Readers are being urged to be aware of a new batch of counterfeit Troika wares that are being offered for sale on eBay.
The convincing fakes, which include well-known Newlyn period
models such as coffin and wheel vases, are understood to be Troika
factory blanks that have been recently decorated and painted with
factory marks.
ATG have seen images of more than 20 of the redecorated wares
sold for often substantial sums in December and January by a Stoke
on Trent-based seller who operates under the user name
'misterphluffy'.
He has more than 90 transactions listed on this eBay account
alone (he is thought to have other aliases including
'misterbriss'), which points to a substantial faking operation.
When the Troika pottery in Newlyn closed its doors in 1983, its
moulds and a quantity of undecorated biscuit wares were secured for
posterity, not in a local museum or the collection of a Troika
devotee, but in a garden shed in Northumberland.
Having failed in a quiet attempt to find a single buyer for the
collection in its entirety, the owner has sold it piecemeal via a
number of outlets including the salerooms of North East auctioneer
Jim Railton. It has long been argued in the Troika collecting
community that the release of the original moulds and biscuit
'blanks' onto the market offered the potential for reproduction and
deception.
Seasoned buyers told ATG that discrepancies exist between these
recently decorated wares and those made by the factory prior to
closure. In particular, the colour palette is wrong for the early
1980s period and, when placed side-by-side, the painters' marks and
painted factory signatures differ greatly from originals. The
repainted wares also lack the white/cream gloss glaze that one
would expect to the interior of a factory-finished piece.
The seller 'misterphluffy' is also understood to have sold
Beswick fakes and, at the time of going to press, was also listing
a potentially scarce Royal Doulton figure Jack Point HN2080 that
ATG had good reason to believe was counterfeit.
EBay have yet to act on their complaints, although police are
now considering an investigation.
By Roland Arkell
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