Clara Rothe Private Mail

 In 1864 the government of the Danish west Indies wanted to establish a steamer service between the islands

with a monopoly for the conveyance of mail.

The firm of George Nunes & Co. of St. Thomas acting as an agent agreed to operate this service and signed

a contract for a period of seven years.

Some stories say the Clara Rothe was already built and previously was called the Vigilant. However that George Nunes & Co. had the "S.S. Clara Rothe" built in Southampton by C. A. Day & Co. at a cost stated to have been 40 to 45,000 dollars. The steamer was named after the daughter of C. A. Rothe who was the Governor of the Danish West Indies.

The service at first was quite adequate but competitors began to reduce their rates and a collision with another ship soon put the service beyond the subsidy provided. Nunes finally had his contract rescinded with a fine payable.

The ship operated as a Paquet boat for awhile and was finally sold to Haiti.

In 1869 after this mail service had ceased, a series of stamps appeared bearing a picture of the "Clara Rothe", with the inscription St. Thomas Porto Rico in a curved band at the top and the denomination in Centavos or Reales at the bottom.

Many considered them as essays or bogus saying the company did not exist. This has been proven as false. 

Given the values that match local rates, standard colors and very clean contemporary design, it is more probable that Nunes ordered them but events, like the service termination, made them unusable and the printers decided to sell them to recoup expenses.

There are nine values, perforated 10.5

1/2 centavo, black

1 centavo black

2 centavos black

3 centavos black

4 centavos black

1/2 real, blue

1 real red

2 reales mauve

4 reales green

The 4 centavos is mentioned in some catalogs (Melville) but I have not seen samples.

Proofs are also mentioned

Genuine Stamps

Imperforates

Catalogs make little mention that imperfs were created, Perhaps these were made by the printers for collector sales or never perforated.

Proofs

These occasionally come up for sale. The printers may have made trials but there is no mention of it.

These two were sold as "proofs"

The left one is well made but it has issues, the letters are too large and are shaped differently from the original. The background lines are lacking as certain deck details. This somewhat of a mystery item.

The right one is VERY crude and resembles a Torres catalog reproduction.

Forgeries

Two main types are identified.

Type I forgery - Spiro credited

NOTE - I say Spiro CREDITED but they may not be Spiro as he is often given credit for other less known forgers. There is also some thought these may be Torres/Usigli creations

This is the most common of the forgeries (right) and is often cancelled with various postmarks. Some of the postmarks indicate that the Spiro Bros. of Hamburg were the forgers. Others may have been sold by Spiro  resellers.

Overall they are quite well done.

Characteristics of the Spiro forgery on the right.

1 The left leg of the M is thick

2 The crown has large pearls and touches the frame above

3 The flag is large and the mast touches the sword

4 The foremast is more inclined and the attached ropes are different

5 Letters are all different, thicker on top and shaped differently on the bottom

6 Flag is larger and a different shape

7 Curls are different

8 Letters are inclined differently, the R is smaller

9 Background lines are uneven

NOTE - perforated issues are 13 instead of 10.5

More "Spiro type" forgeries

Type II  forgery

The next set is easily recognized by the overall crudeness.
In particular the broken , heavy background lines. As well, the colors are out of sequence.
I have only seen the REAL issues none with CENTAVO. Note on the 4 CUATRO it is spelled QUATRO.
These were possibly made by the forger Zechmeyer of Nuremberg (Germany) who made other mail ship forgeries. There is also some thought on Patroni being the forgery source
There is also a Bogus issue of "CINCO REALES"

The bogus 5 Reales. I am told that this very crude design may be the work of Patroni

This final example appears to be a duplicate of the "proof" shown but in a bogus color.

2 forgers whose bogus color stamps come to mind - Torres and Taylor.