Featured Two in five antiques sold in Britain are fake

I wouldn't put it that high....unless you're just watching Woeltje antiques ...then it's 100%....
but there are times when it ' seems ' that high...

 

Yeah, I don't think it really matters much what the actual numbers are, what matters in my view is the perception by the general public of the antique industry and, that perception is not real good.

 

Yes....I used "seems" partly because I didn't want to do any actual counting. But then this morning I did some counting in the Canadian native/aboriginal category, new today. Of about 30 wood items, 11 were fake. I included several cast items misidentified as carved wood, and one possibly genuine item that had been "signed" by a known Native carver 20 years after his death - not exactly fake but certainly mis-attributed. Like you say, on a day that the mentioned seller started his listings, there would likely be around 30 fakes out of 50 listings for NW Native wood, around a 60% fakery rate.
But I'm sure that in a great many collectible categories the fakery rate is much less; it is just that in this one area, with which you and I are quite familiar, there are a heck of a lot of fakes - but probably not as many as it seems there are.
And it is certainly a shame that the general public might get the impression that the rate of fakery is very high throughout the antique industry, as James C. noted.

 

I noticed last night yet another seller with fake masks...& there are bids...

 

EXACTLY all_fakes! it just gives the whole industry a black eye. Fakes are an issue in the old furniture world but nothing like the numbers you & others are talking about.

 

Yes; when there is a whole industry in Indonesia cranking out hand-carved "NW Coast Native" items; and shops (for example in Astoria Oregon) with a whole section full of perhaps 500 items, all with the "Made in Bali" label; and all any ebayer has to do is buy a boatload, take off the stickers, sell on ebay as genuine....It can make it almost a rare thing to find genuine items amidst the clutter of fakes.
But I can't imagine there are many shops where one would find (for example) 500 mid-century modern fakes, or 500 pieces of fake early American furniture.

 

Did anybody else notice that this article was printed in 2013 the day BEFORE his TV show went to air? A bit of media fluff in my view, just designed to gain audience share.

 

I wouldn't be surprised.

 

I looked at Windsor chairs advertised as 18th century American on eBay. Only two of the five listings looked authentic to me, and one of those five had all legs replaced without being noted in the listing. The other three were well into the 19th century. You may not call those fakes, but they were certainly misrepresented. So it isn't just one area and i suspect his estimate may be pretty valid if you include all the badly misinformed people selling stuff on the internet.

 

The thing is, if one has an interest in early american furniture, I'd say ebay is about the last place you will find it. One has to go where the objects you are seeking are located and it just isn't ebay for early furniture.

 

Some objects need relatively little knowledge to determine authenticity - professional fakes are a much tougher nut to crack. I say, if you're going to spend decent money on something - study it and be passionate about the details, even obscure details. The studying is half the joy anyway.

 

I don't know. Even Stanley Weiss, an ultra high end antique dealer in Providence, RI with listings on 1stdibs also has listings on ebay. http://stores.ebay.com/The-Stanley-Weiss-Collection?rmvSB=true

 

Yeah, well, if you look at his ebay rating thingy, he has sold 2 items in the past year so product is not exactly flying out the door. And on his website his store is only open on Saturday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. so 6 hours a week.
I once offered Weiss 2k or so for a Sheraton work table that he had listed for $5500. about 10-15 years ago, he turned my offer down.
Today he still has that table for sale and is asking $6500. for it so i conclude that Stanley is more a collector than a dealer, just sayin........

 

Yes, it it true that he doesn't sell much because he isn't willing to adjust to the new market realities, and he has enough money that he doesn't need to.

But my point is that you CAN find really high quality authentic antiques on ebay, as seen by the Stanley Weiss listings. He isn't the only one, there are a couple of other sellers who know what they are talking about and have authentic early pieces. But mixed in with that wheat is quite a bit of chaff, and most sellers have little clue what they are selling. But isn't that the point of the post that started this thread? That a lot of the people selling antiques in the marketplace don't really know what they are talking about, so there are a lot of fakes (or misrepresented pieces) on the market?

 

Yeah, I guess you could say there are some on ebay, just not many and in the case of Weiss you'll pay 2 or 3 times more than they are worth, ditto 1stdibs. Where EA furniture is really located these days is at 12-15 auction houses like Pook & Pook, Garths, Skinner, Julia, etc. and about the same number of dealers who specialize. You gotta hunt for it, it's not like you can go to any single website and find these pieces, it's spread out over 25-30 places that consistently offer early american furniture.