Jean de Sperati

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Jean de Sperati (born October 14, 1884 in Pisa , † April 27, 1957 in Aix-les-Bains ) was one of the most famous stamp forgers in the world. His forgeries were so good that even stamp examiners from his day certified them as genuine. He was a printer and engraver by profession . Because of his outstanding ability to imitate the motif , the paper and the print , he was also called " Rubens of Philately" .

Sperati forgery of the Black One

Life

Childhood and youth

Jean de Sperati was born in Italy in 1884 but lived most of his life in France. He began collecting stamps in his youth in Pisa and later in France. He was also particularly interested in the printing techniques of the time and in photography, which was still young at the time . Relatives owned a postcard factory and a paper factory . This gave Jean de Sperati a great deal of photographic, printing and chemical knowledge. These were the foundations for his further career as a stamp forger.

The first fakes

Jean de Sperati made his first attempts at copying stamps exceptionally well. These were valuable San Marino stamps, all of which were declared genuine by stamp experts. As a result, Sperati began making numerous other copies of valuable postage stamps from around the world. Well over 500 masterful forgeries were created from over 100 different issuing areas.

In 1942 the postage forger came into conflict with the law for the first time in his life. A consignment from Sperati to Portugal was intercepted by French customs . It contained several forged German postage stamps. Jean de Sperati was charged with illegal capital export. However, he protested his innocence. He explained to the police that the supposedly valuable rarities from Germany were only copies that he had made himself. The police then called the country's top postage stamp experts to clarify the matter. They came to the conclusion that all postage stamps were originals and that they were extremely valuable. The forensic scientist Edmond Locard from Lyon chaired the experts . Jean de Sperati was able to convince the police of the falseness of the rarities, but was charged with fraud . The trial against him took place in April 1948.

The 1948 trial

Jean de Sperati tried to explain to the court that he had no fraudulent intent in selling the stamps. He feels like an artist and not a forger. He also told the court that he had just forgotten to mark the stamps as forgeries, but that he would do so in the future. In fact it was the case that he had offered the rare stamps at around 1% of the normal market price and thus helped the common collector to get these rarities. Nevertheless, Jean de Sperati was sentenced by the Paris Criminal Chamber to one year in prison, a fine of 10,000 francs and an atonement of 300,000 francs . The Paris criminal chamber sentenced him not on the basis of the imitations, but on account of his "fraudulent intentions".

After the guilty verdict

Due to his old age - he was already over 64 years old - Jean de Sperati did not have to go to prison. In 1954 he finally sold his remaining forgeries and all of the printing blocks to the British Philatelic Association for an enormous sum of money. He then withdrew completely from this business and promised never to forge a stamp again. By selling all of his fakes and printing blocks, he also wanted to prevent anyone from getting possession of them and being able to imitate him. Three years later, Jean de Sperati died at the age of 73.

plant

Jean de Sperati's counterfeit stamps are among the best in the world. Many of them are probably still lying undiscovered in some collections . Jean de Sperati only forged the most valuable rarities in philately . He did this with an inimitable precision that hardly any other forger has ever achieved. When forging stamps, Jean de Sperati also paid close attention to the choice of location of the postmark . So he only imitated postmarks from larger cities.

A Sperati forgery is by no means worthless today. They are viewed by philatelists as special collector's items and often fetch high prices. On the other hand, counterfeit stamps of inferior quality are often worthless if they are not sought for comparison or research purposes.

literature

  • The Sperati story. In: Die Briefmarke Issue No. 1/2011, pp. 14-17
  • Jean de Sperati - Caught in his own trap! In: Wolfgang Maassen: Real or False? Forgeries and counterfeiters of philately , Phil Creativ Verlag, Schwalmtal 2003, ISBN 3-932198-48-4 , pages 151 to 161
  • M. Burzan: Speratis Meisterstücke (series of articles), In: philately from issue no.413 of November 2011
  • M. Burzan: Who was Jean de Sperati? In: Deutsche Briefmarken-Zeitung No. 5/2015, pp. 18–22 (cover story)
  • R. Lowe and C. Walske: The Work of Jean de Sperati II , The Royal Philatelic Society London , London 2001
  • Varro E. Tyler .: Philatelic Forgers: Their Lives and Works. , 2nd edition, publisher: Linn's Stamp News, USA 1991, pp. 122-125

Web links

Commons : Jean de Sperati  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Sperati, Jean de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rubens's Philately
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Forger
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Pisa
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1957
Place of death Aix-les-Bains