Jean de Sperati (born Giovanni Desperati in 1884 with Pisa or Pistoia in Italy and dead the April 27th 1957 with Aix-the-Baths in France) was an Italian forger who exerted in France. Specialized in the realization of false postage stamps of collection, he is regarded as one of the Masters on the matter: its creations are required and reach prices sizeable, but quite lower than those of the authentic stamps.
Biography
Giovanni Desperati is born in Toscane from a countable father in a factory. His/her mother and her two brothers (whose photographer) hold a trade of stamps of collection, all forgeries. The company is named the Borsa Filatelica Toscana . The frequentation of a cousin, working paper, initiates Giovanni with the knowledge of the Papier.Following a searching of the police force, the Desperati family moves quickly with Lucca. Thereafter, she lives with Pisa and Turin before emigrating in France and settling with Paris.
It is towards 1909 that Giovanni Desperati francizes its identity in Jean de Sperati . Already engaged in the business of family falsification, he becomes a Master about it. The merchant of stamps Jean Cividini orders to him a reproduction of a rare stamp of the Côte of British Gold and sends it to max Their, an expert Berliner, which returns it while declaring it authentic. Starting from this experiment, of Sperati creates traditional forgeries of stamps with strong dimension which its silent partners resell by misleading the experts of the houses of bidding of Europe and the purchasers.
The “philately of art”, as Jean de Sperati names his activity, uses mainly the Phototypie (or photocollography) like technique of impression. It enables him to use its knowledge in photography and printing works and to reproduce the Lithographie as much that the Taille-douce. It uses sometimes taken again authentic paper of the edges of sheets, even by recycling stamps of low value.
In 1930, to remain discrete, there moves in with Aix-the-Baths, in Savoy with his wife married in 1914 and her daughter born in 1924.
The Second world war brings an addition to him of orders of the merchants of stamps whose customers buy stamps of strong value, easier to hide than other invaluable goods. However, of Sperati is constrained to be discovered in 1942 when a parcel of false German rare stamps sent to Lisbon is seized by the French customs. Believing the authentic stamps, the administration shows it not to have declared their actual value and wants to make it condemn for Tax evasion via an attempt at tax avoidance. He believes capacity to defend himself while acknowledging that they are forgeries, but, in a report/ratio of expert of January 4th, 1944, the criminologist Edmond Locard certifies the authenticity and evaluates the parcel with 223.400 francs, much more than what the customs believed.
To avoid the ruin which the fine would cause, Jean de Sperati presents to the court the evidence of his techniques. The court discharges it for the tax charge of fraud and it draws some with a fine to have obstructed the work of the customs officers. However, post-war period, in 1952, he is considered for the production of false stamps of collection and is condemned to two years of prison that its age saves to him. He was condemned for swindle.
Collection
Creations of Jean de Sperati are collected and sold on the philatelic market in all full knowledge of the facts.A part comes from the purchase, in 1954, by the British Philatelic Association of the tests, of its stock of stamps and its material in Sperati. The tests being already marked by the forger, British association marks and numbers in a visible way the stamps. The material is destroyed. After census and study, the parts are sold to the members of the BPA and the Royal Philatelic Society London. Among the most sought parts, the three leather albums are in which the forger presented his works to the potential customers. One of its sheets present the eighteen traditional stamps which he affirmed to have created with the same material as the sheet of eighteen that he had had to present to Edmond Locard. The last intact preserved book is bought 31.200 pounds sterling at the time of the 9th sale dispersing the collection of Gawaine Baillie, organized with London in January 2007.
Works
- Philately without experts? , 1946.
See too
Sources
- John Winchester, “Artistic license”, article published in Stamp Magazine n°73-5, dated May 2007, pages 44-48.
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