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When the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on 17 March 1861, the Post Office was not prepared for the change with a new issue specifically designed for the new State. The stamps of the fourth issue of the Kingdom of Sardinia therefore continued to be used, as they were already in circulation and perfectly suited to representing the new sovereign and the new State, since they bore the effigy of Victor Emmanuel II without any territorial inscription.
The stamps were printed by a Turin printer, Francesco Matraire, who continued to work for the new Postal Administration after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. It was Matraire who, on his own initiative, constructed a perforating machine and used it to perforate sheets of the already printed fourth issue, hoping that this demonstration of modernity would secure the renewal of a supply contract that was approaching its expiry. The initiative was favourably received by the Postal Administration, which decided to place the newly perforated stamps on sale.
On 25 February 1862, the General Directorate of Posts published a notice in the Official Gazette, dated Turin, 23 February, which stated:
This was not a new issue in the traditional sense of the term, but rather stamps of the fourth issue of Sardinia subjected to the new perforating process. It is precisely this material and production continuity that makes the relationship between the Sardinian issue and the first perforated stamps of the Kingdom of Italy particularly interesting.
The perforation was not applied to all the values of the fourth issue of Sardinia, but only to the 10, 20, 40 and 80 centesimi, four denominations widely used for correspondence at the time. The 20-centesimi value was particularly important, as it still paid the ordinary rate for a single letter and was the denomination most commonly used.
Letter sent from Milan on 6 March 1862 to Rovereto, franked as far as the Austrian border with a 20-centesimi stamp with sheet margin at left. The letter was then taxed by hand at 5 kreuzer for forwarding to its destination (Santachiara auction, 21 May 2022)
However, the 20-centesimi was not the first value known to have been postally used. A letter franked with the 10-centesimi stamp bears the date 24 February 1862, five days earlier than the earliest known use of the 20-centesimi, on 1 March, as highlighted in the important work by Serra/Zanaria and in other authoritative articles, including those by Lorenzo Oliveri and Gianluca Palano published on Il Postalista.
The appearance of the perforated stamps was therefore progressive and did not coincide with a new issue introduced simultaneously in all its denominations: the 20-centesimi was the only value whose sale was officially announced, beginning on 1 March 1862, while the 10, 40 and 80 centesimi entered postal use at different times, according to a chronology that must be reconstructed from the earliest known dates.
How Matraire’s perforation worked.
The process was carried out on already printed sheets of fifty stamps from the fourth issue of the Kingdom of Sardinia. These were placed beneath the perforating machine and perforated row by row. The device built and used by Matraire was of the comb type, operating vertically: a series of punches arranged in the shape of a comb descended onto the sheet and, with a single stroke, simultaneously perforated the horizontal side and the two vertical sides of an entire row of stamps.
After each stroke, the sheet was advanced by the height of one row. The next stroke therefore completed the side left open on the previous row while at the same time beginning the perforation of the following one. There was, however, one characteristic peculiarity: the final row of the sheet remained imperforate along its lower edge.
The final stroke, which would have served only to perforate the outer margin beneath the last row, was omitted because it was unnecessary for separating the stamps and would merely have prolonged the work. This is a normal characteristic of the issue, not an accidental variety.
Block of four of the 80-centesimi with lower sheet margin. The absence of perforation beneath the final row is clearly visible, a consequence of the omission of the last stroke of the comb perforator during the processing of the sheet
The resulting perforation was 11½ × 12: in philatelic terms, this means that over a length of two centimetres there are 11½ perforations horizontally and 12 vertically. A seemingly simple expedient, but one sufficient to achieve the purpose stated in the notice issued by the General Directorate of Posts itself: allowing the stamps to be separated quickly without the use of scissors.
The innovation, however, did not result in the immediate disappearance of imperforate stamps, which continued to circulate alongside the new perforated examples.
Why perforated and imperforate stamps continued to coexist.
It is worth asking why the Postal Administration, after introducing this more modern method of separating stamps in 1862, continued not only to use up its existing stocks but also to print new imperforate stamps as late as the autumn of 1863, more than two years after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
The answer lies entirely in the outcome of Matraire’s gamble. His demonstration did not secure the renewal he had hoped for: in July 1862 the contract for the new postal supplies was awarded to the Swedish Count Ambjörn Sparre and, from that moment, perforation, never required under the contract and never invoiced, lost any reason to continue and was abandoned as early as the following month. It was therefore not a mechanical failure, as some already suggested at the time, that brought perforation to an end, but a matter of economic calculation, at the very moment when it ceased to offer any advantage to the man who had devised it.
The problem was that the new series promised by Sparre, including the proposed 15-centesimi value intended to replace the 20-centesimi, was delayed, and remained so for a long time. Matraire’s contract, which expired on 30 September 1862, was extended several times: by the end of July he had already been asked to continue printing until November; on 30 October he was urgently commissioned to produce a provisional 15-centesimi stamp by adapting the old design as best he could; and on 29 January 1863 he was finally awarded a new contract, retroactive to 1 January, to supply the Post Office quarter by quarter «until such time as the Administration is able to make other arrangements».
It was precisely this provisional situation, which lasted far longer than expected, that forced Matraire to undertake new and substantial printings of the old values as late as the autumn of 1863. These included the 10 and 40 centesimi, as well as values that had never been perforated, such as the 5 and 2 centesimi. All continued to be produced in the usual imperforate form, because there was no longer any reason to reactivate, for supplies that were themselves only provisional, a process for which the Administration provided him with no financial compensation.
Letter sent from Livorno on 6 March 1863 to Maracaibo (Venezuela), franked with a perforated 40-centesimi carmine-red stamp in mixed franking with an imperforate 80-centesimi orange-yellow stamp of the fourth issue of Sardinia. The letter travelled through France (red “Lanslebourg 5” postmark dated 9 March), reached London on 10 March and from there was sent by rail to Southampton, from where it sailed on 17 March for St Thomas (West Indies), arriving there on 1 April. From St Thomas, the letter was then forwarded to its destination (Bolaffi auction, 6 April 2023)
The 20-centesimi, on the other hand, followed a different course, independent of these contractual developments. From 1 January 1863, the rate for an ordinary domestic single letter was reduced from 20 to 15 centesimi, and the value that had previously fulfilled that function lost much of its usefulness. It ceased to be valid on 28 February 1863 and was replaced by the new 15-centesimi “Sardinia type”. The other values, unaffected by the tariff reform, remained valid until 31 December 1863.
This prolonged overlap between perforated and imperforate printings makes the comparison between their respective shades particularly significant.
Colour concordances.
The shades of the different printings provide further confirmation of what emerges from the documentation. Had perforation continued in 1863, we should also find among the perforated stamps the colours characteristic of the printings produced by Matraire during that year. This does not occur with the 10- and 40-centesimi values: the characteristic shades of the 1863 printings are found among the imperforate stamps, but not among the perforated ones.
The rare olive-yellow shade: at left, the 10-centesimi of the fourth issue of Sardinia (14Dc); at right, the perforated 10-centesimi of the first issue of the Kingdom of Italy (1ba)
The 20-centesimi and the 80-centesimi, on the other hand, show no 1863 printing, though for different reasons: the former because the reduction in the ordinary single-letter rate from 20 to 15 centesimi had by then made it redundant; the latter because, being a less frequently used denomination, demand was covered by the stocks already available.
The indigo shade: at left, the 20-centesimi of the fourth issue of Sardinia (15E); at right, the perforated 20-centesimi of the first issue of the Kingdom of Italy (2)
For the full concordance between the stamps of the Kingdom of Sardinia and those of the Kingdom of Italy, I refer readers to the article written by my friend and colleague Paolo Cardillo, “DIAMO I NUMERI! – I dentellati del Regno visti dal lato della IV emissione di Sardegna!”.
The light rose shade: at left, the 40-centesimi of the fourth issue of Sardinia (16Ea); at right, the perforated 40-centesimi of the first issue of the Kingdom of Italy (3c)
The table lists the colours included in the Sassone catalogue for the first issue of the Kingdom of Italy. Not all known shades, however, correspond to classifications found in the catalogue. I came across a piece bearing two examples of the 10-centesimi dark olive-brown, corresponding to Rattone 57b and classified by Alberto Diena. If not from the very first printing, it is certainly from one of the earliest printings of the perforated 10-centesimi.
I have also examined a used example in light olive-bistre, corresponding to Rattone 58b and classified by Emilio Diena, as well as several ochre-yellow examples, both off cover and on cover, corresponding to 14Dd of the fourth issue of Sardinia.
At the time of Italian Unification, the postal question was not the most urgent matter to be resolved: the stamps of the Kingdom of Sardinia were already there, ready to temporarily make up for the absence of an issue belonging specifically to the new State. Had it not been for Francesco Matraire, who built a perforating machine on his own initiative, we would most probably have remained without any issue until the 15-centesimi, which nevertheless retained the same design as the earlier Sardinian values.
Perforation suffered only a temporary interruption. With the De La Rue issue of 1 December 1863, initially printed in London and subsequently in Turin, it returned to systematic and permanent use on Italian postage stamps.
The first perforated issue of the Kingdom of Italy can therefore, in every respect, be regarded as a sister issue to the fourth issue of Sardinia, an evolution of it rather than a truly independent issue. It retains the same fascination, printing characteristics and richness of shades that reflect this close relationship, and continues even today to offer genuine scope for study and collecting.
