French / Peruvian, Guano Seal, Dreyfus Brothers & Co.
French / Peruvian, Guano Seal, Dreyfus Brothers & Co., Seal, Image by Bilox, Found by Jammy Ged.
From around Wetherby / Knaresbough area.
An image of a cornucopia is about all that can be made out.
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. (With the help of another seal & Paul Cannon) - 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.
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.
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