Henk Visser (collector)

Hinderikus Lucas Visser
Henk Visser holding an ivory pistol
Born	5 August 1923 Groningen
Died	11 June 2006 (2006-06-12) (aged 82)
Nationality	Dutch

Ivory pistol head from the Visser collection, Legermuseum, Delft

Henk Visser (5 August 1923 – 11 June 2006) was a Dutch arms and armory collector, philanthropist and Dutch businessman.

The collection is centered around the ivory-stocked pistols. His collection was documented by the curator Jan Piet Puype who discovered that he had all of the very rare and important examples of ivory pistols in his collection (there were only 52 worldwide). The H.L. Visser collection is the largest collection of arms and armory. The Family collection is worth about $150 - $200 million and resides in the Rijksmuseum and the National Military Museum.

About Henk Visser

Henk Visser (Hinderikus Lucas Visser) was born in Groningen and became involved in the Dutch resistance during World War II when he was still in High School. He was condemned to death and waited three months on death row before being sent to prison camp in Germany. After the war he went to work for a munitions factory, De Kruithoorn in Den Bosch (Netherlands), and traveled to Russia and Indonesia, where he began his collection of arms and armory. He later became an independent arms dealer, the largest one in the middle east.

Ivory pistols by Jean Louroux from the Visser collection

Catalogs

• The Visser Collection: Arms of the Netherlands in the Collection of H. L. Visser, Volume I: Catalogue of Firearms, Swords and Related Objects, by Jan Piet Puype, ISBN 90-400-9881-6
• The Visser Collection: Arms of the Netherlands in the Collection of H.L. Visser, Vol. II: Ordnance, by R. Roth, Waanders, Zwolle, 1996, ISBN 90-400-9882-4

References

• Henk Visser (wapenverzamelaar) in the RKD
• Verzetsherdenkingskruis in 1980
• Lecture by Visser on his collection of ivory-stocked pistols for the American Society of Arms Collectors