ONEGLIA FORGERIES, 1906 catalogue, "St.Lucia" to "Sungei-Ujong"

Return To Catalogue - Oneglia forgeries, introduction, part 1 - Oneglia forgeries, introduction, part 2 - Panelli - Spiotti - Venturini

Note: on my website many of the pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the catalogue;
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Erasmo Oneglia was an Italian forger in the late 19th century from Turin. He is famous for his engraved forgeries, but he also made photo-lithographed forgeries. Many of his forgeries were previously attributed to the forger Angelo Panelli. The engraved Oneglia forgeries are usually 'overinked'. When Oneglia applied a watermark on his forgeries, it is very clearly visible. His watermarks are impressed instead of being real watermarks. Oneglia also collaborated closely with A.Venturini and E.Spiotti. The exact relationships that these forgers had is not clear up to this day.

Oneglia forgeries, 1906 catalogue, "Parma" to "Schleswig-Holstein"

Sainte Lucie. *
Number	Year	Description	Price in Fr.
1859 - Effigie de Victoria, filigrane, dentelé (gravure en cuivre):
1	1859	Sans valeur, 1 p., rouge ................................................................................................	Fr. -.30
2		Sans valeur, 4 p., bleu	Fr. -.30
3		Sans valeur, 6 p., vert	Fr. -.30
1863 - Meme type, filigrane C. C. et couronne, dentelés:
4	1863	Sans valeur, 1 p., carmin	Fr. -.30
5		Sans valeur, 4 p., bleu gris	Fr. -.30
6		Sans valeur, 6 p., violet	Fr. -.30
1874 - Idem:
7	1874	Sans valeur, 1 p., noir	Fr. -.30
8		Sans valeur, 4 p., jaune	Fr. -.30
9		Sans valeur, 6 p., violet	Fr. -.30
10		Sans valeur, 1 sh., orange vif	Fr. -.30
1881-82 - Meme type avec nouvelle valeur en surcharge noir, filigrance C. C. et couronne, dentelés:
11		1/2 penny, vert	Fr. -.30
12		1 penny, noir	Fr. -.30
13		2 1/2 pence, vermillon	Fr. -.30
1882-86 - Meme type et surcharge, filigrance C. A. et couronne, dentelés:
14		1/2 penny, vert	Fr. -.30
15		1 penny, noir	Fr. -.30
16		4 pence, jaune	Fr. -.30
17		6 pence, violet	Fr. -.30
18		1 shilling, orange	Fr. -.30

With impressed watermark.

These St.Lucia forgeries even exist with inverted overprints, here with inverted "HALFPENNY".

This Oneglia forgery has two cancels: a bars with "1" and a circle consisting of small squares.

A mysterious item, with the circular cancel consisting of squares, a similar forgery of St.Lucia is shown in the book 'The Oneglia Engraved Forgeries' by Robson Lowe & Carl Walske (1996) in the appendix on page 98:

Mysterious item: Some early trial from Oneglia? It could be engraved. It has the same circular cancel consisting of small squares as shown above.

Saint-Marin. * (San Marino)
Number	Year	Description	Price in Fr.
1	1877-90	10 cent., bleu................................................................................................................	Fr. -.50
2		20 cent., rouge	Fr. -.10
3		30 cent., brun	Fr. 1.--
4		40 cent., violet	Fr. -.80
1892 - Timbres, vrais, surcharge imitée:
5	1892	10 sur 20 cent., rouge	Fr. 2.--
6		10 sur 20 cent., rouge	Fr. 2.--
1892 - Timbres et surcharge imités:
7	1892	10 sur 20 cent., rouge	Fr. -.50
8		10 sur 20 cent., rouge grand surch.	Fr. -.50
9	1892-1894	1 lire, rouge et jaune	Fr. 1.20
10	1895-1899	1 lire, bleu	Fr. -.80
1892 - Timbres précedents surchargés:
11		5 sur 10 cent., bleu	Fr. -.50
12		5 sur 30 cent., brun	Fr. 1.--

The Serrane guide says:
Mauvaise série de Gênes (I.). Dentelés 11 1/2; sans filigrane ou avec faux filigrane par impression de corps gras gris- jaunâtre. Nuances criardes; quelques lettres des inscriptions touchent les traits fins (EP de REP, en bas; E de POSTALE, en haut; R de LIBERTAS, en bas); les lettres TAL sont reliées par le bas, etc. Le faux filigrane mis dans la benzine disparaît à la vue. Papier épais 70 à 75 nie. Fausse oblitération carré de gros points.
I presume the forger I is Nino Imperato from Genoa. Imperato is known to have sold forgeries made by Oneglia. Thus the above described forgeries of the Serrane guide are presumably the same that Oneglia made. Also in view of the fact that these are the only forgery type besides Fournier that I'm aware of.

Two Oneglia French Colonies stamps with "??ERRE MIQUE ?? 1E/6".

Since these Samoa forgeries are marked "N", they were not made by Oneglia, but by another forger (as mentioned in the foreword of his catalogue).
The Samoa set was also offered in Oneglia's 1899 price list, but not yet in his 1898 price list. I'm not sure if Oneglia sold one of the forgery sets, or did he perhaps sell the reprints?
I have seen some Oneglia forgeries of the Cook Islands with a "APIA ? - 6N." cancel.

Saxe. *
Number	Year	Description	Price in Fr.
Engraved forgery, possibly by Oneglia.
1	1856	5 negr., rouge ..............................................................................................................................	Fr. 0.50
2		10 negr., bleu	Fr. 2.--
1850 - Chiffre
3	1850	3 pfen., rouge	Fr. 2.--

Serbie. *
Number	Year	Description	Price in Fr.
1	1866	1 p., vert, dentelé.....................................................................................................................	Fr. -.20
2		2 p., brun dentelé	Fr. -.20
3	1868	1 p., vert	Fr. -.20
4		2 p., brun	Fr. -.20
1866 - Papier colorié par l'impression d'une teinte de fond (la verso est blanc):
5		1 para, vert sur rose	Fr. 1.50
6		2 para, olive sur rose	Fr. 1.50
7		2 para, violet sur lilas	Fr. 1.50
Erreurs.
8		2 para, vert sur rose	Fr. 1.--
9		1 para, vert sur rose (le verso est colorié)	Fr. 1.--

Since the above pair of Serbia forgeries have a bars with "G" cancel, I'm convinced this was a forgery made by Oneglia (even though it was described as a 'Geneva' forgery).

Sicile. *
Number	Year	Description	Price in Fr.
1859 - Effigie à gauche (Ferdinand II), gravure en cuivre:
1	1859	1/2 gr., orange..................................................................................................................................	Fr. -.50
2		1 gr., vert-bistre	Fr. -.30
3		1 gr., vert-olive	Fr. -.30
4		2 gr., blue-foncé	Fr. -.10
5		2 gr., blue	Fr. -.10
6		5 gr.. rouge	Fr. -.50
7		5 gr.,carmin	Fr. -.60
8		10 gr., blue-foncé	Fr. -.50
9		20 gr., violet noir	Fr. -.50
10		50 gr., brun-rouge	Fr. 1.--
Idem.
11		50 gr., brun-rouge	Fr. 2.50

I presume Nr.11 is an improved version of the 50 gr value. The work 'The Oneglia Engraved Forgeries by Robson Lowe & Carl Walske (1996) shows different improved versions of these forgeries.
The 5 gr seems to have been made by erasing the "0" from a 50 gr forgery. Therefore the "5" is placed too far to the left when compared to a genuine stamp.

Since these Soruth forgeries are marked "N", they were not made by Oneglia, but by another forger (as mentioned in the foreword of his catalogue).

Shanghai. N
Number	Year	Description	Price in Fr.
1	1856-66	Les 10 premières, toutes differentes, la série..................................................................................	Fr. 1.50

Since these Shanghai forgeries are marked "N", they were not made by Oneglia, but by another forger (as mentioned in the foreword of his catalogue).
I think the above shown forgeries are those sold by Oneglia, since they have the numeral "1" cancel or the 4-ring cancel that can be found on other forgeries sold or made by Oneglia.

I do not think the 1877 stamps were ever used with a "0,15" overprint. The 1 F was overprinted with "0,25" (not "0,15"!).

Suisse.
Number	Year	Description	Price in Fr.
ZURICH - 1843:
1	1843	4 Rap., chiffre noir.............................................................................................................................	Fr. 1.--
2		6 Rap., chiffre noir	Fr. 1.--
3	1849	Idem - 1849 1 1/2 Rap., oblong	Fr. 1.--
BALE - 1845 - Colombe en relief:
4	1845	2 1/2 Rap., rouge bleu	Fr. 1.--
GENÈVE 1843 - Armes petites, format:
5	1843	5 x 5, noir sur vert	Fr. 1.--
Idem - la moitié du précédent:
Oneglia-Venturini forgery. See comments below in 1).
6		5 noir sur vert	Fr. 1.--
Idem - 1847 - Mêmes armes, port cantonal:
7	1847	5 noir sur vert	Fr. 1.--
8		5 noir sur vert jaune	Fr. 1.--
9		5 noir sur vert foncé	Fr. 1.--
Idem - 1849 - Envelopes coupées:
10	1849	5 cent., vert sur blanc	Fr. 1.--
Idem - Croix -cor de chasse, oblong:
11		4 cent., noir et rouge	Fr. 1.--
Idem - 1850 - Mêmre type:
12	1850	5 cent., noir et rouge	Fr. 1.--
Idem 1851 - Croix blanche sur fond rouge:
13	1851	5 cent., noir et rouge	Fr. 1.--
Idem - 1850:
14	1850	2 1/2 Rap., Post local	Fr. 1.--
15		2 1/2 Rap., Orts post	Fr. 1.--
Idem - 1851:
I've been told that these forgeries were made by the forger Venturini, who possibly obtained them from Oneglia
16	1851	5 Rap., bleu et rouge	Fr. 1.--
17		10 rap., orange, bleu et rouge	Fr. 1.--
Idem - 1851:
These forgeries are said to have been made by Panelli, who most likely got them from Oneglia
18	1852	15 Rap. (gr. ch.), rouge	Fr. 1.--
19		15 Rap. (pet. ch.), rouge	Fr. 1.--
20		15 cent. (pet. ch.) rouge	Fr. 1.--
21		15 cent. (gr. ch.), rouge	Fr. 1.--
1843-51 - Facsimiles des timbres cantonaux,
		série de 15 timbres (see image below)	Fr. .1.50
Mes timbres Suisses sont une nouvelle émission, on ne doit pas les confondre donc avec les vieux fac-similes.
22	1852	Crois blanche dans un écusson de 15 cent., rouge	Fr. 1.--

The book 'Philatelic Forgers, their Lives and Works' by V. E. Tyler mentions that A. de Reuterskiold identified a number of photo-lithographic forgeries by Oneglia-Venturini: 'A. De Reuterskiold, The Philatelic Record 29, pages 59, 60, 111, 198 (1907). There are no photos in this work though. Also, the text given there is : "Photo-lithographic forgery by Oneglia-Venturini, of Turin; very dangerous and differing from the original only in few details, which I do not think expedient to disclose here.", or similar not very helpful text.....
1) The Geneva forgery shown above was identified by the Verband Schweizerischer Philatelisten-Vereine (VSPhV) as a lithgraphed Oneglia-Venturini from Turin (see https://www.vsphv.ch/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/dg_38.pdf). I am not certain if this was actually the forgery offered in this pricelist, since it is very well done compared to his other forgieres, or if this was a later improved forgery perhaps which the pair Oneglia-Venturini made?

I presume this is the set of 15 facsimiles that was offered by Oneglia, they are generally assumed to have been made by Adrien Champion of Geneva.

I presume the same forged Straits Settlements stamps were used for these overprints (such as for example the forgery of Perak), although the next stamp appear to be genuine with a forged overprint:

Highly suspicious "SELANGOR" overprint with a "A03" cancel that looks pretty similar to the ones on the Oneglia British Guiana forgeries.

In the above 3 Skilling forgery, the letters are different. This might be the forgery mentioned in 'The Philatelic Record' of 1904 (page 134); the period behind "SKILL" is missing and there are no dots on the "A" of "FRIMARKE". Also note the narrow "3"s in the upper corners. According to the Sveriges Filatelist-Förbund (http://sff.gamma.skilltryck.com/expertradet-pa-netex/), the second forgery shown above was made by the stamp forger Erasmo Oneglia (image obtained from that website).

Sungei-Ujong. *
Number	Year	Description	Price in Fr.
1880 - T. Inde Angl. avec surch. ovale C * S. U.
1	1880	1/2 a., bleu ...................................................................................................................................	Fr. 5.--
1880 - T. de Malacca 1868 fil. C. C. avec le même surch
2	1880	2 cent., brun	Fr. 5.--
1881 - T. de Malacca 1868 avec S. U. en surch.
3	1881	2 cent., brun	Fr. 3.--
Id. Id. avec Sungei-Ujong en surch.
4		2 cent., brun	Fr. -.50
5		4 cent., rose	Fr. 3.--
1883 -88 - Id. T. Malacca 1868 fil C. A. avec la même surch.
6	1883-88	4 cent., brun	Fr. 1.50
7		8 cent., orang	Fr. 5.--
8		10 cent., ardoise	Fr. 5.--
9		Two cent sur 24 vert	Fr. -.50
10		Two cent sur 24 vert	Fr. 1.--
11		Two cent sur 24 vert	Fr. 1.--
12		Two cent sur 24 vert	Fr. 1.50
		...................4 diff. types.

I think the above S.U. forgery has a bars with "G" cancel. Note, however, that similar genuine Sungei Ujong bar cancels exist.

Oneglia forgeries, 1906 catalogue, "Saint-Vincent" to "Terre-Neuve"

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer