Let's see some classic Spain.

First of all, let me say that I'm not, by any means, an expert on Spanish classic stamps. In fact, I'm not interested on Spanish stamps at all.

Nevertheless, I'm a philatelic from Barcelona (Catalonia), the city where Mr. Miquel Seguí Solivellas lived and made his "facsimiles" at the turn of XIX to XX centuries. This is a history that most philatelists of Barcelona, know.

Mr. Seguí, from Mallorca origin, was the manager of the "Lyon d'Or" the best restaurant of Barcelona around 1880/1910. On his restaurant, a group of wealthy and learnt philatelist used to meet and chat on stamps. Mr. Seguí, a very intelligent and curious man, became interested on "these small pieces of paper", for which these (otherwise sensible) bussiness men, paid so much money. He could not understand why they gave so much value to an object "so easy to imitate". Arguing and arguing, through the days, he made a bet with the leader of those philatelists, Mr. Sendra (a true expert on classical Spanish stamps), that he would be able to made an imitation of a stamp (he will call "facsimile") that could even frame Mr. Sendra and any other "experts".

To achieve his goal, he spent a lot of money, hiring top quality artists, engravers and printers. He sent his facsimiles to world experts (even to the magazine "L'Echo de la Timbrologie") and all experts detected that his imitations were not "the real thing" You may understand how distressed Mr. Seguí became. But, it must be stressed that he was aiming "to frame those stupid collectors" not to defraud the post. So, technicaly, he was not a forger. Only once, very enraged, he imitated a current definitve from the 1889 Alfonso XIII series, and posted on some letters from Almeria to Barcelona, without being detected. But, he did so with a handful of stamps. So there were not any consequences for him.

When he died, his family sold the remaining facsimiles to the stamp market. Josep Majó Tocabens who had a stamp shop in downtown Barcelona, managed to assemble a stock of facismiles and when, in 1975 he wrote the book "Postas y Filatelia en la Barcelona del XIX" (Post and Philately on XIX century Barcelona")

He included a small selection of Segui's facsimiles as a gift with the book. He even limited the edition of the book to the Seguí colections available. The facsimiles are real ones and are afixed to two miniature sheets with hinges.

The book, is well known by Barcelona's collectors. I remember being offered the book, when it was just printed (1976) on the Filatelia Majó for the "princely sum" of 150 pessetes (less that 1 euro!) and not buying it, as by then, I was not interested.

Later, by 2010, I had to pay up to 90 € at a auctioner's house for a complete copy of the book. But, I managed to find a nice copy at Barcelona second hand market for just 9 € (five or six years ago). Just a question of luck. It's not the best written book but it's a hoard of histories on post, stamps and Barcelona.