Simone, I am a little puzzled now as at first it seemed to be suggested to be a fake and then Riki said that he thinks it might be an apprentice piece. Yet if the date cane is so different how could that be, an apprentice would surely not get the job of making something as important as a signature cane - so why would he not use the same as other makers?
Caithness bought the name in 1981, do they also make Whitefriars signatures canes and use the same techniques as Whitefriars did?
I can recall in 1989 when I bought the first batch of PY type 1 fakes, about a dozen. The quality of those was superb although they had the lower dome and base finish that became signals of the fakes apart from the dropped Y. It is intriguing that that signature cane also was two-coloured. Surely the letters/numbers are composed of solid coloured canes so it would mean a deliberate decision to use two colours. But did Whitefriars always use a single colour and did Caithness continue in the same way?
A few weeks after the first batch of PY fakes another batch turned up. This time the dealer said that he had got them from the same source as the first and that the seller had large collection and that he had seen at least a hundred in a box in the dealers car. But the quality of these seemed odd, R. B. came and had a look and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up he thought they were odd. I then got in touch with Colin Terris to see if some seconds had been sold of from the factory but he told me that everything Paul made was inaccesible to anyone while he was at Caithness and that apart from a few stones for jewellery Paul took everything with them. We also now know that Paul would smash any weights that did not reach his standard, including those of his assistants. Next photographs were sent to Paul who said "They include some canes of mine but I did not make the weights". Which caused even more confusion. Further investigation revealed that some of Paul's weights had been stolen while at Caithness but everything was recovered by the police. At this point it was clear that the weights had to be fake. It certainly took months for people to accept this as it was hard to see why anyone that had such skill would do such a thing.
From reports of collectors buying these around the country it became apparent that several hundred had been made and also that the metal used was the same as used by nearly all of the Scottish Paperweight makers. It was the Cambridge paperweight circle, before Kevin's time I think, that managed to unravel the rest of this story - a most impressive network of collectors.
So the point of repeating this... If there is an outside chance that this weight is a fake and that some distinguishing features exist then there must be more out there. Can I ask you all to check your own collections and let us know if you find more. Where and when you bought it could be helpful in putting together a history. Careful study should look for other inconsistencies, is there a UV reaction and how does that compare with the weights of Whitefriars, Caithness Whitefriars and any other paperweight producers. There is no Paul Ysart but perhaps there still exist some old Whitefriars makers that could give some input?
With the fake Ysart glassware, the quality keeps improving and apart from a couple of details that cannot be faked they could eventually be almost perfect. I think that such a situation with paperweights would be disastrous as if these prove bad and around in quantity values and confidence will be damaged. This in turn could hurt our last few remaining paperweight producers in Scotland and as some of you know I am relentless in bringing them to peoples attention.
What must not be done is to start throwing names into the hat, rumours can do more harm than good and will prevent the gathering of hard evidence. Hopefully, this weight is just an oddity, but let us be very aware that fakes have been found before and will probably be found again.
If you do come up with some hard evidence then do not post it here, please pass this on to the Cambridge Paperweight Circle or to me. You can use this thread to give your personal opinions and details of any other weights that give rise to suspicion. Better safe then sorry.
Thank you.
Topic: date cane with an I in the middle? (Read 10324 times)
