Argentina, Buenos Aires – 1858-59 « Barquitos » – « Steamship » Issues, group of around 80 items comprising:

Tres Pesos: Six glass clichés in grey, black and vermilion, of which one in negative, one with part of the impression defective at top left where a fingerprint is noticeable (exceptional defect in a Sperati’s cliché) and note indicating that the first essay was difficult, one dated « 11/31 » in November 1931, in two indicating a coincident time of light exposure of 2 mins 40 secs; two clichés on celluloid in vermilion latter with notations « 16° x 5,5% x 3′  » to denote the percentage of chemical used, the exposure to light of 3 minutes under a temperature of 16°, also indicating the application of an defective ink for the filter as confirmed by his « encre def. », with a cliché in green being exceptional in the Sperati archive as he used red/vermilion and grey/black shades as those preferred to create contrasts, and three trial exposures on photographic paper. The lot also includes on trial exposure for the Dos Pesos.

Cuatro Pesos: Three glass clichés in vermilion (2) and purple, one with part impression and described as ‘too cooked’ under these conditions « 6 x 18° x 1’10 »  » (6% chemical substance, one mins 10 secs light exposure under 10°C), the other with interesting ms translated text: ‘make a partial emission of 5-6 copies each time/two days in the water without (unreadable substance); two clichés on Agfa celluloid, one dated 6.9.41 and indicating ‘4p red vermilion-brown on back’, as well as four trial exposures on photo paper.

Cinco Pesos: Four glass clichés, of which one in negative with his note denoting that it was oily on front, the others in black-purple, vermilion and orange-bistre, with different times of light exposure ranging from 2 mins 30 secs to 3 mins 30 secs; and two trial exposures on photo paper.

Un (In) Peso blue: Five glass clichés in vermilion and black/greyish-black, two clichés in black and blue on celluloid, the former dated « 3/41 », four trial exposures on photographic paper, as well as two proofs in black and blue (dated « 11/31 ») on wove paper

Cancellations: including « Ponchito », Buenos Aires datestamp (two typos), this section comprising three negative glass clichés, one glass support cliché, three clichés on celluloid and 26 proofs or eassays on paper including some with various strikes, Sperati’s fingerprints to test the inks and abundant comments in some instances.

The unique and most comprehensive assembly of these visually captivating issues and great classics of worldwide philately. The Postal Museum in Paris reported only 17 clichés or matrices in its possession for all Argentina issues; the B.P.A. states in the Sperati I handbook to have two clichés for each the 3p and 1p.