Lot 70
Worldwide Erasmo Oneglia Lithographed and Engraved Forgery Collection. Well over 600 items arranged by country on stockpages in two albums; lithographs forgeries comprised of approximately 200 items including Bermuda QV issues forgeries including various gutter pairs, 1874-75 Surcharge issues and used with issues identified by oil simulated impressed watermarks, British Guiana 1875 issues and 1889 issue mixed mint and used, few British Central Africa and Dominica issues, early Fiji including surcharge issues and early Gambia embossed, few Gibraltar first issues and Mauritius including 1863 1sh-5sh an other later denominations, other countries represented including Nevis, St. Christopher, Transvaal, Hungary, Finland, a section of France 1849-50 Ceres issues photo-lithographs with many multiples, tete-beche, papers, etc., engraved issues with a special section of Canadian Provinces including a study of British Columbia issues with various perf varieties, works of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and a large holding of 1857-62 Thistle issues noting various transfer types, including full sheets of the various issues, extensive range of other issues including Bahamas, Barbados, British Honduras, Ionian Islands, Ceylon, Greece, Hong Kong QV issues, Brazil Bulls Eyes through the 1866 Numeral issues, Cape of Good Hope triangles, early Mauritius, Netherlands Indies first issues, Natal, Nevis, Strait Settlements including surcharge issues, St. Lucia and St. Vincent first issues, similar Turks Islands, United States including 1857, 90c values and two singles of the 1869, 90c Pictorial tied on piece, Victoria, Virgin Islands and Western Australia Swan issues; a remarkable holding of these truly scarce forgeries.Estimate $3,000 - 4,000.
From the mid-1890's to the beginning of WWII, Erasmo Oneglia was a major producer and marketeer of forged postage stamps in Turin, Italy and sold them for what they were. He offered fake overprints and surcharges on genuine and forged stamps, lithographed forgeries and, most interestingly, a large number of engraved forgeries. Some of his photo-lithographs were quite good, probably including the so-called Venturini forgeries of the Swiss Cantonals.
The Oneglia photo-lithographs may well have been made by Jean and/or Mariano de Sperati. It is now established that Jean's brothers, Mariano and Massimo, photographer/printer and stamp dealer respectively, had a business relationship with Oneglia. Very probably Jean de Sperati did his first forging for Oneglia, as well as for his brother, Massimo.
Realized: $6,750