Thanks, Anne, for provisioning the balcony. Everything looks so real! Ashleigh would love it!!
This is something I wanted to post on the As, then the Fs...
Ah, but anyway it is more appropriate here.
Alavoine, part 1
In the New Hebrides philatelic world, it was written by Nathan Hals and Phil Collas in their 1967 handbook (The New Hebrides: Postal Stamps and their History, p150) that a Sydney jeweler named Alavoine "is credited with having made" forgeries of the PORT-VILA cancel and selling them through a stamp dealer over 40 years earlier.
The example they show on p158 has the date 16 NOV 11. The malformed P in PORT, the smaller N in NELLES and the short dash above the S of HEBRIDES identify a cancel as an Alavoine forgery. They note that this cancel has been seen on the stamps of the New Hebrides, the ANHCo locals, Fiji, NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
I won this NSW stamp on piece cancelled with the PORT-VILA postmarker from an Aussie auction house in March 2001. When I realized it was an Alavoine forgery and went to return it, they let me have it gratis for my reference collection.
Alavoine, part 2
An eBay purchase in July 2000 of 1920s stamps and overprints revealed the same forged cancel. This time dated 16 NOV 21, undocumented in Hals and Collas. The year “21” is seen clearly on the 10c French 1924 (yes, 1924!!) overprint (top right).
1921 (and 1924) is actually in the ballpark of the “more than 40 years ago”, stated by Hals and Collas.
And here's the next instalment...
Alavoine, part 3
Colleagues have researched Alavoine, half wondering if he was a myth, as they could not find any trace of him in Sydney records.
One, Martin Treadwell, has published two articles about Alavoine in the Pacific Islands Study Circle (PISC) journal Pacifica. In the first (Oct 2007), he discusses fake 1910 French overprints that have the Alavoine cancel. An example:
In the second (Oct 2008) he shows a cover with a set of Syndicat Francais des Nouvelles-Hébrides (SFNH) local stamps affixed and canceled 16 NOV 11. This cover is illustrated with the name and address of the firm Office Intermediaire in Noumea. New Caledonia. The name ALAVOINE is printed at bottom right within the design.
Martin used a digital camera to photograph the area under the bottom stamp and found a signature in elegant manuscript: Lucien Alavoine, Directeur.
This placed Alavoine at Noumea, and the photo on the cover is likely to be of him. Martin deduced that regardless of whether Alavoine later became a jeweler in Sydney, he did his forging whilst at Noumea, working as a printer and running the business Office Intermediaire.
The master forger Jean de Sperati sometimes made "die proofs" of his work. Here are two of his "die proofs" for his British Honduras 1885 six pence and one shilling stamps. They are in the issued colors and are signed in pencil by him. The die proofs were probably made in the 1930s.
I have also included a genuine one shilling stamp with SPECIMEN overprint at the bottom for comparison purposes and to show how good his work is.
bwi - Very nice!!!
If you are still following, here's...
Alavoine, part 4
In June this year my husband showed me a cover he’d bought, and was wondering where Cabramatta was. Also I was to translate the notes in French at left. Whilst looking at the cover, I saw the name Alavoine. Monsieur L. Alavoine!
Now I had something to go on, I found more covers and other information confirming that a Lucien Alavoine did indeed exist in Sydney (well, Cabramatta became a Sydney suburb in the 60s), but there was no suggestion of his being a jeweler.
Alavoine, part 5
More Alavoine covers
The auspostalhistory.com website has an article on an 11 Apr 1939 cover from L. Alavoine of Longfield St, Cabramatta to Rabat, Morocco. It was returned to sender as the addressee had passed away. See http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/337.php Note the same elegant script as on Martin’s SFNH cover.
I was glad to have found this cover early in my search as the street name showed up many times as the address of Lucien Alavoine and his family.
Another cover from eBay proved interesting. It was postmarked at Cabramatta on 6 Sep 1955, sent to France. On the back was a rubber stamp showing the sender as “L. Alavoine, Philatelist.”
