British and Colonial Delandres – a pictorial catalogue – A pictorial catalogue of the delandre vignettes for British and Colonial forces in the Great War.

Delandre was a colourful character. Born Gaston Fontanille in 1883 he later adopted the pseudonym Delandre. At the outbreak of the Great War he engaged a range of artists to produce patriotic “delandre” labels, selling them in mixed packets to members of the public along with a pre-printed stamp album to house them. Ultimately over 4,000 French Delandres were produced and quickly this extended to the other Allies.

The aim of this site is to showcase the delandre labels produced for the British and Colonial forces. In typical Delandre fashion there are spaces in his album for vignettes that don’t appear to have been produced, and other vignettes which are not included in the album. Volume seems to have been the name of the game and most British units are represented (including ones that did not serve on the Western Front!) The bulk are multicolour labels but there are also other sheets printed in monochrome (some with red overprint), on blued paper and “rust” coloured designs. Many can also be found imperforate though they are considerably rarer than the perforate examples, as indeed are blocks or sheets.

In total I believe there to be 321 unique items within this scope representing 260 subjects, plus a further 28 “patriotic” labels, as shown on this site. If there are others I would love to hear about them. They make an interesting collection showing the uniforms, mottos and traditions etc. of the British and Colonial forces of the day (the vignettes are shown enlarged so the detail of the artwork can be more easily seen and appreciated.) This site is a simplified listing to cover the individual vignettes, if you are interested in constant varieties, more detail on errors, proofs etc. I strongly recommend the Schmidt & Kiddle catalogues to you (see the About section for more information).