Gerhard Lang-Valchs
Introduction
Some years ago I started my research into the Spanish
lithographer and stamp dealer Plácido Ramón de Torres (1847-c1919), who was
little known even in his own country. To my surprise it emerged that I had come
across not only the world’s most prolific reproducer of postage stamps for
catalogues, albums and philatelic magazines, but probably one of the world’s
most prolific forgers.
After studying and comparing most early European
catalogues and magazines, it turned out that Torres was the supplier of
engravings for the majority of editors.[1]
Then it became clear that the Spaniard had supplied
most American catalogue editors as well.[2] As
the first Australian catalogues and magazines were published relatively late, I
did not take them in account. However, when I first examined copies of some early
20th century Australian catalogue pages, I soon realized they had also
used the Torres illustrations.
Forging activities
The certainly surprising world-wide commercial
activity of the Spaniard in the second half of the 19th and early 20th
centuries is undoubtedly of a certain historical interest, but its philatelic
implications appeared to be quite limited. However, further information has
emerged that changes this impression. After, or maybe even before, delivering
the stamp images to his clients, he used to make “private copies” and put them
into stamp packages, so converting them into forgeries.
This practise started in the early 1860’s, when Elia
Carlo Usigli, editor and one of the first Italian stamp dealers, discovered the
talent of the lithograph apprentice and built up a Europe-wide distribution net
for the stamp illustrations the young Spaniard produced for him. Moens, the
European Father of Philately, was from 1864 on his client and Torres until the end
of his business in 1899 his engraver. After the separation from his patron in
1874 he left Italy and continued from Barcelona on his own.[3] The
actual existence of forgeries made with the stones of his illustrations has
been discovered for a lot of countries.[4] Articles about the Torres-forgeries of some
issues of Spain[5],
Newfoundland[6],
various West-Indies’ countries (Antigua, Nevis, Montserrat, Virgin Islands, St.
Vincent)[7]
and the Russian local stamps (Zemstvo) have recently been published. Others about
the Hamburg Boten (private post), Philippines, US Confederate States, the
so-called Senf-forgeries or the Hawaii Missionaries are about to be published.
Discovered, but not yet documented are e.g. forgeries of Falkland, US Locals
and Carriers, Italy (Modena, Roman State) and others. So, I think, we are
allowed to extrapolate that he made “private copies” from almost all of the 1242
stamps depicted in his own 1879 Álbum,
at the time effectively a catalogue. Where a lot of identical copies of those aforementioned
forgeries could be found.
 |
| Front-page Torres stamp album |
For the American market Torres created a second “product-line”
of values. These were different from those supplied to the European catalogues
and magazines, and it is not yet clear, if and to what extent he used his
stones to produce counterfeits of these new specimens as well. Unpublished
studies of the CSA stamps, and the US Locals and Carriers, seem to confirm the
suspicion that he could also have made a substantial number of fake copies of those
stamps.
Torres illustrations in the Australian
catalogues
Said this, it is not really surprising that some Australian
stamps are affected as well by the forgeries. But the astonishing thing is the
discovery, that the early Australian catalogues depict the same Torres
illustrations we already know from their American brethren.
Let us now examine some examples that establish the Hagen
and Smyth-Nicolle catalogues in reality did use his illustrations as well.[8]
The design of the chosen examples should be clear enough to confirm my
assertion, and I think no further analysis is needed to show that we are
dealing with identical copies.
 |
| First and third, illustrtion Hagen catalogue; second and fourth, illustration Torres album |
The Victoria forgeries
As far as the forgeries are concerned, a detailed
comparison and analysis will, however, be necessary to prove their origins
without leaving any room for doubt. I shall compare the genuine with both the forgery
and the Torres illustration. Differences from the original should be common to both.
6 pence
The left value tablet of the copies is set higher than
that on the right. It also depicts a perfect oval, whereas on the original it
is “flattened” on the right hand side. The letters in the value tablet of the
original are taller. All characters of the inscription show clearly longer
serifs than on the copies.
The unshaded area at the neck has a small longish, almost
vertical form; on the copies it is nearly rhomboid-shaped and inclined to the
right. The line marking the bottom part of the Queens neck emerges from the
middle, then turning to the right. It is a bit
thicker than the others, and seems to contain an extra shading line. On the
original it reaches from side to side, and very
short vertical lines below mark the base.
 |
| Genuine, forgery and illustration Torres album |
1 penny
A look at the network of interwoven lines forming the
background of this stamp reveals a basic difference between the various examples.
On the original the lines of the network are surrounding the central oval,
whereas on the others the lines end at the frame of their spandrels. Some
characters of the inscription show a clearly different form on the copies. The
lower ending of the “C” is too short and extends only to half the width of the
character; on the copies we see the usual form. On the original the vertical
stroke of the “T” is larger at the right, but on the copies it is the other way
round. The “A” has no bar on the original, whereas it is present on the copies.
The “Y” has a very short stem on the original and could nearly be a “V”,
whereas the copies show a stem half the height of the upper case letters.
 |
| Genuine, forgery and illustration Torres album |
The coronet of the Queen on the copies shows at the
right an additional (sixth) adornment, not visible on the original. The shaded
areas between the ear, chin and neck are differently distributed. The original
shows a broad area without shading lines at the right side of the neck, whereas
the others show the same at the opposite side.
The 2d …
The ellipse-shaped line surrounding the oval
inscription label touches the upper and lower frame tangentially, at one point,
at the left and the right side. However, it leaves a clearly visible space,
unlike the other examples, where the same line touches tangentially at the left
and right side and merges with the upper and lower frame between the “T/O” and
the “H/I” of the inscription.
 |
| Geniine, illustration Hagen catalogue, forgery and Torres-illustration (Stanley-Gibbons) |
The value letters are differently styled. The
prolongation of the diagonal line of the upper right value (downwards) would
intersect the left stroke of the “A” between the serif and the bar, whereas on
the forgery it would almost merge with the right stroke of the “A”. On the
illustration and the forgery, the ear of the Queen shows a poorly drawn shape.
The shading lines of the face and the neck are nearly horizontal with a slight
downward curving in the middle. On the genuine the curving is more visible and
the other way round.
The differences from the original are once again all
coincidences between the fake and the illustration. We find identical ones in
various catalogues of different European editors, all clients of Torres.[9]
Conclusion
Despite the very inky impression of one of the fakes,
there was no problem determining which were the genuine examples. All pairs of
illustrations and their corresponding forgeries exhibit the same differences.
They are not due to accidental defects of the engravings or the clichés like
flaws, broken, faint or fading lines. The number, form and distribution of the
shading lines at the face, chin and neck coincide on each pair. As we are
referring to lithographic engravings such coincidences even in details referred
to above, can only be explained by their common origin from the same original
stone.
A hand-made imitation can never produce a 100% true
copy. It would inevitably contain differences we can’t appreciate on our pairs.
Taking in account the late edition of the Australian catalogues, photographic
techniques could certainly have been used to produce the clichés for the
catalogue illustrations. Even so, this has no influence on the conclusion,
because such photos would obviously have been taken from the
Torres-illustrations and not from genuine stamps.
That means all those specimens were made by Torres; both
the illustrations and the forgeries have the same origin.
The Torres-“jokes” and possibilities
for future research
Can we extrapolate the results to later issues and to other
states of Australia? The experience gained from other catalogues, and an
initial examination of the other illustrations, suggest we can. The knowledge
about Torres’ practises will certainty facilitate future research and studies
of this question, and other related subjects. One Victoria-related
particularity of Torres, that could be helpful for future research is shown in
the above depicted figure. It does certainly not appear in the Australian
catalogues, but although one of the few discovered and publicly denounced
“errors” it ironically can be found in the Scott’s even up to their 50th
edition.
 |
| Discovered Torres-"joke" |
Torres introduced in some of his copies, such as the one
illustrated above, deliberate changes. If he were able or fortunate enough to
discover them, an inexperienced collector, unfamiliar with Torres and the
stamps, would assume these were accidental errors probably due to careless
engraving or handling of the stone, or to defects of the printing process.[10]
The most easily detectable “defects” are those of the inscriptions or values,
but I can draw your attention as well to others.
 |
| First, genuine; second Torres-"joke"; third, genuine stamp, lower part; fourth, changed form of tablets; fifth "LATE" = "LATI" |
On the first example, only the design is altered (compare
fig. 17/18); the stylized perforation and the
all-including frame of the original are totally omitted, and instead of one, we
can see two lines below the curved lower label. Figure (19/20) shows an
alteration of the inscription, adding a final dot to “DUTY”. The STAMP DUTY
tablet, bounded on the original by the lower portion of the central circle, is
extended to the whole width of the tablet on the copies and the originally
trapezoid-shaped value tablet is now rectangular. And finally (figure 23) the “E”
of “LATE” is converted into an oversized handwritten lowercase “I”.
Cross-checking existing and recorded forgeries with
the illustrations of the different early catalogues, will possibly throw new
light on other unrecorded “jokes”, lead to the detection of more counterfeits
and the correct attribution to their real creator.
Acknowledgement
My thanks are due to Brian R Peace FRPSL APR without whose library, assistance and editing this research would have remained incomplete and unpublished.
[1] Gerhard Lang-Valchs [GLV]: Los grabadores de Jean-Baptiste Moens,
Eco Filatélico, sept. 2017, p. 30-32 (1st part), oct. 2017, p. 25-27
(2nd part).
[2] GLV: The Early Scott Catalogues and
Their Illustrations. Discovering a Spanish Forger’s Footprints, Collectors Club Philatelist, nº 96, Nov.-Dec. 2017, p. 205-210.
[3] GLV: Il conte Cesare Bonasi accusato di frode, sett. 2016, p. 5-9.
[4] I’m not referring to the 12 or 13
stamps of classic Spain forged by Torres, confiscated in Bremen by German
(1886) and in Saint Louis (1892) by American authorities, described by John K.
Tiffany: Spanish Counterfeits, Philatelic Journal of America, vol. 8, p.
199-202; p. 246-250; p. 288-291; p. 309-312; p. 384-35; p. 427-428 and F. Graus
in his Manual de falsos de España, 6
vol., Barcelona 1981-87 as his work.
[5] GLV: Die falschen
Fuffziger des Dr. Moschkau. Das kommt mir Spanish vor, Deutsche Briefmarken-Zeitung
2017, Nr. 3, p. 20-23 (Teil 1);
Nr. 4, p. 26-27 (Teil 2). GLV: Early British Stamp Experts
and Spanish forgeries, The London Philatelist, April 2017, vol. 126, 1444,
p. 132-138. GLV: Moens, Torres y los primeros catálogos
españoles, Eco Filatélico, Abril 2018, p. 24-29.
[6] GLV: Newfoundland
Discovery: 1866 Torres forgeries that correct those misidentified Moens fakes, Newfoundland Standard Stamp Catalogue, 10th
edition, 2016, p. 675-679. GLV: How an Old Album Threw New Light on
19th century Forgeries, Stamp Lover, vol. 108, n. 6, Dec. 2016,
p. 174-176.
[7] Some West Indies’-
forgeries and Fantasy Stamps, Stamp Lover, April 2018, p. 45-48.
[8] T.
H. Smyth, Nicolle: Illustrated priced
catalogue of the Australasian Stamps, Sydney 1900; Frederick Hagen: Illustrated Priced Catalogue of the Stamps
of Australasia and adjacent Islands, Sydney 1902.
[9] Jean-Baptiste Moens: Catalogue prix-courant…, Bruxelles, 1892; Maurice Bélin: Catalogue descriptif illustré…,
Bruxelles 1899, G. Gelli & R. Tani: Catalogue
Illustré de Timbres-poste, 2nd edition, Bruxelles 1898; The Lincoln Stamp Album and Catalogue,
London 1900. See as well GLV: Early British Stamp Experts
and Spanish Forgeries, The London Philatelist, April 2017, vol. 106, n.
1444, p. 132-138.
[10] Supposing those
“jokes” were not detected because of the lack of knowledge of the Cyrillic
characters, Torres exaggerated this practise in
his illustrations of the Russian local stamps (Zemstvo) that show an incredible
number of such “errors”. A first study of this phenomenon, published in Germany
and Russia, could document the facts and demonstrate the deliberate character
of the “errors”: Olga Frey, GLV: Olga Frey, GLV: Moens, Torres und die
Zemstvo-Marken, Deutsche Zeitschrift für Russland-Philatelie, Nr. 105, Jan.
2017, p. 19-26. Russian version: Моэнс, Торрэс и Земство, Philatelia,
Moscow, Sept. 2017, p. 28-31 (1st part), Dec. 2017, p. 29-31, (2nd
part).
PUBLISHED ORIGINALLY IN THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PHILATELY
No. 147, MARCH 2019. WITH AUTHORIZATION OF THE AUTOR
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario