Featured Two in five antiques sold in Britain are fake

Thought this article was a sad pointer to the current state of affairs in the antiques market.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tain-fake-TV-expert-Curtis-Dowling-warns.html

Cheers
Stephen

 

Never believe anthing the Dail Mail says. I've never even heard of the "expert".

 

Info on Curtis Dowling:
https://www.cnbc.com/curtis-dowling/
Curtis Dowling on the BBC programme 'Fake Britain':
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011l8fs

 

Hmmmm, Yeah, true or not it does cast a negative shadow over the antique industry in general and just gives the public another reason to PASS.

 

Yes there are fakes out there but most people are pretty savvy...
To say almost 40% are fakes is a gross exacergation, that's like saying almost half.

So he's been round every antiques shop, market, fair and centre in Britain has he???

 

Likely , he's only been to 2 out of 5 !!!

 

Can’t speak to percentages, or one country compared to another, but forgery, counterfeiting, and the like have existed in every industry for eons.
Just makes me appreciate this forum more and more!

 

The Romans had fake antiques; it's been going on since forever. Sometimes the fakes become collectible in their own right, eventually. Counterfeit Confederate (US Civil War) money is a prime example.

 

'We had 16 items on the Treasure Detective series and half were fake, which is a good indication of what's going on in the market.'

Daft on the face of it. 16 items selected for a TV programme that is looking for fakes?

In the TV show, Mr Dowling and a team of experts investigate the potential counterfeit items on behalf of real collectors who may have been scammed.

The sample is of people who already doubt their purchases. If indeed any sample as such was taken at all, by anyone but the programme's editors looking for good TV, not statistical research.

A poll of 2,000 people for TV Channel Yesterday found that one in four people spend £141 on antiques each year, but that hardly any get them authenticated, meaning they stand a good chance of being fakes.

Who polled them? And how was the sample selected? I can believe that hardly any get their items authenticated. I have spent a million quid on antiques over the years and have only consulted anyone else a handful of times. I am pretty sure I have only bought a handful of fakes in that time. The lack of authentication does not mean many are fake, it means people generally know what they are doing and see no need to consult an expensive 'expert'.

The UK Fakes and Forgeries report found that 68 per cent of people buying antiques are 'worried' it may be a fake, but that only 57 per cent get the items authenticated by an expert before buying them.

This sounds like pure bullshit. What 'Antiques Fakes and Forgeries Report? I have sold antiques to many thousands of people, few have shown any misgivings, no-one has ever had an item authenticated before buying it.

The Daily Mail is not held in high esteem among British journalists or by a good chunk of the British public. If you are a PR person you cook up a pseudo-story and send it to the Daily Mail, who will usually print it as news. It helps fill the pages. That is all that matters. More responsible news sources ask the sort of questions I have asked, and look for second and third opinions such as I have given. No evidence, no sources, no story.
This is just a puff piece for the TV channel and its programmes.
I have seen Mr Dowling in a couple of TV shows and not been impressed. The type of programme is very much popular daytime TV shows with a rather undemanding and credulous audience. He is a performer, not a pundit.

 

Nothing like the word "fake" to stir the blood. Almost as good as the word "patina". Think it used to be called "corrosion" just before the item unworthy of restoration was thrown in the bin.
Cheers
Stephen

 

Exactly.
With most of my 'stuff' I wouldn't know where to go anyway, the 'experts' I've heard or read of so far, are experts in getting it wrong.
When it comes to Madurese keris, collectors and sellers usually ask me, and I am no expert, I just know a bit more about them then most. And you wouldn't believe the nonsense I've heard and read about this one subject. I've even seen a carving of a native cockatoo on a Madurese keris hilt being described as an American bald eagle.....

 

That's so true, I have seen so called experts on programmes such as Bargain Hunt here in the UK and I know for a fact that some of these "experts" don't know what they're talking about.

I know more about antique sewing collectibles than some of the dealers I buy it from and some of them deal in nothing else.

 

They usually don't when it comes to things I know something about. I still watch it though, it is nice entertainment.

 

It is, Sometimes I learn something though

I would say this forum has more knowledgeable members than these programmes have experts.

 

Oh, Bargain Hunt. There are some decent ones on there, but that blasted David Harper.............!

 

I love catching it on Youtube. It's educational to some extent - at least about what NOT to buy. There are times I want to reach through the screen and knock heads, and there are other times when I'm shaking mine right along with an Expert (so-called) who didn't see a major profit on an item coming. Or a major loss, for that matter. The Antiques Road Trip shows can be educational too, and I've seen fakes crop up on that ... after the "expert" bought them!

 

Yeah, that's the key word there, entertainment. Although i know nothing about the market in Britain but claims of 40% of the market there being fake seems well, FAKE!

 

I don't know the show, or the expert.....but to put in my two cents worth, in an area I do know something about:
I'd say that it often seems that 50% of the wooden Northwest Coast native items listed on ebay are fake. I tried to make that statement very specific, and very precise. I don't mean anything more than what I said.
I'd also add that although it is indeed true that fakes have always existed, it is also my opinion that internet auctions and ebay in particular, have vastly expanded the availability and circulation of fakes. This opinion may be somewhat specific to the area of Northwest Coast native wooden items mentioned above.
In my opinion this is primarily because internet auctions have vastly expanded the exposure of potential buyers to areas of collecting with which they are unfamiliar.