60th AUCTION - day 3

Italy - post marks: 1863, October. First usage of a cancelling machine in Italy.

Italy - post marks

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1863, October. First usage of a cancelling machine in Italy.

In autumn 1863 Italy bought one PEARSON HILL cancelling machine from De La Rue as part of the deal, which lead to the Italian De La Rue series, issued on December 1st, 1863. This machine was tried in Florence for a few days in October 1863 before it was transferred to Turin, where another test (March to May 1864) was done. Italy has not purchased more copies of this machine, the machine used for these experiments was later used in Florence for arrival markings (1868/1869).

Stamps and especially envelopes from 1863 are very rare, in most cases the PEARSON HILL cds was used to cancel the stamps. The usage of an old Tuscan mute rhombic killer is only registered two times. In addition, this is the first known date of the Pearson Hill cds used in Italy.

The stamp tied by a mute rhombic killer shows a printing variety (slightly shift upwards) and wide margins but has faults, the letter shows some stains, but also on the reverse an offset of the canceling machine. Signed and certificate Sottoriva.

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Condition: Cover

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Catalog number(s): 15 II, Sassone 13