Jean de Sperati

Giovanni (Jean) de Sperati (14 October 1884[2] – 28 April 1957[3]) was an Italian stamp forger.

Robson Lowe considered him an artist[citation needed] and even professional stamp authenticators of his time attested to the genuineness of his work.

Sperati created what he called a Livre d'Or which he boasted of in his autobiography and which contained 239 favourable opinions as to the genuineness of his forgeries from numerous experts, including Dr. Edward Diena and the Royal Philatelic Society London.

[4] Sperati was born in 1884 in Pistoia,[5] Italy, though he spent a large part of his life in France where he adopted the name Jean.

Through this, Sperati was able to obtain copious knowledge of photographic processes, print technology and chemicals.

A shipment marked as valuable from Sperati to a stamp dealer in Lisbon, Portugal, was intercepted by French customs.

To explain, Sperati tried to convince the court that he had no deceitful intentions in the sale of the stamps.

He claimed that he had offered the forgeries of rare stamps at about 1% of the normal market price in order to assist the simple collector to obtain these rarities.

His motive in selling the tools of his trade to the "British Philatelic Association" was to prevent them falling into the possession of someone who would imitate his work.