Lot 80012 – Austria – 1851-56 Newspaper Stamps “Mercure” twenty-nine production items

Austria – 1851-56 Mercury Newspaper Stamps, twenty-nine production items incl. seven glass support clichés in varying colours like black, vermilion, rose, some with Sperati’s production comments pertaining to chemicals used, temperature and exposure time, also six celluloid strips with photographic exposures, similarly with production notes and one with faint tête-bêche impression; also fifteen trials on paper, of which one in yellow and one with a postmark reproduction in red Wien 10/11, finally a black impression on onionskin paper derived from the copper plate engraving (showing poor impression); a unique and very comprehensive group that allows us to study the development of Sperati’s reproductions of this world-famous issue. This lot comes with Sperati’s own cardboard box of Guilleminot photographic paper.