FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Debbie Woolf]

I have a pocket compendium of precious stones, I understand its to Hern/Herm Philipps of Ameib but I would like to know what rest of the inscription says & signature, German I think.

Thanks
Debbie

[keldjarn]

Debbie,
It is German stating that it is (a gift) in memory of the friend whos signture is at the bottom: J. G....

Knut

[Debbie Woolf]

Thank you very much Knut, I am very pleased :0)

[keldjarn]

Debbie,
My guess for the name could be as good as yours - but "Getnauer" is a known German family name.
Knut

[alfredo]

Debbie, The "Herrn" part judt means "Mr.", so the inscription is to Mr. Philipps, owner of the Ameib ranch in Usakos.

[Debbie Woolf]

Thank you Knut. I think it might be 'rra' whereas your suggestion is 'na', what do you think ?

Thanks Again
Debbie

[Debbie Woolf]

Thank You Alfredo, that clarifies it was given to Mr Philipps as I thought it might refer to Mrs or step-daughter.

Yes I did know it was Farm Ameib (not ranch, now I'm being picky) :0) as I now own this collection.

I would love to find out more about Mr Philipps, I understand he was a wealthy American who was in Namibia at the time of the great depression.

[Tobi]

The signature says:

Herrn Philipps
(To Mr. Philipps)

Ameib
(-)

Ein Andenken an seinen Freund
(A souvenir to remember his friend)

J. ???

It is difficult to decipher the name, but @Knut: Sorry, but "Getnauer" ist NOT a known family name in German. I have never heard that name. If it exists, it is very rare and exotic ...

@Debbie: Your guess that it means "rra" instead of "na" is impossible - "Gehrrauer" is a name which never existed in German.

[keldjarn]

Martin,

I did not say "Getnauer" is a common German family name. I just stumbled upon it once in relation to a family in Danzig in the late 19th century. But because of that I may have been biased when trying to read the name on the label...

Knut

[Debbie Woolf]

Thank You All for your advices, much appreciated.

[Duncan Miller]

J. S. Mauer ??? Zoom in, and there appears to be a dot after the S.

[Debbie Woolf]

Duncan, thank you for your reply. I don't think its an S with a dot after, if you look at the other 's' in the inscription they have a curled tail.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Debbie

[Debbie Woolf]

Does this larger version help ?

[lluis]

Well, I read Surrauer.
At least is a german family name

Unfortunately I could not find any Surrauer related to minerals :-(

With best wishes

Lluís

[Tracy]

I read the name as Setmauer, which brings up no useful hits on Google, but that's just what I see. There are no other upper-case S's to compare against. What's more, people tend to put special fluorishes etc when signing their name. I'm more inclined to believe that it is "-ma" rather than"-rra" because if you look at the M in "Herm" the strokes and inflections of the pen are similar, only in the signature they are more angular and deliberate (which would not be surprising for somebody's signature). No handwriting expert, and again no hits for Setmauer, but for what it's worth. (Maybe an antecedent of Setmayer? - I get lots of hits for that name...)

- Tracy

[lluis]

Hi, Tracy

Well, is HERRN not HERM (upper cases to avoid mistakes). Is difficult to see the rr different of rm in some fonts...
Then, I still see it as rrauer (I agree that mauer makes more sense in german, but, still I see rrauer).
Could be Gurrauer, being an author named Gottschalk Eduard Gurrauer (other wrote as Guhrauer). 1809-1854, maybe too old....

But, I found also that rhenish missionary Carl Gotthilf Büttner found the Phillips cave in Ameib....That was in 1884. Maybe a descendant of such Gurrauer...

I will wait for Martin opinion, but at least that makes some sense...

With best wishes

Lluís

[Montanpark]

Hi all,
the kind of writing suggests that it is from the first half of the 20th century. As Namibia has been 'Deutsch Suedwestafrika' german writings, labels and books related to Namibia are common. The name is hard to tell if no comparison - S or G are not clear. I will check some of my literature of course,

cheers
Roger

[Tracy]

Oh well, I tried....looking at it again, Lluis, I do see an "-rr" instead of an "-m."

[Montanpark]

no rr for me ... may be Gehrauer,
this name exists of course

cheers
Roger