StoryBook Ceramics : We Hate Fakes Too

Answer:
Rhyne and Son Importer and Wholesaler in Ringgold, GA.

Confused? So were we.



Around the end of 2005, a new wave of fake vintage cookie jars hit eBay with a vengeance. The first to appear was a figural Mammy cookie jar, marked “McCoy” on the underside.

Following in quick succession was the appearance of a McCoy style Mammy cookie jar with checkered apron, a Smiley Pig and Winnie Pig cookie jar, in both regular and bank head motifs, a Jo-Jo the Clown cookie jar, a Lucky Elephant cookie jar, a Weller Mammy cookie jar, and finally a couple of more generic, vintage, Japanese-made, style basket-handled Black Americana cookie jars. These new jars were substantially unlike any known to have been created by Roger Jensen, or any of his related eBay-centric counterfeiting friends.

The first of these jars to appear presented somewhat of a mystery. This Mammy cookie jar appeared to be of the exact same design and manufacturing technique as an existing product, imported by ACK in their Casa Vero line. That line, consisting of a Mammy and Chef cookie jar and many related kitchenware products, was marked “Casa Vero” “Made in China” on the underside and was widely available on eBay at bargain basement prices.

Suddenly, this same Mammy cookie jar appeared in the eBay fake sellers channel, newly branded underneath as “McCoy”. The jar was unchanged in color or design, except for the vintage style McCoy logo now impressed into the underside. Touted by one fake seller as the “McCoy Fat Mammy” cookie jar, sales skyrocketed. Sellers offering the jar spread quickly.

As similarly marked fake cookie jars, described above, appeared; several noteworthy, shared, characteristics about these items became clear to us, from a technical point of view.

· They were all painted with cold paint. This paint had a decidedly matte finish, was semi-durable (it couldn’t take going through a dishwasher, experiments showed), and seemed to be brushable as well as sprayable.
· Each jar had been subtly resculpted. The changes were relatively minor, when compared to the original jars, but there was definitely an attempt to modify the design enough to protect the creator in a courtroom.
· The jars were marked with a professional stamp. None of the Jensen molds had anything more than a hand scratched “signature” in the bottom, of varying “believability”. Some “marks” actually had misspellings. These new jars had a standardized version of the McCoy and Shawnee markings. The markings too were somewhat changed from the original marks, but were so close as to surely be aimed towards fooling the masses.

A recent search of the US trademark office has revealed critical information in understanding the appearance of these “next generation” fakes. Rhyne and Sons has applied for and has been temporarily granted, trademarks for McCoy, Shawnee, and Weller logos to be used on pottery. These logos, pictured clearly in the trademark applications, are the logos appearing on the new fakes cookie jars on eBay.

Please see this gallery page to view the marks for comparison.
http://blog.storybookceramics.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=14

Without actually receiving confirmation from Rhyne and Son, we can only speculate as to the exact nature of their relationship with ACKusa. Given that Rhyne and Son is not a ceramics manufacturer, it certainly appears that they have contracted through ACK to have pottery manufactured in Asia with these new markings, then imported into this country, to be distributed wholesale through their company to resellers. The most compelling factor in this theory is the fact that it was an ACK created jar that first appeared on eBay bearing a Rhyne and Son trademarked logo.

These new jars are now available through all of the usual outlets, including Rosso Wholesale and Glass. What this consolidation of vintage style pottery marks will mean to the fake pottery market overall is still unclear. Will Rhyne and Son begin enforcing “their” trademarks against the old time counterfeiters like Roger Jensen? Will it be easier, or harder, to educate the collecting public given the fake ceramics may become increasingly standardized? We’ll take a look in our next article at what the implications of this development might mean to the secondary collectors market, and what we can do as pottery educators to use this new information to help the novices.