Stop Press!! Fake Lids, Hornets Nest Uncovered!

This page will be updated as more information comes in.   Return soon and often!

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Paul Bloomfield's letter regarding the fake Scarborough pot lids last issue (BBR Magazine No.85) appears to have uncovered a veritable hornets nest, with more fake lids appearing. 

C Frewin and D Allen both pointed out the misspelling of RECEIPT as Recipe but that is not unusual on original and old transferred items. 

Adding to the Scarborough find is the MORECAMBE addition shown above, the fake lid measures 63mm the proper one at 67mm diameter. 

Manchester seems to be the source.   Anyone able to help us track down the persons responsible for making these?   Only 2 or 3 (well known, long established dealers) seem to be handling these items, the internet being the main exit for them.  Where did these dealers get them from?  

Next issue we will print the names of anyone selling any further examples of these fake lids. 

Tell tale signs to look for

a) smaller size than originals,

b) a strong, very even, overall black transfer,

c) a slightly creamy body colour,

d) lighter in weight (not as dense), to do with manufacturing methods),

e) incorrect crazing. 

Time has surely come for Bottle Clubs and Show organisers to adopt a much tougher stance if the hobby is not to be shaken, and irreparably damaged, by openly publicising and exposing these increasing deceptive practices. 

They should all be giving out a fakes warning and expose to their members - if only blowing up the relevant BBR pages to go some way in alleviating the effect, and the numbers who may (silently) be getting caught.  

So far no UK Bottle Clubs have helped us to spread the warning, and no other organisers have attempted to impose strictures at Shows (fearing they may lose valuable stallholder income.) 

Both Bottle Clubs and Show organisers have a responsibility and duty to  to expose and ban these frauds, to preserve the hobby as we know it, for their own sake, and well being, even survival. 

The increasing list of fakes and repros around is a great cause for concern, yet it could easily be stamped and squashed with the right publicity and 100% publicity.  It would help raise the confidence in Joe Public (even the profile of our hobby long term,) which once lost could be difficult to recapture. 

A mass exposure of all of this, publicity galore in Club newsletters, would reduce the saleability of these, and the fakers would turn their attentions elsewhere then.

This article reproduced from BBR Magazine Issue No. 86.  With the kind permission of Alan Blakeman.