The envelope stamped with the 80 cents of the provisional government of the Parma Provinces does not like the spotlight. Knowing herself to be unique, and consequently contested, she loves discretion and confidentiality. She doesn’t want to hear about auction rooms, if she really has to change ownership she prefers the muffled private negotiation which doesn’t expose her to risks and the selling price, noblesseoblige, isn’t bandied about from the rooftops.
After having been owned by Jules Bernichon, then by Archillito Chiesa, by the senator Giuseppe Mazzini, and by the Turin industrialist Alcide Bona. In 1964, thus demonstrating that he preferred Piedmont rather than his Parma origin, the envelope became part of the collection of the Turin merchant and philatelic publisher Giulio Bolaffi, passing, upon his death, to his son Alberto. Until recently. In fact, it recently became the property of a Turin entrepreneur, Luigi Garosci, CEO of companies operating in large-scale retail trade. According to rumors, the price paid would be around 500 thousand euros.
Aside from the undisputed rarity of the 80 cent, the remaining 5c, 10c, 20c and 40c values are also historically important. Realized in a hurry and without many frills, the issue in fact marked the antechamber of the accession to the Kingdom of Italy (which took place on 18 March 1860), of the Parma States, formerly the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza governed by Luisa di Borbone, who in the wake of the Risorgimento that overwhelmed the pre-unification states, on 9 June 1859 she was forced to pack up and leave the city and the government. Power was assumed by a provisional government and from December it became part of the royal provinces of Emilia which included Modena, Parma and Romagne.
In Parma and Piacenza they no longer wanted to send correspondence with the Bourbon lily. Hence the five stamps with the simple writing Stati Parmensi and the value in cents, all enclosed in a spartan octagonal frame. Valid for the post until February 1860, they had decidedly limited production which, in the case of the 80 cents, was 2,800 copies, mostly remaining unsold. As far as we know, there are six used examples preserved by collectors, only one known in a letter, together with the 20 cents, on 17 December 1859 sent to Paris. The one who, after 59 years of under-the-radar courtship, changed collector.
