The"horseshoe"


We saw already that in the Naples Kingdom a very particular system was adopted to cancel the mail: the so-called "flourish" type of cancellations ("svolazzi" in Italian). See the related "Going deep"). May be because the Sicily Kingdom was part of the Two Sicilies Kingdom too, it didn't want probably to be second on creativity...
For that reason the cancellation of the Sicily stamps was made with an original system, and very elegant too, with the so called "horseshoe" ("Ferro di cavallo" in italian); named in this way for the particular shape of the cancellation.
Because I mentioned already the Naples cancellations I complete now this subject, by dealing with the Sicily Kingdom cancellations too.

As per the text of the 7th article of the Real Decree of November 29 1858 on the issue of the "mail stamps" ("bolli di posta"): "To avoid that of an already used stamp cannot be made a second cheating use, the employees in charge for the job will put at the time of sending the letter or the envelope a mark in black color as per the apposite drawing approved by us".
The "black mark" in the drawing "approved by us" is the horseshoe cancellation.
When the set of stamps with the royal effigy was prepared, it looks immediately as a disrespectful act to disfigure it with an oiled kind of cancellation. For this reason "to avoid a case of such a disrespect" the minister Cassisi gave the responsibility to Carlo La Barbera from Palermo to prepare a cancellation made in a shape that was not hitting the royal effigy.
The cancellation system was approved and the tools prepared: they are cancellation tools in brass assembled on an handle: the postal employee was supposed to apply the cancellation paying attention to avoid to hit the King effigy; that this was not always the case (on the contrary...) is another story!
The cancellation tools so made were sent to the various Postal Offices and they were different from each other just for very minor detail. Only almost a "maniacal" kind of study may distinguish them one from the other.
It can be found seldom applied also on the Naples kingdom or on the Neapolitan Provinces, on mail arrived not cancelled (Fig. 4).
Here is the cancellation with its typical ornaments (Fig. 1), and how it was used on the stamps (Fig. 2 and 3).



Cancellation
Fig. 1:
the "horseshoe" cancellation

Correct
Wrong
Fig. 2: the cancellation perfectly placed
Fig. 3: ...and the "sacrilegious"
cancellation"...


Envelope
Fig. 4:
the "horseshoe" cancellation added at the arrival,
on mail not cancelled at the "continent" - 2 Grana -


Envelope 2
Fig. 5:
the "horseshoe" cancellation added at the arrival,
on mail not cancelled at the "continent" - 5 Grana -