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Teschemacher connections
We have long known that four series of stamps produced for Liberia by the German Reichsdruckerei in 1923-4 (Scott #209-213; #214-227 and their Official equivalents #O141-O154; and #F30-F34) were based on designs by a German artist called Teschemacher, although Fred Farr speculated that (a) Teschemacher was an employee of J.W. West, and (b) that he may only have designed the vignettes [1,2].
We now know that the artist was a famous architect who was born and lived in Berlin—Erich Teschemacher (1886-1957) [3]—but not how he came to be contracted by J.W. West to design stamps for Liberia. I was interested therefore to purchase the postcard attached here.
This card went from Greenville to the Teschemacher family in Elberfeld, now a district of Wuppertal: the reverse is unsigned, and offers only an expression of New Year greetings and wishes for the coming 1894.
The Teschemacher name is pretty rare, with only an estimated 119 Teschemachers in Germany “today” [4], but the Wuppertal branch of the family has been illustrious. Since Gert Teschemacher—born in the 15th century and “the progenitor of the extensive Old Elberfeld Teschemacher family” (“der Stammvater der reichverzweigten Alt-Elberfelder Familie Teschemacher”)—moved the family to Elberfeld from Aachen [5], they have furnished the town with merchants, yarn bleachers, farm owners, and 13 mayors through the 17th and 18th centuries, and also figures meriting individual and extensive Wikipedia pages, such as Werner Teschemacher (1590-1638, an annalist, humanist and reformed theologian) and Jacob Engelbert Teschemacher (1711-1782, an organ builder). The very substantial Teschemacher Hof, dating from 1540, is the oldest surviving half-timbered “Bergisch” house in Wuppertal and remained in the family until 1911, when the city took ownership.
There has also been a Cologne branch of the family, including the operatic soprano Margarete Teschemacher (1903–1959), also at Wikipedia levels of renown … but Erich Teschemacher was from Berlin.
All the same … if there was already a Teschemacher family connection with Liberia, perhaps that explains how Erich came to be fingered for work by J.W. West or the Reichsdruckerei.
Has anybody else seen anything germane to a Teschemacher connection to Liberia?
[1] Fred Farr [Notes, part 2/3], LPS Letter, 10, (March 1967), 3
[2] Fred Farr [Notes, part 3/3], LPS Letter, 11, (April 1967), 2
[3] Martin Giles, “Stamp designer, Erich Teschemacher: Who was he?”, LPS Journal, The Journal of the Liberian Philatelic Society, 5(4) (October-December 2022), 7-11
[4] http://www.name-statistics.org/de/, accessed December 18th 2024
[5] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Teschemacher-2, accessed December 18th 2024
We now know that the artist was a famous architect who was born and lived in Berlin—Erich Teschemacher (1886-1957) [3]—but not how he came to be contracted by J.W. West to design stamps for Liberia. I was interested therefore to purchase the postcard attached here.
This card went from Greenville to the Teschemacher family in Elberfeld, now a district of Wuppertal: the reverse is unsigned, and offers only an expression of New Year greetings and wishes for the coming 1894.
The Teschemacher name is pretty rare, with only an estimated 119 Teschemachers in Germany “today” [4], but the Wuppertal branch of the family has been illustrious. Since Gert Teschemacher—born in the 15th century and “the progenitor of the extensive Old Elberfeld Teschemacher family” (“der Stammvater der reichverzweigten Alt-Elberfelder Familie Teschemacher”)—moved the family to Elberfeld from Aachen [5], they have furnished the town with merchants, yarn bleachers, farm owners, and 13 mayors through the 17th and 18th centuries, and also figures meriting individual and extensive Wikipedia pages, such as Werner Teschemacher (1590-1638, an annalist, humanist and reformed theologian) and Jacob Engelbert Teschemacher (1711-1782, an organ builder). The very substantial Teschemacher Hof, dating from 1540, is the oldest surviving half-timbered “Bergisch” house in Wuppertal and remained in the family until 1911, when the city took ownership.
There has also been a Cologne branch of the family, including the operatic soprano Margarete Teschemacher (1903–1959), also at Wikipedia levels of renown … but Erich Teschemacher was from Berlin.
All the same … if there was already a Teschemacher family connection with Liberia, perhaps that explains how Erich came to be fingered for work by J.W. West or the Reichsdruckerei.
Has anybody else seen anything germane to a Teschemacher connection to Liberia?
[1] Fred Farr [Notes, part 2/3], LPS Letter, 10, (March 1967), 3
[2] Fred Farr [Notes, part 3/3], LPS Letter, 11, (April 1967), 2
[3] Martin Giles, “Stamp designer, Erich Teschemacher: Who was he?”, LPS Journal, The Journal of the Liberian Philatelic Society, 5(4) (October-December 2022), 7-11
[4] http://www.name-statistics.org/de/, accessed December 18th 2024
[5] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Teschemacher-2, accessed December 18th 2024