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A deltiologists dream: (L) Unused postcard of Mussolini. (R) Italian colonial
forces charging into battle, Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-1936) |
My colleagues and I recently unearthed a small cache of Fascist era historical documents stored in a metal container at a job site in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Sadly, the large storage facility we were brought in to explore was flooded and left in a shambles after a pipe burst. To add insult to injury, it was subsequently ransacked by careless thieves. Among our client’s personal effects and familial papers, we were able to salvage some old sheet music, contracts, postcards, letters, stamps and even a near-perfect 1933 Chicago World Fair medal commemorating the trans-Atlantic flight of General Italo Balbo (1896-1940). With the owners permission, I’m sharing a few pictures of some of the more interesting and culturally significant discoveries. For now, the collection will be catalogued, studied, and properly stored, but the ultimate goal is to find it an appropriate home for posterity.~ Giovanni di Napoli, April 21, Feast of Sant'Anselmo d'Aosta
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| Two of the less risqué postcards from Abyssinia and Eritrea |
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(L) Italian ships in the port of Massawa in Eritrea.
(R) Neapolitan Futurist Rodolfo de Angelis (1883-1965) |
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(L) General Italo Balbo, aviator and Fascist leader. (R) Italy mocks
the economic sanctions imposed by the League of Nations |
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Front and back of the 1933 Chicago World Fair medal commemorating
General Balbo's trans-Atlantic flight. Found in an old envelope,
I may have been the first person to touch the medal since 1933. |
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| (Front & back) Sheet music for Cartulina 'e Napule (Postcard from Naples) |
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| (Front & back) Sheet music for Ritorna Vincitor! (Victor returns!) |
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| (Front & back) Sheet music for Pugnale Fascista (Fascist dagger) |
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(Front & back) Sheet music for the antifascist
L'Assassino 'e Matteotti (The Assassin and Matteotti) |
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1936 one-cent Navy stamp with Revolutionary War
heroes Captain John Paul Jones and Captain John Barry |
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| 1929 Italian stamps depicting King Vittorio Emanuele III |
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1929 Italian stamp depicting Vittorio Emanuele III
with postmark from Naples' train station |
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A 1930 United States ten-cent carmine rose numeral postage
due stamp affixed to a Library of Congress notice with a pin |
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A copy of Le Glorie di S. Francesco Saverio nell' antico
Regno di Napoli by Nicola Rillo S.J., second edition, 1923 |
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(L) S. Francesco Saverio ricave da S. Ignazio i'odine di partire per la Indie.
(R) Berardino Siciliano – Bozzetto del quadro di S. Francesco
Saverio del Cappellone del Gesù Nuovo |
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(L) Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo e obelisco dell'Immacolata innalzato del
celebre p. Pepe. (R) Luca Giordano il celebre "Fa presto" (Autoritratto) |
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| A foldout with Micco Spadaro — La peste a Napoli nel 1656 |
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Prima Chiesa eretta nel mondo in onore di
S. Francesco Saverio (ora di S. Ferdinando) |
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| Altare di S. Francesco Saverio nella Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo (Disegno del Vaccaro) |
