How Do You Know?

[orbboy]

From time to time my Dad runs into a dealer friend of his. Every time he says the guy has a very pretty painted China marble with him. For a pretty penny. He has had it just over a year. Knowing nothing about them my Dad gets on ebay and finds that one that ended a few weeks back for $1500 and says "WOW!" and tells me the one he sees looks very close, but with different pattern of flowers. Then I tell him the one on ebay was a fake. Now he wants to know why, and that goes beyond anything I can help him with. I told him to lay off the one he sees because he knows it came from a show in Germany where his dealer friend got it. Had it come out of a local estate sale I would tell him to snap it up. I think I am right to be careful considering where it is coming from. Dads all for making a few hundred quid profit, but not so much into passing along fakes and would please like some info.

I took the pics of the one from ebay. They are pretty good I guess and should be helpful. What if anything stands out as "incorrect" about it? What would one look for in a real one? Is there anything about the paint that is not correct? Is it raised like it should be? Or not raised like it should be? Is the glaze right? Brush Strokes? Size or Weight? All those little traits a real one has as compaired to what this one does not would be helpful. Maybe the one on ebay was real? Sure is well done. Any info would be great.

Ok now how do I add a W to the title? Doh!

[Steph]

I'll take care of the W. I thought that was a Canadian idiom! lol

One concern here might be if this thread turns into a how-to on making fake chinas look real. But of course people want to know!

Sue posted a pic once which I use to convince myself that the fakes are fake. I'll show you that pic. I'm not brave enough to repost it though. I guess that's her call.

[orbboy]

Thanks Steph. My title made me sound like a pimp.

I never thought of the reverse side of my question. Lets hope the faker is not reading this.

[david Chamberlain]

A lot of the things we'd like to ask you would require that you actually have the marble in your hand, especially weight that you mention. And even a glass marble separately the same size for comparison. I'm assuming the [painting here has been done on a ceramic base. What is the size?

Funny thing it looks like one of Nadine Macdonalds that has been aged. It has a lot of her ceramic china characteristics and they have been favorites of mine over the years. I have something like 50 of her marbles right now.

But Nadine signs all her marbles and is a treasure in the field of marbles loved by all.

It looks actually like someone's work who was trying to copy Nadine! Try that one on!

If you had it I'd probably right away first look to see if any initials had been maybe altered and some liquid glass applied.

This can go so many ways. The darn thing might be legit. I am not an expert when it comes to antique ceramic china marbles but I have a funny feeling about this one.

David

[Pene-lope]

Since I don't know squat abaout marbles. I would like to put my two cents in, again I know nuthin, but to me the colors are too vibrant for a marble that has seen that amount of aging. Sure it looks like the color was worn off in places but it must have been just worn off cause the colors underneath are as bright as the colors that are not worn off. Shouldn't the different degrees of wear show differing amounts of fading?

If this is as stupid as I think it may be please feel free to rake me over the coals I am a big girl and can take it.

Pen

[david Chamberlain]

I dunno, the marble actually looks in pretty darn good condition or at the very least rather uniformly aged. Now if we could only make some disparaging Jabo comment about it we'd have the matter entirely wrapped up to our satisfaction. David

[Steph]

Pen, the china is fake. There is a guy in Germany who has been making these. The work is getting better. However it is still unrefined in comparison with real chinas.

To the best of my understanding.

[marbleus1]

The circular lines are usually a good place to start.

Chinas - perfect circular lines.

The first and second pic notice the small waves in the black lines,

third pic -black lines scarry good but look at the red lines, fourth same.

but good as the black lines look one way remember pic 1 & 2 wiggly.

Also for the paint to be in such good shape the roses are "fuzzy" no detail - this good of paint left, the flowers would be crisper as should the lines.

David

[orbboy]

Thanks dude! I see where you are going with the lines being off. I'll be sure to pass that information along. I asked my Dad how big it was and he said it was about the same size as the largest handmade marbles he sees. So I am assuming it is in the 2" range. If anyone has info but is leery of posting for the faker to see I do have a P.M that can be used. Thanks again for the info so far.

[marbleus1]

Even in the blue parts which on first look seem okay, the lines never were crisp.

Check your smaller simpler chinas round and straight they may be faded but origanally crisper.

The "known" contemporary makers can do the straight and crisp but most I have seen have a crackling of the main body of white. And were made to "imitate" not fool.

Except these!

David