Topic: Fake Baccarat

[tropdevin]

If the seller is correct in saying that this paperweight has a Baccarat signature, then it is a fake, as the paperweight is quite clearly a Murano.

Alan

[Leni]

But it's not theirs, Alan.  They're selling it for somebody else.  All they do is provide the pictures and description.  And presumably the description is accurate.  The weight, they say, is 'signed Baccarat'.  Presumably ebay won't want to know, as the description would appear to be accurate.

Are you going to tell the seller it's a Murano weight, so that they can pass the information on to the owner that you think the signature has been faked?  I wonder what they will do?   :huh: 

[Leni]

Of course, someone could always produce something like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260234186779 which a kind soul from the WF forums has produced! 

[KevinH]

In the brighter image of the underside of the canes (central underside section) an etched "baccarat" siganture can be seen - but only just. So the description ties up with the weight. But yes, it's a Murano item.

Anyone know of another example of that weight type in a reputable website that the seller can be directed to for comfirmation?

[tropdevin]

Hi Leni

I'm not sure that selling for someone else exempts you from all (or any) responsibility - it does not work for auction houses, and it would not work for me if I advertise a cheap print in the newspaper as a Michelangelo original, and then claim " Sorry. Nothing to do with me Guv - I was selling it for a mate." You run the advert on eBay, you defend the statements in it. I don't see a court going any other way.

Placing 'spoiling' adverts might be helpful, but do the buyers of the dodgy items keep a keen look out for similar items? I suspect not. My elderly mother - Bless her little cotton socks - bought an 'original Lowry industrial landscape' off eBay. It may be a genuine Lowry - the jury is still out - but she did not go searching for others, to see if there was guidance about fakes.  The idea it might be a fake had not crossed her mind. And that is a major point in trying to address the sale of fakes- the gullible punter.

I don't want to see people fall for scams.  There is a German eBayer who regularly sells Baccarat millefiori 'design' paperweights, that are modern Chinese. He sometimes gets serious prices from them from unsuspecting, naive buyers.  I have emailed him several times, but guess what, he is not interested in replying. I have reported him to eBay - deafening silence.

What else can you do?

Alan

[Leni]

do the buyers of the dodgy items keep a keen look out for similar items? I suspect not.

Collectors (of Whitefriars glass and possibly of Baccarat weights, too) may well search every day for the items they collect.  I know I do.  If they enter the words "Drunken Bricklayer" in an ebay search they will see the warning and learn how to distinguish between the real thing and the fakes.  Sadly, first-time buyers who just see a fake and think they are getting the real thing at a bargain price may not benefit from this warning, but WF folk do also take it upon themselves to email and warn those who bid on the Bricklayers we KNOW to be fakes as well! 

 

[glasstrufflehunter]

If the bids don't go through the roof, that's a really nice Fratelli Toso.

[Cathy B]

But how far is it spoiled by a fake mark?

[glasstrufflehunter]

I don't know how a fake mark affects value. For me it makes it more interesting actually.

I would think the small chip the seller mentions as affecting the value more.

[tropdevin]

Is this paperweight a Baccarat?  The canes look rather like Caithness ones. Or am I getting obsessive....?

Alan