Ephemera
Insurance certificates
Constantinople
The Norwich Union prospectus for Turkey, 1908 (and below 1910) whose Constantinople agent was the Gilchrist Walker company of Galata.
General Accident insurance policy document Turkey 1907 (a year’s contract for the protection of a cafe / hotel with contents owned by an Artin Effendi Seropian in Constantinople).
General Accident letter sent to head-office in Scotland by one of the managers, Phocion Courtelly, Constantinople 1913.
Above information and images courtesy of Anna Stone, Group Archivist, Aviva Group Archive
view Gilchrist Walker Constantinople map
A policy form of the Gresham Life in (Ottoman) Turkish
Illustration of the French Union’s office building on today’s Bankalar Caddesi, Galata/Karaköy. Below the street sign of Sun Insurance in front of its office on the same street.
Smyrna
The Commercial Union register of agents entry fo Smyrna 1887 - 1907 (Spartali Brothers, later Frangia Brothers, agency withdrawn 1923).
Commercial Union foreign agency results for Smyrna also for Palatine and Union 1914 - 1919.
Fire insurance certificate (other sheets: 1, 2) issued by the Swiss ‘Baloise’ company via the Smyrna based representative Jules Egli (Austrian?) to the property of Mdme Themis (?) Pettinato for one year on 24 March 1919 for the value of £700 and a premium of £9.17.
Mersin
With the high density of buildings in ports, with much wood being used and only rudimentary fire fighters present, and those often only tackling blazes on buildings with that insurance, there was a great need for fire insurance by those who could afford this in the various ports of the Levant. Naturally the rich had more to lose in fires and could afford the premiums and so the Levantines were often prominent in both providing that service as agents of Western companies and also insuring their homes and businesses. Fire insurance maps helped provide the detailed intelligence for the companies as they weighed risks for both individual properties and whole neighbourhoods, depending on construction type, narrowness of streets, proximity to the sea or other available water etc.
This is a fire insurance certificate 1 year extension issued to a Greek resident of Mersin, Madame Helene Chrysostome C. Mavrommati, just before the First World War, 18th July 1913. The insurance company is a Swiss based Compagnie d’Assurances contre l’incendie a Bale, charging in British currency £13.71 (in today’s money ~ £600) to cover assets worth £3,560 (~ £150,000) to include house, furniture, piano with the address given as Rue des Jardines in Mersin, with the contract signed in Smyrna, together with the various stamps, signature of the agent and stampings to make the document legally binding.
