ANDRE FRODEL FORGERIES

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Andre Frodel was a forger who made many forgeries of Canada (and provinces). His original name was Andrzej Frodel and he was born in Lvov and came to Canada in 1948. Source: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/postal-archives/0806090103_e.html

A Frodel forgery;


Frodel forgery of British Columbia, made from the die found in Frodel's effects (information obtained thanks to Ken Pugh).

Forgery!
Imperforated forgery, maybe also a Frodel forgery?


Forgeries of the 3 p, according to Ken Pugh these are not made by Frodel

 


These forged '2 CENTS' overprints on King George V stamps of Canada are often wrongly attributed to Andre Frodel. the right one has a triple surcharge

The following information was passed to me by Ken Pugh concerning the above forgeries:
"Frodel never worked with overprints. There is quite a story to these. Fred Eaton, a prominent Vancouver dealer and benefactor to Frodel, was in possession of the Frodel estate (including a stock of his forgeries) when the Vancouver Police was investigation Frodel's forgery activities. To avoid a problem, he backstamped the Frodel forgeries in his possession FORGERY or FAKE  ANDRE FRODEL. As Eaton, has in his possession other forgeries from other makers (also his friends) he backstamped those two. These included many overprints, OHMS and G officials, even some perfins. The maker of these "Frodels" was probably Alex MacMaster, a Vancouver printer and friend of Eaton. I suspect "Frodels" are being backstamped to this day to satisfy the forgery collector market."

The article 'The Frodel Story' by Bill Topping in BNA Topics/ January-February 1993 (accesible online) has more info on Andre Frodel and Harris Alex MacMaster. It seemst that MacMaster was the printer for the forgeries that Frodel produced. Frodel was an engraver, originally from Poland, with a great knowledge of paper. He moved to Canada in 1948. He seems to have been very pleased with his fantasy productions, such as the 2 c green Admiral with the center in red or the imperforate 5 c beaver 1859 stamps. The above mentioned Fred Eaton acquired a trunk with stamps and printing dies (1000 to 2000 stamps with about 20 % 'fun' objects). The following dies (27 in total) were found in the trunk:
1) British Columbia (3 dies) for single stamps as well as multiples together with the value surcharges '10 CENTS 10', '25 CENTS 25', '50 CENTS 50' and '1 DOLLAR 1'.
2) '2 CENTS' and '2' over 'CENTS' probably for 1899 Victoria provisional issue and 1926 Admiral surcharges.
3) 6 cent surcharge on the 1930 5 c airmail issue.
4) 'O.H.M.S.' surcharges (for 1948 and 1951 stamps)
5) 1959 Saint Lawrence Seaway red portion (possible used to make double printings or inverted prints)
6) Poland nr. 1 (10 dies).

Other 'creations' of Frodel concerning Canada (auctioned in a Schuyler Rumsey auction in 2010 from the Carl Walske collection):
1) a bogus 1922 5c King George V tete-beche block of four,
2) imperforate pairs of the King George V 1924 7c,
3) various 1930-50's commemorative imperforate stamps including a bogus 1951, 5¢ Steamship pair,
4) 5c Seaway fantasies including a invert pair
From the United States (from the same auction):
1) 1c Pan-Am inverts,
2) Prexie imperforated pairs,
3) 4c Parks imperforated between,
4) 1938 54 Eagle Airmail imperf horizontal block,
5) various 1920-30's issue imperf pairs used on cover


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