Delvaux Tempête Authentication Guide: What Genuine Looks Like

What Makes the Tempête Worth Knowing Well

The Tempête is Delvaux's structured top-handle bag. You can recognise it from across a room: a trapezoid body that widens toward the base, a flap with a stepped lower edge, a single rolled handle, and a polished metal plate on each side of the flap with a row of round openings.

Those plates are the key to the bag. They aren't decoration. Each one is a working clasp that hooks over studs on the body, and the rest of the bag is built around them. Once you understand how they work, you know what to look at on a Tempête and what the photos in a listing should show.

This guide documents genuine construction closely enough that you can compare your own bag against it. It then shows counterfeits that get most of it right, so you know where the checks stop working. For details shared across the whole house, including the Brillant, see our Delvaux authentication guide.

Sizes and Why They Matter

The Tempête comes in several sizes. The retail tags and listings in our archive name a Mini, a PM, an MM and a GM. The smaller sizes look boxier and the larger ones look wider and flatter, so a Mini photographed next to a GM can look like a different design.

Compare your bag against a genuine example of the same size. Proportions that look "off" are often just a different size. Every genuine Tempête we reviewed, from the Mini up, had the same hardware layout described below: one plate on each side of the flap, with three openings each.

The Side Plates

Each side plate is a flat, polished metal bar joined to a leather strap that wraps around the side of the bag. It has three openings. Each one is round with a small notch at the top, like a keyhole.

Under the plate, the body carries two round metal studs. The plate hooks over them: two keyholes sit over the studs, and the third stays open. When you look at a closed bag, you should see two stud heads in two of the openings and bare leather through the third.

Lift the plate away and you can see both halves of the clasp: the two studs fixed to the body, and the three keyhole openings in the plate.

On every genuine Tempête we reviewed, the plates were bare polished metal in silver or gold tone, matching the rest of the bag's hardware. The keyhole edges were clean and even, and the plates sat flat against the body. Plates on genuine bags that were new or barely used often still had their blue protective film on.

The Side Strap

The plates hang from a leather strap that runs horizontally around each side of the bag. It passes under a vertical leather loop stitched to the side panel. On the genuine bags we reviewed, the loop is edge-stitched all round with small, even stitches, and its rounded ends are neat.

The Closure

Lift the flap and you'll see how the bag closes. A small metal plate with a post sits on the underside of the flap. On the body, below the "DELVAUX" stamp, is a square metal plate with a round opening in the centre and a hinged half-round tab at its base.

This view, with the flap open, is the one to ask a seller for. It shows the closure, the stamp and both side plates in one frame.

Not every genuine Tempête uses that lock. One genuine crocodile-embossed Tempête in our archive closes with a round snap instead, engraved "DELVAUX" twice around the rim, with the usual side plates on either side.

The Heat Stamps

A genuine Tempête carries two kinds of stamp.

The first is the logo, on the front of the body under the flap, just above the lock plate. It shows a small crown between "18" and "29", with a thin rule on each side, over "DELVAUX" in wide capitals. On the genuine bags we reviewed it was a fine foil in gold, silver or a tone matching the leather, with every letter fully filled and sharp at the edges.

The second is the line of origin, stamped inside on the leather near the zipped pocket. Sometimes it sits alone, and sometimes it's paired with the logo in a single block.

Almost every genuine Tempête stamp we could read said "Made in France". The exception is the crocodile-embossed Tempête shown above, which says "Made in Belgium". Delvaux makes bags in both countries, so either is genuine.

The Code Stamp

Some genuine Tempêtes also have a small blind-stamped code on the lining, pressed into the leather without foil. The clearest one in our archive reads "F07F".

We haven't decoded these codes, and we could only read a few clearly, so we can't tell you what format to expect. Treat the code as something to photograph for a professional, not something to judge yourself.

The D Charm and the Base

A small leather tab shaped like a "D" hangs from the handle, set with a polished metal "D" in the bag's hardware tone. On the genuine bags we reviewed, the metal "D" is inset evenly into the leather, with a clean, painted edge around the tab.

The base stands on four square metal studs, one near each corner.

Fakes That Pass These Checks

We examined seven confirmed-fake Tempêtes. None of them failed a basic check you could make from listing photos. Each had the stepped flap and the side plates with keyhole openings, and every origin stamp we could read said "Made in France". Two came with dust bags, booklets or cards.

This brown Tempête is a good example. At a glance, its shape, plates and hardware match a genuine bag.

Up close, its logo stamp is where it slips. The gold foil is broken and patchy, and several letters of "DELVAUX" are only partly filled. That's one fake, though. The other fakes' logo stamps we could see were cleanly filled, so a clean stamp proves nothing.

This pink fake copies the snap version, with a snap engraved "DELVAUX" around the rim, a cleanly stamped logo and gold-tone keyhole plates.

One grey patent fake had side plates and studs coated in the same grey as the leather, rather than bare metal. Every genuine Tempête we reviewed had bare metal plates. But this is one fake against 24 genuine bags, and we can't rule out a genuine colour-matched edition we haven't seen. Treat it as a reason to look harder, not as a verdict.

When to Get a Professional Opinion

Most of the Tempête fakes we examined would pass every check a buyer can make from a seller's photos. What gives a good fake away has to be judged against verified references: the depth and fill of the stamps, the finish of the plates and studs, the edge paint and the leather itself.

If you're buying a Tempête secondhand, LuxeDetect's handbag authentication starts at $25 with a 24-hour turnaround, and faster options are available. Send clear photos of the bag with the flap open, a side plate close up, both stamps, the D charm and the base, and you'll get a written verdict you can show a seller or use to request a refund.

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