Thomas De La Rue, born 1793 and died 1866, was founder of the English firm De La Rue, which in the late 19th and early 20th century also made fountain pens, including the well-known Onoto pen; in the late 1950s the company ceased fountain-pen production. De La Rue first made his fortune with the production of playing cards in London and later received the English monopoly for postage stamps and means of payment also outside England; in the 1880s the development of fountain pens began. The postal administration of the Channel Island Guernsey, his birthplace, honoured him twice with special stamps. A first set of four stamps appeared on 2 June 1971 with focus on stamp production and depictions of stamps from Hong Kong, Italy, USA and England. A second set of five stamps followed on 27 July 1993 for his 200th birthday in an edition of 113,000 pieces and shows banknote, fountain pen, printing press, postage stamp and playing card as the firm's full product range. In Germany on 12 October 2000 the first special stamp of the 'For the Postage Stamp' series appeared with a fountain pen, a writing pencil and an inscribed envelope with stamp. Background on the firm De La Rue and its writing instruments can be found, among others, in Andreas Lambrou's book 'Füllfederhalter' and in 'Füllfederhalter, Schreibkultur und Schreibdesign' by Giorgio Dragoni and Giuseppe Fichera.