French / Peruvian, Guano Seal, Dreyfus Brothers & Co

French / Peruvian, Guano Seal, Dreyfus Brothers & Co. Image & Found by Redgy Dewulf.
Found in maritime Flanders, 22mm.

GUANO / DU / PEROU, inscription around // cornucopia DEPOSE above, GOUVERNEMENT DU PEROU around

The cornucopia trade mark also used by the Ohlendorff Guano Company, and later the Anglo Continental Guano Company that took Ohlendorff over, sits in an inner circle of continuous pellets below the word DEPOSE (Depose is French for registered). It therefore appears to have been registered (in France) by the Drefyus Brothers. In the annulus formed by a further outer circle of continuous pellets is a French inscription:- GOUVERNEMENT DU PEROU with a cross pommelly. The other side has a similar annulus in the centre of which is the inscription in three straight lines:- GUANO DU PEROU.

From Paul Cannon, "For what is a very close (but not identical) example see Exchange-Passion (at bottom of page). I think I can just about make out ‘DREYFU[S FR]ER[ES] ET [CIE]’ on the BSG.BS.00600 example. From a cursory look at British 19th century newspapers, adverts referring to Dreyfus Brothers guano are numerous from papers all over the country eg the following comes from the Gloucester Journal of 30 March 1878 “Peruvian Government Guano: Messrs., Dreyfus Bros. and Co, Contractors with the Supreme Government of Peru, hereby give notice that by virtue of their contracts, they continue to offer Peruvian Government Guano ………………………..” The British Newspaper Archive."

See Wikipedia, Auguste Dreyfus, "Auguste Dreyfus (28 June 1827 – 25 May 1897) was a French businessman who made his fortune by financing the Peruvian trade in guano. Dreyfus joined a small textile trading firm set up by three of his elder brothers and moved to Lima, Peru to act as their local representative. He became involved in the guano trade, and in 1869 signed a major contract with the Peruvian government that gave him a monopoly over exports of Peruvian guano to Europe. With this he controlled the largest source of Peruvian national income. The Peruvian government let Dreyfus act as their agent in managing their existing debt and floating new loans used for railway construction. The government ran into increasing financial difficulties. These were compounded by a war with Chile between 1879 and 1883 in which they lost their key guano-producing province. A lengthy series of lawsuits followed between the creditors whose loans were secured by guano deposits and the governments of Peru and Chile. The Dreyfus trading enterprise came to an end. He retired to France, where he owned a chateau in the country and a mansion in Paris that he filled with a major collection of art."

An interesting document concerning a legal action against the Peruvian Guano Co Ltd. in 1880 is held at The National Archives, Kew.