An envelope with a seal of a place of business in the city of Pest owned by Jacob Herzl, Theodor Herzl's Father. Sent from Pest (Hungary; Budapest of today), to Serbia in 1860.
On the envelope (a folded leaf of paper) appear the sender's name, "Jacob Herzl & C" and beneath it the date – September 5, 1864 (handwritten by Jacob Herzl?), and the addressee's name. The envelope was sent to the city of Racsa (presumably, Sremska Rača in Servia) and bears postmarks of the cities Kikinda and Peterwardein and additional stamps.
The envelope is stamped with Jacob Herzl's official paper-seal, which reads "Jacob Herzl & Co. Pest".
Jacob Herzl (1832-1902) a Jewish-German merchant and banker, was Theodor Herzl's father. Jacob was born to a Jewish orthodox family in the city of Semlin, Servia (his father, Theodor's grandfather, was the warden of the Sephardic synagogue of the city). At the age of 15, he left home and started working as an apprentice at a supply company. Several decades later, he had a fortune of several millions of marks and his business spread over various fields of commerce and banking.
In 1857, Jacob married Jeanette Diamant and three years later their first child and only son, Theodor, was born. Jacob judged his son's unique and revolutionary ideas favorably and when he discovered what his real plan was – to establish an independent Jewish State in Palestine – he told him he must write a book about it, so as to appeal directly to the people (indeed, about a year later, Theodor Herzl wrote his book "Der Judenstaat").
Jacob died of a stroke in 1902, when Theodor was on his way to visit him. Of the loss of his father, Theodor Herzl said: "My dearest, my best… I owe him everything".
[1] leaf, 23X29 cm, folded into an envelope sized 9.5x13 cm. Good condition. Stains. Tears along edges and along fold lines. Ink corrosion in the line of the addressee's address.