Delandre

Some rogues are lovable rogues, especially if the rogue is a con-man. Gaston Fontanille alias Delandre was one such rogue.
Among his crimes were selling fake noble titles and a forming a chemical company with many notable directors, none of who knew they held such a position!
However he is best known for his French military vignettes. During WWI he commisioned a number of noted artists to produce these labels for the various regiments. Some 4000 were produced. Many were packaged up and sold to collectors.
He was commisioned to produced Red Cross charity labels, which were his downfall after he forgot to hand over the maney raised. He died in jail in 1923.
His productions seem to be readily recognisable, despite the different artists involved. I have doubts that the last two of these illustrated are Delandres. Well worth colecting.

A few more Delandres in my collection including Italian ones

I believe that the CSC published a 4 volume catalogue of Delandres some time ago but that it is now out of print. One volume came up on eBay some months ago and sold for £40.

Sadly,  much of the above Delandre information is incorrect.  There are six Delandre catalogues and all are available at Website posterstamps.org.uk   The CSC has not produced any catalgue.  Delandre comitted suicide in Marseille in 1927.

Steve wrote: CSC73 wrote: Sadly,  much of the above Delandre information is incorrect.  There are six Delandre catalogues and all are available at Website posterstamps.org.uk   The CSC has not produced any catalgue.  Delandre comitted suicide in Marseille in 1927. If its the intro that I wrote that is factually incorrect, its probably because it was pieced together from several sources in order to present a consensus history. Gaston Fontanille was almost certainly what can be called a 'dodgy geezer' and as such facts may be anything but, especially if he was the original source. Any corrections would be welcomed by me. The Delandre vignettes are nevertheless attractive and distinctive Cinderellas. I wa very impressed by the display at Stampex in February, and fascinated by the dedication of collectors for this material.

In fairness to Steve, all readily available sources for information on Delandre give the date of his death as 1923 and this includes Wikipedia and eBay Buying Guides and I cannot find an English language source that suggests 1927. I'm not saying that CSC73 is wrong, indeed he intimates a knowledge of Delandre, but we can hardly be blamed for errors that are commonly repeated in the public domain. I suggest CSC73 contacts Wikipedia to correct this error and/or gives us his own potted biography of Delandre.