There is a page on that website that puports to deal with the topic of "Reproductions, Commemoratives, and Look-a-Likes".
http://members.aol.com/mccjs/repro.htm While it's obvious the information on that page hasn't been updated in quite a while (the copyright date is 1998), the page is still online for public consumption and I think it's critical that the definitions there be reexamined, reevaluated, and ultimately, redefined based on the pottery world as it now exists in 2006.
It's going to take us some time to really flesh out the problems with this article, but for a simple start, let's look at the first line of the definition provided for a pottery "reproduction."
NMXpress states
"ReProductions are cookie jars and pottery are those made by someone other than the original manufacturer, to the likeness of an earlier piece, and marked as the original was marked." Oh dear, no. No, no, no.
That definition is surely apt for a counterfeit, but NOT necessarily for a reproduction.
StoryBook Ceramics creates reproduction pottery, and plenty of it, but our pottery is ALWAYS clearly marked, permanently, with our logo on the underside of the piece. There is no way to remove our mark without destroying the item.
They continue: "
Reproductions, even when sold as reproductions, will eventually work their way into the hands of an unsuspecting person - hurting the overall antique and collectible business."
A permanently marked reproduction is never going to fall into the hands of the unsuspecting, because it is "
permanently marked." The NMXpress definition seems to discount the possibility of a properly marked reproduction, suggesting that all reproductions are inherently "dangerous" to the collector's market. That is simply false. Our reproductions will never cross planes with the vintage originals, and can never harm the collector's market in any way.
Our goal with this blog is to article in the efforts to try and protect the collector's market from "fakes" while simultaneously rehabilitating the word "reproduction."
There is, we strongly believe, a place in the pottery market for well made, well marked reproductions of expensive, rare, and vintage pottery items. There is NO place, we equally strongly believe, for "fakes" of any kind, in pottery or anywhere else. "Fakes" are a breach of everything decent in humanity, and they should be illegal. Profit by deception is just wrong.
There is much to be covered in our
StoryBook Ceramics blog, and many additions there we hope to make soon, like an image gallery for examples of fakes. We will be adding pages dealing with known counterfeiters of pottery and places where these items are being made and sold. We hope our contributions will help make the world of online pottery shopping a little bit safer and will cast some light on the darker corners of the counterfeit collectibles web.
because,
We Hate Fakes too.....
