Red Cross & Trieste
In June 1859, Jean-Henri Dunant of Switzerland, went to Soferino, Italy to see the French emperor, Napoleon III, who he was told was there at the time. He wanted to talk to him about doing business in Algeria. When he arrived, he discovered a battle had just ended. It was part of the second Italian war of independence, also known as the Franco-Austrian war, involving the two empires: France and the Austro-Hungarian empires. About 40,000 troops were killed or seriously injured. There was little or no medical services available for the wounded. Dunant was upset by what he saw and dropped his business plans and helped to organize medical assistance for the injured. Aftewards, he wrote a book called, A Memory of Soferino. That led eventually to the Geneva Convention of 1864 regarding the treatment of the injured in battle, which then led to the formation of the Red Cross. The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Dunant for his work in this area.
The stamps on the top row of this album page are commemorating the Red Cross, which had been established about thirty years before. Notice, however, that the first one depicts the flag of the Kingdom of Italy and the other three show the eagle of the House of Savoy, the king’s family. The only reference to the Red Cross is the text at the bottom of each, Croce Rossa. To me, this speaks to the egotistic nature of the king, Vittorio Emanuele III. But, maybe I’m reading too much into it.
Celebrating Military Victory
At the northern end of the Adriatic Sea, near Venice, by the borders of Italy with Slovenia and Croatia along the coast, there are a few cities and territories known collectively as Venezia Giulia. I’ve been to this region a few times. It includes Trieste, an beautiful city and the Miramare Castle that was owned by royal House of Habsburg and used as their Summer home.
The stamps on the second row are of the seal of the comune (i.e., municipality) of Trieste. They were issued a few months after Venezia Giulia became part of Italy on January 5, 1921, as part of a few treaties resulting from the end of World War I.
Dante & the Divine Comedy
The third row of stamps are commemorating the sixth centenary of the writer, Dante Alighieri’s death. He was a favorite amongst Italian readers of that time.
Italy Helps End WWI
On November 3, 1918, Italy was victorious over the Austrians at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. This battle is said to have ended the Austro-Hungarian empire and led to the end of World War I a week later.
The stamps on the bottom row of this album page are of the goddess, Victoria and are in celebration of that victory. It’s surprising that for such a major military accomplishment that the stamps for this event were not more elaborate. These seem fairly dull to me. They did another issue of stamps to commemorate this event, which gave them an opportunity to print stamps with more fanfare, but they had the same design: you can see them on Page 12 of this album.
Note
There’s plenty commemorated by the stamps on this page. I obtained recently the last one: the third row, second stamp. Although it seems to be part of a set, it’s not exactly. It’s identical to the one to the left of it, but in gray instead of lilac brown. There weren’t many printed and they weren’t issued, for some reason. I’m not sure how people got them: maybe you had to be friends with someone at the printing office in Torino. Most of the ones I see for sale seem to have been misperforated. Maybe they were gray and not issued because they were used for testing and training. As a result, it’s difficult to find one that’s not a mistake, and that’s not very pricey. It’s taken some time and patience, but I found one and bought it.
Incidentally, this is what I don’t like about pre-printed albums: I’ve been a little obsessed about getting that one stamp because until I do there’s an empty space on the page. If I would start with blank pages, I would just move the stamps closer together and forget about this gray anomaly.
Contains 15 spots: own 15 – 15 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Apr 11, 2023
Stamp Details
The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.
spot |
own |
catalog |
subject |
description |
comment |
Red Cross
✓ |
102 |
10+5c (nov 1915) |
|||
✓ |
103 |
15+5c (nov 1915) |
|||
✓ |
104 |
20+5c (feb 1916) |
|||
✓ |
105 |
20+5c (mar 1916) |
Venezia Giulia joins Italy
✓ |
113 |
15c (jun 1921) |
|||
✓ |
114 |
25c (jun 1921) |
|||
✓ |
115 |
40c (jun 1921) |
600 Anniv. of Dante’s Death
✓ |
116 |
15c (sep 1921) |
|||
✓ |
116a |
15c (dec 1921) |
|||
✓ |
117 |
25c (sep 1921) |
|||
✓ |
118 |
40c (sep 1921) |
Vittorio Veneto Battle
✓ |
119 |
5c (nov 1921) |
|||
✓ |
120 |
10c (nov 1921) |
|||
✓ |
121 |
15c (nov 1921) |
|||
✓ |
122 |
25c (nov 1921) |
Footnotes
Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.
