Alfa Romeo Forums banner

Pre War Alfa, Ferrari, Nuvolari Telegrams and other Documents

12K views 37 replies 8 participants last post by  gtv2000 
#1 ·
For most of my life I've been a Ferrari nut and collected all sorts of Ferrari related paperwork, brochures, books, and a few cars as well. Now most of it is gone except for this group of telegrams, a check from Nuvolari to Alfa Romeo, and correspondence between Nuvolari and Ferrari.


1931 Check signed by Nuvolari. I have very little info on it. If anybody can help I'd be quite grateful.
 

Attachments

See less See more
2
#27 ·
Some additional observations:

It appears that different, darker ink was used in the upper part of the check (where date, amount, payee, etc. and also what might be the ledger or booking number inside the blue Alfa Romeo stamp are stated) than in the lower part with the "Pagabile.." writing and Nuvolari's signature. But I do get the impression that the "Pagabile.." is written by the same hand that filled out the upper part of the check, but this hand writing seems to be distinct from both Nuvolari's signature and the writings in pencil on front and back. The pencil writings seem, based on the angle of the characters, to have been written by different persons. So, I'm guessing we see the writing of 4 different persons, of which one may have written on the check either with two different pens and/or on two separate occasions.

Looking at the printed part at the left side of the check, which seems to be named "Vale per cambiale con scadenza" (Google translates this as "applies to bills maturing" while Babylon translates it as "Applies to bill with expiry"), the first thing that stands out is that the cost of the check was 25.10 Lira (including taxes) but the stamp "Passa di Bollo per Cambiale" issues by what seems to be "Regno d'Italia (Italian Kingdom) is for 1 Lira, down-stamped from the originally printed amount of 1.65 Lira ("Una Lira e 60 Cmi").

On the left side, we also see a table with 3 columns that seem to read "Sino a 4 mesi" (up to 4 months), "Oltre 4 sino a 6 mesi PAGABILE" (from 4 to 6 months PAYABLE) and "Oltre 6 mesi od in bianco" (over 6 months or blank), each with 2 sub-columns refering to "Nello stato" (within the state) and "All'estero" (abroad). Only the "Sino a 4 mesi" column has printed numbers in them (and these are very hard to read, I'm guessing the "Nello Stato" field reads "Da oltre 24.000 a 25.000 Lira" (from 24,000 to 25,000 Lira) and the "All'estero" field reads "... a 50.000 Lira", the other sub-columns contain lines instead of amounts. So, the purpose of these columns and sub-columns is a bit of a mystery to me.

What surprises me is that, other than the handwritten number inside the blue Alfa Romeo stamp and the number in the red Banca Lombarda stamp, there are no numbers on this check that would make this check unique for registration or referencing in an official or private record book. Therefore, I assume this check is only a standardized form for formal compliance of an "I owe you." This may or may not have been necessary under the financial restructuring that took place at the time (see this page and scroll down to Great Depression). And maybe, given the turmoil at the time, the only purpose of the standardized form was to standardize the size and appearance which would make large numbers of these papers much more manageable.

Whether or not we can make sense of this paper and/or link it to a specific transaction or event is almost beside the point: The document does give us some insight into how things were handled at the time, and that is already more than I knew a few days ago.
 
#28 ·
Update

I have sent copies of the check to a couple of Italian banks as it is a bit unclear to me who may have acquired Banca Lombarda over the past 80 years. I have not heard back from either of them, nor do I expect to. Any information I find I will immediately post here.

Thank you Ruedi and John very much for your help and insight.

Sincerely
Peter Malinchoc
 
#33 ·
Literally vs. contextually

Yes. The literal meaning is "payable to my home" (domicile), but look at the context of the "home" that follows the overly simplistic wording. Hence, the alliteration that I suggested as a possibility. Again, the meaning was almost certainly quite clear to those who were involved. Today, we have some guessing to do until we can find additional context that might make the intended meaning clear.

John
 
#36 ·
Achille Moretti

Looking through a 1932 RACI membership listing, I see that there were two persons named "Achille Moretti" who obtained RACI racing licenses during 1932.

Achille Moretti of Milano (father's name, "Paolo") was listed at Via De Amicis 62

Achille Moretti of Mantova (deceased father's name, "Vittorio") was at Corso Vittorio Emanuele 62

The Achille Moretti of Mantova had an Alfa Romeo dealership and sold the 6C1750, chassis 6C0212772 to a certain Mr. Tazio Nuvolari early in 1930. Nuvolari kept the 4-seater sedan for only 3 months.

The Mantova-based Achille Moretti entered an Alfa Romeo 6C 1750SS (chassis 6C0312875) at the Klausen Hill Climb in August of 1932. He is not shown in the results and may not have raced for some reason? Even so, this entry would seem to make it quite probable that he was also the same Achille Moretti who had (perhaps the same?) Alfa Romeo at the Bolzano - Mendola and Gaisbergrennen hill-climb races in June and July (respectively) earlier in the year?
 
#37 · (Edited)
And now there is an historical document trace of Achille Moretti (father's name "Vittorio") purchasing a used Alfa Romeo 6C on 8 May 1930. Oddly enough, the chassis number is consecutive with the car he was reported to have entered in at least one racing hill climb during 1932. Makes me wonder if there was a recording error or an incorrectly read record? Moretti's address was shown as "Corso Vitt. Emanuele 26". I am adding the reference here so that you may see how difficult it can be to read these documents. While we do come across handwriting that is delightful, sometimes it can be very difficult to decipher. And, sometimes, the imaging is not helpful. Note that "Moretti" might be read as "Monetti" if we did not have evidence to argue otherwise.
 

Attachments

#38 ·
Uh, I missed this discussion years ago...

The wordings/expression discussed here have nothing to do with italian dialect whatsoever, but with old fashioned banking rules/habits.

The nature of the document is a "promisory note", that is a check payable at a certain, future date. The text reads that the amount will be paid 3 months after the date of the document, that is 27 june + 3 months = 27 september 1932. The "check" itself had a pre-stamped cost of 25,10 Liras. On the top of that , one lira was the administrative fee materialized with the 1£ stamp dated 1931. The date ther could well be several months before the transaction because it was a "prepaid" (in the sense of the 25.10 +1 £) check at Nuvolari's disposal. Or that the agreement was indeed on a longer payment delay, which needed to postdate the check itself because its rules of use (the stamped matter on the left) stated maximum time and amounts according to the place of use (Italy or abroad). This is where indeed contextual information would help, and we are not in position to decide on the date of the actual transaction resulting in this check - this is obviously important to us if it relates to the purchase of a (racing) car.
My understanding of the writing at the back is that Moretti had the check credited on August 5th (I would interpretate that the £26,000 compensate a £15,225 debt), that is almost 2 months ahead of the payment date. I guess that the interest calculated refer to that anticipation.
The mention "pagabile al mio domicilio presso Alfa Romeo" refers to an old way of arranging delayed payment, as explained in old commercial handbooks like this one. Basically, if it was more convenient for the creditor that at a later date it would be actually exigible in another place than the place where the transaction happened or the address of the debtor, it could be decided it was payable at a different address. This implied that the debtor expected the third party to pay on his behalf, because he has some credit there. It is self evident that Nuvolari was, at that time, in important and regular transactions enough with Alfa Romeo so that Alfa would pay the 26,000 £ to Moretti from Nuvolari's balance with Alfa. And such an arrangement was probably convenient enough for both parties.
This old-fashioned privilege is also commonly found on registration documents when prominent Italian of foreign persons indicated an ACI office as his fictional residence, where paperwork would be handled.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top