go on to sell two of the most comprehensive and valuable collections ever to cross the auction block—those of Alfred H. Caspary and Alfred F. Lichtenstein, both of which would set new high-water marks in the industry. And, since 2019, H.R. Harmer has been selling the collection of German businessman Erivan Haub—a series of auctions which has once again placed H.R. Harmer at the forefront of the philatelic world.

Today, led by a young and enthusiastic team, H.R. Harmer is still dedicated to providing collectors with the same professional service and philatelic expertise that our company was founded upon all those decades ago.