Alterocca, Terni

Poligrafico Alterocca was founded by Virgilio Alterocca in 1877 and started postcard production in 1898, pioneering the production of picture postcards in Italy. In 1909 a large factory at Terni was opened. (Vigilio himself died in 1910, a man of many parts as decribed in the Italian Wikipedia). In the 1920s or a bit before the firm expanded by merging with the Poligrafico Conti (card shown below). Later history is covered in this Italian archive site. The firm closed in 1980.

The formal names of the firm were:
-Poligrafico Alterocca, Terni (1877 - 1938)
-Società anonima Istituto poligrafico d'arte Alterocca, Terni (1938 - 1940)
-Stabilimento poligrafico Alterocca Società anonima, Terni (1940 - 1974)
-Alterocca nuova poligrafica italiana, Terni (1974 - 1980)

Early cards just use a printed line, then the Alterocca roundel. The logo STA, which stands for Stabilimento Tipografico Alterocca, was used after the death of Virgilio (maybe not straight away). The IPA/CT logo appears after the merger with Poligrafico Conti, it stands for Istituto Poligrafico Alterocca-Conti, Terni. It exists with minor variations in the shape of the boundary surrounding the letters.

The VAT mark is attributed by Stefan Kühn to Virgilio Alterocca, Terni. There are more examples at wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Postcards_published_by_Alterocca.

This is a fairly early example, posted in 1903
Alterocca Terni 5289, posted in 1908
STA S 249. This 1917 card shows the censor's line "Seen: Subprefecture Terni".
IPA CT 229-1
IPA CT 229-1
VAT 3592
A Poligrafico Conti card