Lot 50024 – Canada – 1859 17c, group of six items. Sperati’s last work.

Canada – 1859 Jacques Cartier 17c, group of six items including one retouched master negative on film dated by Sperati “1/57”, this being the most important item of this project and the basis to produce the clichés, four glass support clichés in different colours (blue, orange, black and silver grey), as well as one celluloid collective cliché of the target numeral 6 and barred oval. Sperati never finished this work, the left part of the stamp which was perforated on the design would have required a reconstruction work; thanks to the retouched master negative and its annotations we have discovered that Sperati undertook this project in January 1957, a few months before he died in April; A unique and most desirable assembly of this beautiful stamp, of great fascination for revealing what was hitherto unknown: this now has the status of being the last project of Jean de Sperati. The “Ultimate” collection sale of Sperati contained one working proof on paper and a exposure trial, coming originally from the daughter of Sperati; as the B.P.A. purchased part of his archive in 1953, no items are included in its collection.