Chronicle of German Philately: Issue #18

Forgers and forgeries in the 19th century

the Spiros-a family from Hamburg. A tale of fiction and truth

Plot

Contents (Volume 1- 2022)
Foreword 4
Technical Information 6
1. The first "forgers" 7
2. The evaluation of facsimiles / forgeries in the 1860s 12
3. The Spiro brothers in subsequent and present-day literary perception 44
4. Evidence of the Spiro family in the 19th century 58
5. Forgers, producers or distributors? 71
6. Spiro facsimiles and more: a great variety 76
6.1 New and reprinted editions of the Hamburger Botenpost 78
6.2 Spiro facsimiles and the Spud Papers 92
Colours and perforation 96
The paper 98
The printing process 98
The special case of St. Helena 99
The special case of Luxembourg 100
A wide field: the stamps 101
Examples of the different types of stamps 105
6.3 The example of Brazil: a special case? 110
6.4 The facsimiles of the Spud Papers. A documentation 120
7. Philip Spiro - the "wrong" forger? 138
8. A closed book? 142
Appendix
Gerhard Lang-Valchs: SPIRO 144