In most mid-century American collectible pottery circles, the word reproduction draws immediate, passionate responses, usually negative. A quick read of posts on the larger cookie jar collector forums will reveal a loathing of ceramic reproductions that has no parallel in any other area of art.
However, most of those who express the strongest feelings about reproduction pottery are using the word "reproduction" when they really mean, "counterfeit". A counterfeit is a reproduction deliberately mismarked for the sole purpose of confusing the prospective buyer into believing it was made by the original company.
Properly, permanently marked, reproductions pose no threat to collectible ceramics. They can never be confused with the original items, even if they are passed from consumer to consumer. Counterfeits are, rightly so, the scourge of any collectible circle.
Reproductions have always coexisted with art and collectibles. Any desirable painting, sculpture, piece or style of furniture, doll, textile, mosaic, piece of jewelry, ancient treasure, or ceramic piece that is outside of current copyright protection is a candidate for reproduction, if for no other reason than to satisfy the market demand for items that are one of a kind or outside the budget of the masses.
Most collector groups have to wrestle with education about discerning original from reproduction, especially vintage reproductions of their art form. In furniture, for example, reproductions of many period styles are now as collectible as the originals they copied. Serious collectors of period originals have to be very educated about discerning examples from the era they specialize in from later made reproductions. Thousands of dollars are often at stake, so very few people take up collecting antique furniture, jewelry, or paintings casually.
Mid-era collectible ceramics present unique challenges for collectors. The originals were often mass-produced under low-tech conditions with inexpensive materials. They were often colored with simple designs or solid finishes, ideal for quick, easy turnaround in a factory. While there were smaller pottery companies, like the Helen Hutula Company of the 1940's, whose complex cookie jars have never been reproduced, there were also large manufacturers, like the McCoy Pottery Company, who have drawn more than their share of interest in duplicating their ceramic products.
The designers at McCoy Pottery turned out hundreds of simple, utilitarian, designs that required very little artistic talent to produce. For a factory setting, this was desirable, since it allowed for the easy, uniform creation of the pottery without requiring teams of specialized artists that could be costly to train and maintain.
From the vantage point of a counterfeiter, however, the simplicity of the original products is their weakness.
Anyone with a cheap kiln, a bucket of slip and a bag of plaster has the potential to create a "knock-off". The process of creating a plaster mold from an original piece of pottery isn't terribly complex. There are better and worse ways to go about it, and the complexity of the piece is a huge factor in the success rate, but for a simple item, like a bowl, vase or simple planter, even a first timer has a reasonably good chance of making a workable mold with minimal effort.
Once a mold is made, the rest is simply process. Unless the original piece had complex designs or painting, there is no artistic skill needed to turn out a duplicate. Scratch the original manufacturer logo on the underside before you fire it, and you have a counterfeit.
You see the results of this ease all over the auction website eBay, where hundreds of counterfeits of simple pottery designs can be found every day. The easier the piece is to duplicate, the more numerous the counterfeits. One prominent counterfeiter is known to say that his favorite piece to make is the McCoy "Mammy" cookie jar because it is so "easy" to paint. A quick scan of eBay will show his statement to be true. On most days, there are more "fake" McCoy Mammy cookie jars for sale than genuine ones.
The main counterfeiters in the collectible mid-century pottery world are well known. None of them are actually artists, and they have concentrated on counterfeiting mass-produced simple designs because of their lack of mold making and artistic skill. You see very little counterfeit Roseville Pottery, for example, since the original glazing techniques and color application processes are simply outside the skill level of the current counterfeiters.
Simplicity is why McCoy Pottery and the Hull Red Riding Hood line have drawn the attentions of the counterfeiters to an extreme. As they branch out for new material, they have recently turned their attention to Watt Pottery, which produced simple bowls and pitchers with relatively easy to reproduce folk art style motifs.
Even if the current counterfeiters were stopped, there will always be someone else with a bag of plaster to take their place. Early to Mid-century American pottery has only become really collectible in the last 15-20 years or so, but as it gets more valuable and desirable, the skill level of the counterfeiters will surely rise. As the potential for profit rises, counterfeiting this type of pottery will attract those with more experience to offer the task. Ironically, this will probably be a good thing for the genre, as collectors will be much more careful about their purchases if there is considerably more money at stake for each piece.
For now, it is incumbent on the potential collector to take on collecting mid-century pottery products with a margin of wariness and commitment to research and education. While that may not seem "fair", it is reality. Collecting ceramics from any manufacturer whose originals were inexpensive, mass-produced, simple designs must necessarily be considered "High Risk" for fraud.
StoryBook Ceramics creates reproductions, not counterfeits. Our reproductions are properly marked, permanently, to forever designate them as StoryBook Ceramics products. We have reproduced many of the expensive, complex examples of mid-century pottery for the first time, making them available to budget minded collectors. Our items are specifically designed to pose no threat to any collector.
We take the responsibility of creating reproductions seriously, and we take educating people about the dangers of counterfeits seriously too. Understanding how counterfeiters think, and what products and manufacturers they target is one of the best ways to avoid being victimized by them. It is our hope to rehabilitate the notion of a legitimate ceramic reproduction, while simultaneously educating collectors about the inside workings of those who produce counterfeits.
Remember, "repro" is not a four-letter word.... but "fake" is.
©StoryBook Ceramics 2006
