The S_zekula Family of Stamp Dealers

Charles Sekula (1910–1996) was born in Budapest as Károly (=Karl) Dorfstätter to Béla Szekula and Antonia Dorfstätter on March 30, 1910. In late 1930 he joined the management of his father’s stamp wholesale Béla Sekula, Cosmophilatelist. In 1931 he also became an authorized signatory at the Cosmophilatelist AG corporation shortly after its foundation. At the same time he was still in the Swiss army where he achieved the rank of lieutenant. After abusing a number of (sick) recruits who didn’t perform to his satisfaction in March 1932 he was sentenced to 10 days confinement. Subsequently, he concentrated on a civilian career in the stamp trade. In early 1935, he married Elsa Keller (1915–1989) in London. In April, the couple moved to New York City, but Charles kept returning to Switzerland for business. In January 1936 he founded the Metropol Briefmarken AG (Metropol Stamps Ltd.) in Lucerne, taking over stamps worth Fr. 7500 from his own holdings in exchange for equivalent shares in the company. By June 1936, Charles was already the owner of a second firm, the Intercity Stamp Company at 222 Bay Avenue in Douglaston, Long Island. In February 1937, he merged Metropol Stamps Ltd. with the Intercity Stamp Company, followed by an address change in April to 12 Overlook Drive, Port Washington, Nassau County, NY. In August 1937, Metropol Stamps in Lucerne was liquidated. From April 1939 to October 1944, Charles sold US first day covers with cacheted envelopes produced especially for him. Although they have a much simpler design than most competing products, they stand out from the crowd for this very reason and are immediately recognizable as Intercity Stamp Company-covers. Meanwhile (by 1940 at the latest), he also managed to separate his office from his home by relocating his business to 90 Main Street. On December 17, 1940, his son Jeffrey Charles was born. In late 1947, the family and the company left New York and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. On September 15, 1952, Charles and Elsa had their second child, daughter Anne Marie. With another mouth to feed, the stamp trade alone probably did not bring in enough to support the family. In any case, Charles started taking on other jobs for a while, at least for a time during the 1950s. For example, from the summer of 1952 he was manager of the La Posada restaurant in Santa Fe, and later he worked as secretary-treasurer of the Basic Materials Inc. With his Intercity Stamp Company he was nevertheless continuously active as a stamp dealer until at least the early 1980s. Charles Chas Sekula died at a nursing home in Knoxville, Tennessee, on July 25, 1996, at the age of 86.

Unlike his father, Charles Sekula seems to have developed a real interest in stamps. In his obituary he was called a Santa Fe philatelist since 1947.