Northwood fakes - how to spot them

Good Luck, Peacocks and Grape & Cable are three Northwood patterns that have been copied (that is, faked).

It is likely that the fakes all come from the same (unknown) 'stable' in the Far East. They are pretty good copies of the original patterns and have deceived many a new collector. They are mainly found in the UK and Australia, but they have also turned up in the USA. It was reported during the 1980s that a shop in one of the London antique markets had them stacked up dozens high! Early examples (from the 1980s) were thick and heavy with a dull finish that soon oxidized, but more recent examples are lighter, thinner and brasher looking.

The exterior pattern may be a copy of Northwood's Basketweave or Ribs. Some examples can be spotted as they have iridescence on the base, others have a solid disk of glass where the indented collar base should be. Those with the solid disk could be termed the second generation of fakes and often have an over-shiny iridescence compared to the dull, thick finish on the early examples. A "third generation" of fakes has also been reported, better than the earlier fakes. Whilst the earlier examples were heavy, the third generation is much lighter and more like the original Northwood items in weight. On the edge, a rather poor attempt at a pie-crust finish may be evident.

So how to spot the fake Grape and Cable bowls?

- the grapes on the reproduced items are all about the same size whereas on the original pieces the grapes appear to gradually get smaller towards the center of the bowl.

- the pattern seems to fill the space on the face of the bowl proportionately more than on the originals, going further out to the edge than on the original Northwood examples.

- many examples bear a large looking N mark, which is cruder in appearance than the genuine Northwood N. The fake N is neither underlined nor in a circle.

The best advice to new collectors is to study examples you know to be genuine (experienced collectors are usually willing to help) - they are significantly different from the fakes. To an experienced eye, the fake is easy to spot. Colors so far reported for the fake bowls are marigold, blue and green.

Ray and Jean Rogers in Australia have studied their own example of the Grape & Cable fake. Their observations are below - pictures all courtesy of Ray Rodgers.

Fake	Original
		Ray and Jean were responding to the wwwcga Mailing List (see Links) in response to a query from a member about what was thought to be a fake Grape and Cable bowl.   Ray's observations on the fake piece were that:   - the edge of the fake has two distinct differences: 1. There is a ring just below the bullet edge on the reverse, which you can see on the photo, to obviously make the rim of the bowl thinner. The bullet points are molded to shape whereas the old points are stretched and less clearly defined. 2. The edge fluting on the fake extends in only as far as the first row of the basket weave. The fluting on the old extends three rows of basket weave. - the fake has a ground base and the irridising on the reverse goes right to the bottom of the collar base. On the original bowl the edge of the collar base is not iridised. - the N mark on the fake is much heavier than the old which is enclosed in a circle.

Peacocks and Good Luck

Fake	Fake (reverse)	Original	Original - detail