Return To Catalogue - Bremen forgeries of the 3 G and 5 Grote stamps - Bremen forgeries of the 2 G and 10 G stamps - Bremen - Bremen forgeries made by Peter Winter - Bremen miscellaneous
Note: on my website many of the
pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the cd's;
contact me if you want to purchase them: evert@klaseboer.com.
ATTENTION: many forgeries exist! I will essentially follow the book 'the forged stamps of all countries' by J.Dorn in describing the characteristics of the genuine stamps. The stamps of Bremen were reprinted from new plates (and can thus be considered as forgeries) by the same firm that printed the genuine stamps: G.Hunckel. They were then offered by the dealer E.W.C Bredemeyer as 'reprints' or 'remainders'. Other forgeries also exist (even some modern 'proofs' made by Peter Winter; click here for more examples of these Bremen forgeries).
1. The 'b' of 'Sieben' is open at the bottom.
2. The lines of the shield can still be seen above it.
3. The 'M' of 'Marke' is cut off by the
containing label.
4. Due to bad printing there are dots in the letters of 'Marke'
5. The ornament is continued into the frame line at the right hand side of the stamp.
Other examples of forgeries:
Bredemeyer forgeries? with the 'b' of 'Sieben' closed at the
bottom. It has a very small dot above the 'i' in 'Sieben' when
compared to a genuine stamp. Also the vertical lines of the
shield do not extend above this shield.
Other forgery in which the top part of the 'F' of 'Franco'
extends too far to the left. The 'G' is quite different from a
genuine stamp. Also the background pattern is not similar to a
genuine stamp (for example to the top right part of the left
'7'). I've seen this forgery with a cancel consisting of parallel
lines.
This forgery has some background lines through the 'a' of 'Marke'
and several letter of the words 'Sieben Grote'. I've seen an
improved version without these lines. The 'G' of 'Grote' does not
have a top serif. I've been told that this forgery was sold by
Fournier.
Forgery with 'b' of 'Sieben closed and the lines in the upper
right corner different from the genuine stamps. I've only seen it
with a Bremen box cancel.
A Sperati forgery, reproduced from a
genuine stamp with missing right upper part of the 't' of
'Grote'. Some very small white spurs can be found at the right of
the 'a' of 'Franco' and to the top left of the 'n' of 'Sieben'.
Sperati also made 'proofs' of this forgery on a minisheet with a
single stamp with the text 'REPRODUCTION INTERDITE' and the
signature of Sperati added.
A Peter Winter forgery made in the 1980's (it also exists on
forged letters). Click here for more
Bremen forgeries made by Peter Winter.
The imperforated stamps are of a different type
than the perforated stamps.
The Claghorn site says:
Original is lithographed on stone, in yellow-green, moss green
and bluish-green, on soft paper.
1. The upper right circle consists of two concentric circles.
2. The shield containing the word BREMEN is joined to the center
piece. There is a break in the line under the B which curves up
and joins the B.
Distinguishing characteristic #3: dot in the ornament at the left
hand side.
3. There is a dot in the ornament (just above the ellipse) at the
left but no such dot in the ornament at the right.
4. The outline on the second border ornament on the right from
the top, is thickened.
5. There is a dot on the left and the right in the lower part of
the central oval.
6. There are shade lines above the 5 but these are faint on type
1.
7. The end stroke of the R of 'BREMEN' is lengthened.
Two forgeries made by the same forger; the 'gr' of 'Sgr' is too
high, the top part of the 'g' is almost touching the line above
it. The ornaments above both 'V's are different from the genuine
stamps. I've also seen this forgery with a 'BREMEN' box cancel.
Forgeries, the 'S' of 'Sgr' is deformed at the bottom and placed
too high up. There are other differences in the design,
ornaments, key, lettering etc. I've also seen this forgery
cancelled with 4 parallel lines (vaguely similar to the cancels
of Lubeck).
Forgery with no dot in the upper left ornament. The left hand
side of the key appears to be pointed. I've also seen this
forgery in a darker green shade and imperforate.
(In this forgery, the '5' and 'Sgr.' are quite different)
Block of four uncancelled Sperati forgeries, Reproductions 'B',
'C', 'D' and 'E'.
These Sperati forgeries are very difficult to distinguish from genuine stamps. Only the left bottom stamp is quite easy to spot: there is a large blotch of green ink covering the second pearl seen from above at the right hand side and just above the third pearl from above another blotch can be seen.
Sperati forgeries; I've been told that
the above stamps were made by Sperati, I have no further
information. Sperati used the cancel 'BREMEN 4 7 * 6-7' among
other cancels, such as 'BREMEN' in a box with several dates '18 8
* 6-7', '23 6 * 6-7', '28 10 * 5-6' '8 9 * 5-5', '22 9 * 5-6',
'23 10 * 5-6', '18 3 * 5-' (partial cancel), '19 11 * 5' (partial
cancel), '15 4 * 6-7', '26 5 * 6-7', '7 4 * 6-7', '4 7 * 6-7',
'14 8 * 6-7', '30 4 * 7 (partial cancel) and 'FRANCO' in a
straight line.
Sperati reproduction 'A' with 'BREMEN Bahnhof.' cancel in a box.
Reproduction 'A' can be recognized by the small breaks in the
line above the first 'E' of 'BREMEN'. The center left pearl has
an additional dot in it. The cancel was also forged by Sperati.
Other forgeries:
A rather crude forgery, the key handle is different from the
genuine stamps. It has a simple cross in it.
A very primitive forgery of the 5 sgr in the wrong colour, blue:
Forgeries in wrong colour blue or black instead of green
The forger Francois Fournier also made forgeries of the stamps of Bremen. The following forged cancels were used by him:
Fournier's forged cancels, reduced sizes
'BREMEN 5 8 5-6' in a double circle
'ST.P.A. BREMEN 29 7' in a double circle
'BREMEN-BAHNF. 84 67 11-12 V' in a single circle
'BREMERHAVEN 7 ?' in a double circle
'BREMEN 20 6 * 3-4' in a rectangle
'BREMEN 20 10 * 7-6' in a rectangle
Possible Fournier forgery with 'BREMEN 5 8 5-6' cancel
If anybody has pictures of these forgeries, please contact me!
A nice website on Bremen can be found on: http://people.freenet.de/jfeldhusen/Bremenmarken.htm (in German).