On July 18, 1936, Vitoria became the first city conquered by Franco’s coup. Rafael Santaolalla relieved as mayor the legitimate occupant of the position, Tomás Alfaro Fournier, who was imprisoned. His last name betrays him: his grandfather was the well -known printer of French origin, Heraclio Fournier, who founded the well -known card factory in Vitoria. That July 18, 1936 Félix Alfaro Fournier, his brother, was the manager of the powerful family company. A few months later, he put his machinery at the service of the uprising. From the workshops of Heraclio Fournier, for example, the first stamps came out with the effigy of the dictator and another thousands and thousands of pieces, until adding 490 million. He also printed the Maps of the Italian fascists, also installed in the city. The company, on the other hand, did not achieve its other objective, keep the monopoly of the printing of tickets in pesetas at that time. Alfaro Fournier (Félix) ended up being a attorney in the Francoist Courts and awarded by the regime, as well as by the Italia of Benito Mussolini.
The Alava Archive retains the Alfaro Fournier family fund, which includes abundant information from the company and also an extensive collection of photographs. There are also video of great historiographic value. There it is already how in November 1936, a few months after the Civil War began, he received a first commission of what was called “Technical Board of the State”, that is, of the alleged parallel government of Franco. It was based in Burgos, controlled as Vitoria by the rebels. Madrid was still in the Republican area and there were also the central manufacturing services of stamps, coins or tickets. In Burgos was the daughter of Braulio Fournier, another family branch. Between them, the first commission were distributed. In Vitoria they became rather bells and other official documents, but not yet stamps.
Postal orders would arrive later. In total, six different emissions were made and at least 52 shipments to the Franco agency that managed the postal service. “This house has manufactured for the Post Office, by order of the Timbre Directorate, during the 1938 and 1939, four hundred ninety million stamps,” you can read in a company report, written in capital letters in the original typed . In some pieces appears “Children of Fournier” or “Vitoria” in the printing foot. In others nothing indicates its origin.
The most relevant emissions was the collection of stamps with Franco’s profile portrait. They were designed by José Luis López Sánchez-Poda, header recorder at the time and author of the first Francoist currency, almost all his tickets and a hundred stamps. They were the first. There were 20, 25, 30, 40, 45, 50, 60 and 70 cents and 1, 2, 4 and 10 pesetas. In total, more than 130 million units. Later, when the war was over and the Francoist government settled in the capital, the National Currency and Timbre (FNMT) factory used the plates delivered by Fournier again to reimpress more from Madrid more pieces with the same portrait of Franco.
But before they had been made in Vitoria stamps of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando. Hundreds of thousands left. It is estimated that about 325 million stamps were printed. There were also several colors, one for each value. These characters were chosen for their clear propaganda significance. There is a version for “air mail” with the portrait of the Aragonese monarch.
The other two emissions were less massive. There was a collection dedicated to the Compostela Jubilee Year of 1937, with images from the city of Santiago. Three types were made, five million pieces in total. The rarest are the stamps of the second anniversary of the “national uprising.” As soon as 450,000 were made, they only circulated on July 17, 18 and 19, 1938 and only sold in Burgos and Seville. The one of a peseta could now cost about 200 euros among collectors, for example, when for 25 euro cents you can find some of the other types.
The engineer Juan Manuel Cerrato was director of the Central Office of Correos y Telegrafos de Vitoria and is also a stammer collector. He is a member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Philately and Postal History and president of the Philatelic Association of Álava. For years, he has investigated Fournier’s emissions, to the point that he knew Juan Manuel Alfaro, Biznieto de Heraclio and son of Félix decades ago. He has written two books on the subject. Attend this newspaper by phone.
He explains that, initially, “Fournier was not considered a Franco company” but that, little by little, he tested its technical quality and loyalty with jobs for the city of Vitoria, the first municipality of the new regime, or for the Donostiarra delegation of the Falange, the unique party. It also offered “good prices.” “Félix Alfaro becomes aware that the best option is to have a hand in the state, in Burgos,” explains Cerrato, who does not hesitate to “put her hand” and have “privileged information” to obtain orders. Heraclio Fournier, in addition, made proposals of pieces “to raise national fervor,” he says. He also confirms that, at the end of the civil war, the materials with the design of Franco de Sánchez-All passed from Vitoria to Madrid. They are portraits that also popularized as “Cabezones”, for the large size in them of Franco’s Testa.
The Alfaro Fournier family archive also collects how each and every one of the stamps for the new state were perfectly controlled by officials who appeared, day and day too, to see the exit of the packages. In addition, each shipment from Vitoria to Burgos was done after raising an act in the detail of all the values sent.
Suspicion of philatelic “falsifications”
However, from very soon there were suspicions that there were impressions “for the purposes of philatelic speculation.” Félix Alfaro came to write to Correos responsible for his “honorability” was beyond doubt, although he admitted that there was “any error that generated variants that could reach high prices in specialized markets. Cerrato explains that there is a piece with the image of the inverted Santiago Cathedral within the framework of the seal. There would barely be a hundred copies, all very expensive. On the Internet there is one available for 2,500 euros.
This expert is not believed to be casual, since, in addition to printers, that family was a collector and knew these things well. He assures that he expressly asked Félix Alfaro’s son and that his evasive or technical reasoning did not convince him.
Still on April 27, 1946, the eve of San Prudencio, the patron of Álava, the Francoist police appeared in the company’s workshop on Manuel Iradier street. Inspector Natalio Tejedor Rodríguez acted commissioned by a special court for “crimes of philatelic falsification.” They wanted to “occupy” the possible stamps stored there, as well as plates and other materials to make them. Another brother, Ramón Alfaro Fournier was present. Another of them, Heraclio Alfaro Fournier, is also worldwide recognized as aviator. It even states as present in that raid the son of Félix, Juan Manuel, then very young. The police found nothing. They told the agents that, at the time, they had worked for the State and that the different emissions were “absolutely controlled.” They “destroyed” leftover, defective pieces and the plates, with the exception of those sent to the National Currency and Timbre Factory.
The failed tricks of the tickets
Félix Alfaro also wanted to receive from the State the order of the printing of bank tickets. The first for the Francoist side, during the civil war, were broadcast in Zaragoza, but lots were also commissioned to Italy and Germany, allied countries. An attempt of the National Currency and Timbre factory that was created in Tolosa was not very productive.
The argument of this company Vitoriana and its partners in this business, such as the Donostiarra Nerecan house, was that it was very relevant to “nationalize” the manufacture of paper money. There were very advanced conversations to build a high security factory, proposals written with the contract and even with the concrete technical characteristics of a 25, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 pesetas ticket set. There was talk of 167 million runs and in the family archive there are pencil drawings and notes about this business.
With the Madrid businessman Ildefonso Fierro, Fournier set up Goya engraved. There is the circumstance that Félix’s brother, the former republican mayor Tomás, then resident in Madrid, struck him in a cordial tone during the preparation of this business. Other nationalist and leftist councilors of Vitoria were shot in 1937.
Finally, Franco not only “nationalized” the production of bills, but “state.” He commissioned the preparation of these materials to the National Currency and Timbre Factory. The current FNMT has its headquarters in Jorge Juan de Madrid street. It is a lot that in 1945 ended up buying Goya recorded after verifying Heraclio Fournier and his partners that the manufacture of tickets was not his best asset.
[Los actuales responsables de Heraclio Fournier, consultados por este periódico, indican que no conservan nada de su producción filatélica ni disponen de información al respecto. De su lado, el museo de naipes de Vitoria (oficialmente Bibat, porque es también el centro dedicado a la arqueología) tampoco tiene los sellos postales emitidos en la ciudad, aunque sí algunos otros timbres hechos en Fournier].
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