Stamps of Sicily: King King Ferdinand II Issue (1859)

Here’s an interesting article from our Archives:

Bomba Heads – Vignette preserving postmark
A STAMP STORY.

The interest of certain stamps is further increased by the stories attaching to their design or to the incidents which led to their issue. I propose to retell some of these stories from time to time and this week relate the amusing history connected with the issue of the first stamps of Sicily, which bear the portrait of King Ferdinand II, nicknamed “King Bomba.” I cannot do better than give it as related by Messrs. Hardy and Bacon in “The Stamp Collector”
(1912) – a book which, by the way, should be obtained by every young collector who can afford it.

“No doubt,” these authors write, “that monarch regarded such public conveniences as postage stamps with indifference, but policy at last induced him to issue them. And what a fuss there was about their design! Everybody agreed that the stamps should bear his Majesty’s portrait, his armorial bearings having been previously employed for the separate stamps of Naples, but numerous patterns were submitted, before a likeness thought to be suitable (executed by Signor Aloisio) was adopted. Then there was the question of colour. Colours after all are limited in number, and the House of Bourbon was extremely sensitive in this matter, and strong in its hatred to those hostile to it or its traditions. Red and green (both very serviceable for postage stamps) were wholly tabooed, as they formed component parts of the banner and cockade of the Italians. Some suggested one colour for all values, as in the case of the first issue of Naples, but the drawbacks of such a plan were already apparent, and the possibility of fraud on his Majesty’s revenue a proved fact. So at last a compromise was reached; red and green were both employed, but of different shades to the red and the green in the Italian national colours. But there arose another terrible dilemma. The stamps had to be obliterated as they passed through the post, and that would mean disfiguring the features of the great ruler of Sicily. On this point Ferdinand only gave way when it was pointed out to him that his exchequer would suffer materially, unless some indelible, cancelling process was used for the stamps; and he did so the more readily on being informed that by employing a postmark of novel design he might be spared the indignity of having his features rudely struck by a post-office employee. This postmark was in the nature of a three-sided ornamental picture frame, and when carefully applied would not in the least disfigure his Majesty’s countenance; it would also have the value unobliterated.”