LEMONS,FAKES & GENERAL MISTAKES

I saw a couple of those on eBay listed as Bernard Rooke

NaomiM wrote:I saw a couple of those on eBay listed as Bernard Rooke

...... when they had AW on the bottom? There are some crooks about.

Must admit to being quite surprised at seeing that one in the Adam Partridge catalogue. Their expert Jason Wood has a good reputation as an expert and a collector. He must have been doing it for five or six years now. The Facebook crowd like him.
But this one is Such a Howler, that it does make you worry about auctions.

philpot wrote:Must admit to being quite surprised at seeing that one in the Adam Partridge catalogue. Their expert Jason Wood has a  good reputation as an expert and a collector. He must have been doing it for five or six years now. The Facebook crowd like him.
             But this one is Such a Howler, that it does make you worry about auctions.

I met Jason at an auction once when I was introduced to him by David Binch of the Oakwood Gallery. I suppose this was around 10 years ago. He was there gaining knowledge, as he told me that he had just become interested in studio ceramics. After that I followed him for several years on eBay, as he sold a few miscellaneous pieces on there without much success before going along to Adam Partridge's and pitching the idea of being their studio ceramics consultant.

He has been very successful in bringing some significant collections to the auction house and so I imagine that Mr. P is very happy with him. However, although he might have a "good reputation as an expert and a collector" I think the facts might not back that up. From what I know, I believe that all of the regulars that comment on studio pottery on this Forum have more expert knowledge and have collected considerably more studio pots than Jason.

Jason follows me on social media and knows who I am and my connections with Alan Wallwork. Therefore a publicity post that he put on Facebook about the December auction appeared in my timeline and so I clicked on the auction to view. Seeing the garish lot 15 that was listed as being by Alan Wallwork I replied to his post as follows, "I would be interested in what tale you were spun by the person that consigned you Lot 15".

He never replied publicly or privately but I thought that it might be withdrawn quietly before the sale, which did not happen.

From my experience of auction houses over the years, I know that this kind of thing happens regularly in the auction house world from top to bottom and usually with much larger sums of money involved.

Interesting post Studio.
In the Wallwork case most collectors must have have thought it was a Lemon. Given the rising prices for Wallwork it would have fetched far more if it was genuine. So not much damage done. On the other hand, reputation for expertise is hard won, and easily lost, especially in a small collecting world like studio pottery.
                  On the other hand, Alan Wallwork was quite a perverse Gent! I always remember in Greenwich when they used to have markets outside the main one itself. You had some interesting stuff turn up. We were there with our daughter one day, and there was an elderly Gent with long hair selling studio pottery that was definitely Alan Wallworks. I did not realise that the elderly gent was Alan Wallwork. Anyway, I got excited, at least until I saw the prices he was asking, which were high. The mark also looked slightly odd. So I did not purchase. It was not until years after that the pieces with a angle grinder cut through the signature started appearing on the market, and I realised that these were one and the same.  Saved myself a substantial amount of money when I did not buy!

OMG I stood that market once, like any market, if they don't know you as a regular,
you won't take much money.

Greenwich is a historic attractive area, wonderful noodle bar, but I had my first ever
parking ticket there, which warranted an appearance at Greenwich magistrates.
Beat the rap on most charges, but Judge Jeffries had me banged to rights on one.

Lat time I was in Greenwich most of the serious space has disdappeared with London gentrification. There was still a bit around in small ad hoc markey pockets, but a shadow of its former self.

denbydump wrote:OMG I stood that market once, like any market, if they don't know you as a regular,
you won't take much money.

I began my dealing life stalling out on Greenwich Market on the occasional Saturday back in the mid 1980s. It was before the cinema was built and Saturday was the day, with only one or two stalls on a Sunday. If you had booked a stall, you had to arrive by 6.45 am otherwise your stall was given to people queuing for a cancellation. I would always get there by 6.30 and around 90% of your sales took place before 7.30 am.

Back then many of the shops in central Greenwich were antique shops, junk shops or second hand book shops, as they were the only businesses that would take the leases in the late 60s/ early 70s. However, when the leases came up for renewal the amount the charity, that owes most of those premises, wanted for the new leases made them completely unviable for the business there. Therefore as leases ended all such businesses disappeared.

Jason Wood is a member of the FB mystery pots group and I regularly ID stuff for him. A couple of times I’ve contacted him about misattributions in the auctions and theyve changed them. One was a mark we’ve had on this group before now which is often misattributed to Sheila Casson. Maybe I should charge him a commission
He puts a lot of time and effort into the job; travelling round Britain collecting work for the auctions.
I’m sure I saw a discussion on the FB group for this Wallwork piece or a similar one but I can’t find it now. I vaguely recall a couple listed on eBay a few years ago.

It was back in the summer that two were listed, as seen in my photograph from June 2020 above. One sold and one did not. It crossed my mind that he or a friend of his might have entered it in the Partridge sale, as anyone with the slightest knowledge of Alan's work would have known that everything about it was wrong.

Seal on a Rock wrote:

dantheman wrote:there's an ebayer who's named after the infamous robber Jesse James, recently he listed a rather nasty bowl as 'Geoffrey Swindell?'.
I told him it was not made by Swindell, to which he replied 'Yes I know it isn't, I just put that on the listing to sell it'

I'd assumed the wrong descriptions were genuine mistakes, but perhaps not!

I've bought 2 lovely pieces off him this year but OMG the packaging. They arrived in one piece but wrapped in cardboard rather than boxed. Who does that?! Gave me a heart attack.

I've decided to be less forgiving in future - I've just bought a figurine online which was mis-described, but I put it down to ignorance on the seller's part, rather than an attempt to mislead (since if the item had genuinely matched the description, it would have been worth far more than he was asking). However, when it arrived, it was only 4 inches high instead of the 11 inches specified in the description!!! (And it arrived wrapped in bubblewrap wound round with sellotape too - I had a horrible job unwrapping it without damaging the contents!)

You should give negative feedback. Although if they give a refund then it automatically deletes the feedback

I have done! No excuse for describing something as being nearly three times as big as it really is!

Seal on a Rock, re.

However, when it arrived, it was only 4 inches high instead of the 11 inches specified in the description!!!

I wonder if it might have been a genuine mistake, with the seller measuring the piece in centimetres and putting 'inches' in the description by accident (or accidentally-on-purpose, which gives the seller a chance for a plausible denial).
That packaging is unforgivable, though.

Another piece of fake studio Poole
Your favourite auction site has a poole studio galleon charger with fake studio stamp. Haven't seen one of them before. I'm sure none of you will fall for it though you could annoy the seller by messaging them.

it has been removed from sale

Fake T G Green Cornish ware

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-67370654

I was watching a Japanese mashiko yunomi on ebay listed as Hamada and with a signed box. Lovely piece but definitely not his style of decoration so im guessing the box was faked. Sold for a couple of hundred pounds

Having a peruse of ebay and spotted this pair of vases. no. 225877146685. Are they genuine ? I've never seen anything like them in 25 yrs of collecting. The backstamp looks right but not so sure about the base rim. Anyone any thoughts.

I'm not finding the listing. Seems to be just one vase on an active listing with that number, and nothing obvious under completed listings

There is just the one square vase in the listing, the last photo shows 2 vases but the second cylindrical one is a separate listing. Its white with orange circles. My mistake. I'm still not sure about it though, even more so as I haven't seen a cylindrical one like that either.

looks like the same fake stamp that appears on all sorts of pots , they just need a smooth base to print it on

Here are more fake stamps

I was looking for confirmation from someone as the backstamp looks ok or is at least a good copy of the 1959 -1967 backstamp. Everything else is wrong but its not the usual dodgy stamp.