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Deco to Modern News, Info & Links
Please check back from time to time for the latest news, new arrivals etc.
New Troika arrivals before Christmas (6th December 2011)We have a few new pieces of Troika which will be catalogued on the site this week (week commencing Monday 5th December). One of the pieces is considered by many to be the Holy Grail for the hardened Troika collector; forget Masks, Love Plaques or Totem Vases, this piece is one of only a very small number of pieces made, and not generally on sale to the public. I'll keep you guessing until it's photographed and listed on the site, but keep a close eye on our 'new arrivals' scroller on the left hand side of this page as it'll appear there once it becomes available.Burglary at the Tetbury shop and subsequent 'fallout' (6th September 2011)
In the early hours of 26th August, there was a break-in and burglary at the Antiques shop in Tetbury where our retail unit was based. Five of the dealers who traded from the shop were targeted, mainly silver pieces, but our unit was also broken into, and almost all of our shop stock was stolen!
You can read about it in the Antiques Trade Gazette of 30th August and also more information directly relating to the theft of our stock on 16th September.
Because of this theft, out current shortage of Stock, particularly Moorcroft pottery which was out 'best seller' at Tetbury, and our concerns about repeat burglaries, we have decided for the moment to pull out of our retail unit and concentrate on our on-line business. This gives us the chance to re-stock, and to keep our stock in remote, secure and monitored premises to prevent further losses.
All the pieces we have had stolen are detailed within the following pages on our site (click links):
Stock update, week commencing 18th July (18th July 2011)
There will be a minor stock update this week, and we will be adding a few new Troika pieces, a couple of really nice pieces of Moorcroft, including another Puffins vase and a piece of Moonlit Blue! There will also be a few new pieces added to the general collectibles category including a very stylish and contemporary Art Deco Bronze on a marble base, and a very affordable piece of vintage Mouseman treen.
We don't have a date when these will be available as we have to find the time to take our usual high-quality photographs, but we will endevour to have these available for purchase by the weekend.
New information about Troika fakes (18th July 2011)
We have recently updated and added to our Troika Fakes and Rogues Gallery in light of information provided to us about the rash of fake Troika masks that have been appearing on eBay over the past couple of months. It appears that there is a company (Fosters Pottery in Camborne) that are 'legitimately' creating replica masks, and are selling through a couple of Cornish pottery shops.
Read our Troika Fakes and Rogues Gallery page for more information.
April 4th 2011 Royal Mail Price Increases (3rd April 2011)
For the past 2 years, we have absorbed the annual price increases implemented by Royal Mail in April in an effort to keep costs to our customers as low as possible. Regrettably this year we are unable to absorb the price rises for the Special Delivery and International services and have had to raise our postage & packing rates to come into line with the new Royal Mail prices. Alternatively, our subsidised 'Standard 7-day UK' service has only been raised by 50p to £5.49 and uses the same Special Delivery tracked service, so if you are not in a hurry to receive your order, this is very good value for money. The reason we can offer this service at below cost is that we have time to collect (if required) and pack orders to dispatch together, saving us both time and cost. We pass this saving on to you, and seldom does it take the full 7 working days for an order to reach the customer, many being delivered in 2 or 3 days.
We have looked very carefully at using other delivery providers, but none offer the same levels of service, tracking and insurance that the Royal Mail Special Delivery service provides. No one likes costs to increase, but for most of our products, the postage element is a very small percentage of the overall cost of the order.
We're really sorry we haven't been able to absorb these increases this year, but the current economic stresses are impacting on all of us. We don't envisage increasing our rates again for the foreseeable future.
Stock update coming week commencing 21st March (20th March 2011)
It's been a busy couple of weeks with some of the major auction houses having their usual spring 20th Century and Contemporary ceramics sales, and we have secured a number of really nice pieces which will be added to our catalogue in the coming week. It has been a real struggle though to find good quality undamaged pieces and without restoration. More and more items are being offered for sale at auction with damage ranging from minor hairlines through to huge chunks missing! And of couse, we have to be extra vigilant to spot any pieces which have been restored that have either been missed by the auctioneer, or that just haven't been disclosed under the 'buyer beware' clause.
Interestingly, at the latest auction of Clarice Cliff, very few of the big-money pieces made their reserves and many remained unsold. It was commented that the estimates were very high and with the usual practice of the lower estimate being the reserve, it's no real surprise that there were many pieces going back to the seller. Converseley, small and more collectable pieces often realised hammer prices some way above their top estimate which made buying a difficult process for us! Troika is getting very thin on the ground, and many pieces we were chasing had unacceptable damage or unrealistically high reserves.
So, what do we have coming on-catalogue in the next week? Well, it's a good mix from some nice modern Moorcroft pieces, a few choice pieces of Clarice Cliff, one with good and interesting provenance, and a nice selection of Troika. All in clean and fully checked condition, and guaranteed to be as described and photographed. A selection will also be available to view and buy at the Tetbury shop, and as always, if there is something specific you'd like to view there, we can make arrangements to place any of our stock at the shop, given a few days notice.
Keep checking the updates & new arrivals 'barker' in the left hand side of any page for details of the new stock when it becomes available to buy through the shop, or is you have any specific requirements, get in touch and we will do all we can to help.
New Troika due in soon, & beware of more fakes on ebay! (7th February 2011)
We have secured a number of great new Troika pieces, many from private collections and fresh to the market. We are hoping to have these listed over the next week or so, and there are a few large and significant pieces that will be available. I'm not going to disclose exactly what at the moment, as we have to collect them this week, then clean and check them over thoroughly to ensure there aren't any damaged pieces, but rest assured they will be available as soon as possibe.
Now, once again we see Troika fakes appearing on ebay! This time it's a Troika Aztec Mask (ebay item number 330527801881), and whilst a cursory look at the photos may show a 'genuine' mask, it most certainly isn't as it doesn't quite obey the 'rules' that show a genuine piece, the colours aren't correct and the signature/marks match no known decorator. Whoever wins this is going to either be delighted with the piece until they come to sell it, or will be very disappointed as soon as they see it. I hope it's the latter as they will hopefully be able to get their money back before it's too late.
We have had the unpleasant task of evaluating several fake pieces for ebay buyers who thought they were buying the genuine article, and have had to break the bad news. The worry with significant pieces such as Masks is that they generally fetch a lot of money, so unscrupulous vendors feel it worth taking the risk in selling a fake.
So, where do these fakes come from? Well, you may have seen on ebay a seller offering Troika biscuit-ware pieces that are just plain white and undecorated/unsigned. These are sold from the 'Donaldson Collection' - basically a collection of undecorated Troika that Neville and Anne Donaldson bought from Troika when the pottery closed and they have been drip-feeding onto the market ever since. They also bought and sold on many of the slip-ware moulds. These biscuit-ware pieces sell for a fraction of that of a genuine decorated piece, and many of these have come onto the market painted up to look like genuine Troika. The other method used, and one favoured by the fakers of Troika Masks and the rare plaques is to take a mould off a genuine piece and recast in plaster of paris or a similar material. Some Masks have also been cast from the genuine Troika mould, but as with all these fakes, there are things that to an expert eye distinguish them from the real thing. The easiest to spot are incorrect colours used, but most fakers also do not understand the decorating 'rules' or conventions which make these pieces stand out as being wrong.
If you have any doubt at all, ask the seller lots of questions and ask for more photo's. Remember, a fake is probably only worth 10% of the value of a genuine piece and if you buy one, apart from the fact that you'll never recoup your money unless you can take the matter up with ebay/Paypal, selling it on in the future knowing it's a fake is illegal! If in doubt, buy from a bona-fide specialist dealer.
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery? (10th November 2010)
We have recently started to notice a significant increase in the number of ebay sellers who are copying text verbatim from our product pages, and using this in their ebay listings. We just want to make it perfectly clear in case there is any doubt, that we do not sell on ebay and have no association whatsoever with any seller on that or any other auction sites.
All content on this site is copyrighted and remains our intellectial property (note the copyright notice at the bottom of every page). Whilst we have no issue with anyone using our site for reference, we strongly object to people copying our text and/or photographs to insert in their listings.
OK. So now the strong, legal stuff! Anyone who uses our intellectual property on eBay, any of the other auction sites or any commercial or non-commercial website without our express written permission will be persued for breach of our copyright through whatever route we deem appropriate. We are eBay VeRO (Verified Rights Owner) registered which means anyone substantially copying our text or photographs for use in their eBay auction listings will have the offending auctions cancelled, the listings removed and possibly user sanctions imposed.
The reason for taking this stance is to protect both ourselves and our customers. We do not want anyone to think or be fooled that they are making a purchase from us on ebay. We do not believe ebay is a safe and honest environment to purchase expensive collectables, because the rules and regulations we as a bonefide on-line trader must abide by, are not applied to traders on ebay who masquerade as private sellers.
If you are considering buying from sellers who use our text or photos, ask yourself whether you trust someone who can't be bothered to spend 10 minutes writing their own listing text in their own words. Is the item going to arrive with you 'as described'?
Minor website changes (15th October 2010)
International customers may notice that the 'currency selection' flags are no longer available. This is due to an issue that has been identified where the prices shown in international currencies may not accurately reflect the correct UK prices. We hope to have this issue fixed by our support people as soon as possible, and the 'flags' will be back when we are happy there are no further issues with the facility.
New Telephone Number (17th May 2010)
We have moved to a new telephony provider to improve the way we manage our phone calls. This means that if you phone us and we are currently on the phone, you will be able to hear how many people are in front of you in the queue and have the option to leave a voice message. We have also moved across to a non-geographic lowcall number which costs the same rate wherever in the UK you call us from. Calls to our 08432 numbers cost just 4.2p per minute (+vat) from a residential BT landline which is 40% cheaper than a standard UK national rate call!! Please note though that call costs from mobile phones will be higher.
Our new numbers which are in use now are 08432 892732 for sales and general enquiries, and 08432 892734 for Customer Services, Order Processing and returns. Our old number will remain active until the end of May 2010, but we would ask customers to please use the new phone number from today (17th May 2010) to avoid geting an engaged tone and no option to leave us a message.
Be sure of what you are buying when bidding/buying on ebay (9th February 2010)
I had a very worried Troika collecter phone me today, who explained that she had bought a Troika Coffin from that infamous auction site Ebay from a Business Power Seller and felt there was something wrong with the vase. I had a look at the auction listing and the vase appeared genuine enough, but she explained that the area around the base was slightly 'sticky' and the colour wasn't exactly the same as the rest of the vase. Looking at the photos on the auction listing I could just make out a slight colour variation but nothing that jumped out as being wrong.
To cut a long story short, I talked her through carrying out a couple of simple tests, and it soon became obvious that the vase had been damaged at some point in its recent history, and it had been repaired/restored. She is now in the process of trying to get a refund from the seller and has had to start the PayPal dispute process. Whilst she is very likely to get her original outlay back, she is extremely unlikely to be refunded the costs of sending the vase back by Special Delivery.
So, if you buy a piece of Troika from ebay and you are a little worried about it, what do you need to look out for?
Closely inspect the vase inside and out. Are there any areas of the glaze or paintwork that look patchy or flat compared with the rest of the vase? Does any part of the vase feel slightly tacky or have a paint odour?
Allow the vase to reach room temperature and use the top of your lip to compare the temperature of the suspect area with the rest of the vase. Is there a slight temperature variation? Many restoration fillers feel warmer to the touch of the upper lip than the original area of ceramic.
Use your fingernail and attempt to scratch off a small area of the suspect overpainting. You will often find that the paints used to cover up a restoration can be easily scratched off. If anything other than dirt comes off, it's been restored. Properly fired ceramic glazes will not come off without agressive scratching with a metal implement.
Use a cotton bud soaked in meths or surgical spirit. Rub on a small area where you suspect overpainting. If the cotton bud picks up the same colour as the pot, then it's been overpainted.
Unlike high glazed ceramics, restoration on Troika can be very hard to spot because of the rough and uneven nature of the body and glaze. Because of the shape and materials used, many pieces won't 'ring' so you can't easily determine whether a piece is repaired just by tapping it.
Bargains can be found on ebay and the other auction sites, but many sellers buy the odd piece from auction and list them on ebay without checking them first. Some have no idea that they are selling a restored or damaged piece because they just don't look, don't know what to look for of plain just don't care. Other sellers are out to deliberately mislead. As a buyer, you have to be comfortable dealing with an anonymous person who may not care about his reputation or his customers. Unlike a 'real' shop or reputable on-line trader who has its reputation to keep and is closely regulated by Trading Standards and the OFT, ebay sellers don't have to worry about this as they can operate under many different anonymous ID's or open a new account if they recieve too much bad feedback or get suspended.
If you want to ensure a problem-free purchase, buy from a reputable specialist dealer. We don't sell anything we wouldn't be happy to own ourselves, and whilst we do ocasionally sell pieces that aren't perfect, we always fully describe any flaws we find, and before we put anything up on the website we ensure it is cleaned and has been thoroughly checked over. I have several pieces which we bought at auction that I just won't sell on because we are not happy with their condition. Someone will get a bargain at a summer car boot sale!!
Gift Vouchers (1st December 2009)
After many requests, we are now able to offer gift vouchers. These are available in £25, £50, £75 and £100 denominations, and can be used against any purchase from our on-line shop. We cannot currently accept these at the Tetbury shop, but are looking at how we might do so in the future. You can find the link to buy vouchers on our homepage below the welcome area, next to the Valuations product link.
To use the vouchers, you don't need to send them in. Each voucher will have a unique single-use code which relates to its value which you enter in the 'Discount Voucher' box in the Shopping Cart page. Once entered, this will deduct the value of the Gift Voucher from the total order. You just then pay any remainder shown through the normal checkout process.
Fake Bricklayers (20th September 2009)
We have been accutely aware of fake Whitefriars Drunken Bricklayers and Hooped vases for some time. Until yesterday I had never actually seen one in the flesh, though I had seen them being offered as genuine pieces on ebay and other on-line sites. Well, we were at the Shepton Mallet fair yesterday, and saw three 'dealers' offering fake Drunken bricklayers on their 'general collectables' pitches. I must state that none of the 'specialist' dealers had them. These fakes to the uninitiated can be hard to spot but there are good tel-tales, particularly the pattern of dimples in the front of the Bricklayer which can't be 'sorted' after the vase has been moulded. The Pontil marks on these fakes are also a giveaway as they are not ground and polished but are moulded in. However it probably wouldn't be impossible for an unscrupulous 'dealer' (read crook) to get the Pontil 'fixed'.
We have links on our Drunken Bricklayer product pages to a couple of external sites which give some good detail on spotting the fakes. These can be found here: Whitefriars Fake Drunken Bricklayers Info and Deceptive Drunken bricklayer Vases. We can assure any prospective buyer that all our pieces are real and as described. We have our reputation to consider, and couldn't display these at the Tetbury shop if they were 'dubious'!! Shop safe and with a reputable dealer!
Quicker and easier purchasing! (15th September 2009)
Today we have implemented a 'single page' checkout process to make the buying process easier and quicker. All the information you need to enter as a new customer is on one page, and for existing customers you just need to login and click our Terms and Conditions acceptance. Payment selection is also on this page, and you can select from Credit/Debit card (processed through RBS Worldpay), Bank Transfer or Cheque. Selecting Worldpay will take you across to RBS Worldpays secure server as usual to enter your card details completely off our site.
Please contact us if you have any issues when using this new checkout process - we have completed thorough testing but we are only human and may have missed something!!
Customer Login to review orders (10th August 2009)
We have today added the facility for all currently registered customers, whereby you can enter your login details to review all past and current orders. You will be able to check on the current status of any order and see the dispatch date and tracking number. You can also make a customer order query directly from the Order Information page.
To login, enter your registered email address and password in the 'Login to Your Account' box in the left hand column of the website (under the 'New Arrivals' and Shopping Cart' boxes). If you have forgotten your login password, click on the 'Forgotten Password' link under the password request box and your password will be sent to your registered email address.
We are always trying to improve our customers experience and hope you will find this facility useful.
Deco to Modern featured in the 'Seaside Special' edition of Collect It! magazine (15th June 2009)
Deco to modern were asked to provide photographs and 'expert advice' for the July 'Seaside Special' edition of Collect-It! Magazine which went on sale on 15th June. The article is a brief beginners guide on collecting Troika but gives us excellent exposure and places us as one of the top suppliers of Troika ceramics in the country.
Troika fakes 'explosion' on popular auction sites! (16th January 2009 - updated 23rd January 2009)
** 26th January 2009 Antiques Trade Gazette article on Troika fakes **
We have been contacted by a couple of people who have purchased pieces of Troika from the on-line auction site Ebay. They were concerned that these pieces didn't seem 'right' and were concerned that they were fakes. Examination of the pieces in question proved that they were in fact recently painted biscuit-ware ceramic with fake base marks and signatures.
The issue of fake pieces has come to a head recently due to the sheer quantity of pre-decorated biscuit-ware forms that are being sold from the Donaldson collection. When the Troika pottery closed down back in 1983, a quantity of the contents of the pottery was purchased by Neville and Anne Donaldson. This included moulds and more importantly all of the undecorated biscuit-ware ceramic forms that were the basis of the whole Troika Art Pottery design. Many of these pieces are collectable in their own right, and most avid Troika collectors have one or two pieces. However, when prices started to rise significantly, unscrupulous con-merchants found that they could pass off low value undecorated wares as much more valuable original pieces by the application of paint and felt tip pen.
Until recently, these fakes have been quite rare, however the Donaldsons have started selling ever larger quantities of their biscuit-ware collection on Ebay, and these are being bought up in large numbers by these con merchants who have 'perfected' their technique of painting, signing and then selling to unwary buyers on ebay and Amazon.
Some of these fakes are actually quite 'passable', especially if you do not have another piece to directly compare the quality, technique and markings with. But buyers need to be aware that any piece not painted by one of the genuine Troika decorators is worthless, and in fact is illegal to sell on!
So, how can you check? Well, for vases, you need to check the colour, coverage and quality of the titanium white high-gloss glaze used on the inside of the vases. This should be hard and very shiny. It should NOT look like paint and should have an even coverage. Look for faint crazing in the glaze which will show it is the real deal. Also, many genuine pieces have a slight blue tinge around the lip of the vase where the high gloss white glaze meets the edge colour.
Look at the body. Look for brush strokes or overpainting. Genuine pieces won't have this. On things like Spice jars, Chimney Vases, Slab Vases which have a smooth edge, this should be in a gloss glaze, usually white, blue or brown/bronze. It shouldn't look like paint! Test to see if any of the colour comes off. Use a mild solvent such as Isopropyl Alcohol on a piece of white kitchen towel. You should see NO colour on the towel.
The base of Troika is usually unglazed. Exceptions are pieces that have a recessed base in which case these will be in a gloss glaze. The base should show its age and not be pristine. These genuine pieces are 25+ years old and should have dirt and wear.
The base marks are a real giveaway, but for the novice collector it is really difficult to tell a fake from an original. Each decorator had their own style of writing the base marks, and not just in their monogram. The way each decorator forms the letters of Troika, Cornwall, St Ives and England (not all these will be on every vase mind you) alongside how the monogram is written will prove beyond doubt whether a piece is fake or not.
The seller(s) on ebay are currently under investigation. If you believe you have purchased a fake, please contact us and send us a couple of high resolution photo's and we will try and identify whether it is a fake or genuine. You will also need to tell us the ebay or Amazon seller ID. But remember, if you have been unfortunate enough to have purchased a fake, you are not legally allowed to sell it on! We would recommend anyone who has inadvertantly bought one of these pieces to contact the Police and Trading Standards, and if you have paid by PayPal or your Credit card to try and get your money back.
To protect yourself from buying a fake on ebay, we would recommend that you don't actually buy from this venue, but buy from a specialist dealer! But you will think that we would say that, so if you must, check out the sellers feedback. Look at the listing and see whether it is a 'Private' listing where the user ID's are not available after the auction ends. The con merchants do this to ensure buyers cannot communicate with each other when they realise they have a fake, or can't warn others that they have bought a fake! Most of these listings are of short duration, 3 days or less. The reason is that it takes time for Ebay to react to Fraudulent listing reports and the auction will be over and the buyer probably will have paid by the time ebay get round to investigating! If you have ANY doubt, for the sake of your wallet, don't bid!
UPDATE - Below are two vases offered at PF Windibank's sale on 31st January 2009. We have contacted them to remove these from sale, however they have now just updated the description to say Restored. These vases shown below are of a very poor quality and it can clearly be seen that the colours are wrong and looking closely, you can actually see that the interior isn't correctly glazed. The worry here is that these fakes are now knowingly being sold on by reputable auction houses, using their 'buyer beware' clause.
Lot 59 PF Windibank Auctioneers Lot 60 PF Windibank Auctioneers
You can be assured that any pieces offered by us have been checked and are guaranteed to be genuine. We offer a full money back guarantee and are governed by the EU Distance Selling Regulations. Many of our pieces are available to view before you buy at the Tetbury shop, and we just couldn't do that if we sold fakes. And our reputation is too important to us.
Remember, if you believe you have bought a fake, contact us for advice and we will try to validate it for you and offer advice on how to get your money back.
Items on display at our Tetbury shop unit
Some items available in our web shop are on display at our retail unit at Long Street Antiques in Tetbury. These items are clearly marked with a yellow banner in the item description.
Should you wish to purchase one of these items, we request you contact us by telephone or email so we can confirm its availability, reserve the piece for you, and advise on dispatch time. To minimise our impact on the environment, we visit the shop once a week and collect items for dispatch then. Should you require an item urgently, we can collect and ship within 48 hours but a delivery surcharge will apply.
Discount Vouchers & Voucher Codes
Some of our customers have queried that when they 'checkout' after selecting their items to purchase, there is an option to enter a discount code.
From time to time, we run promotions such as money off your order, free postage etc. If you are a previous registered customer, you will be on our email mailing list and will receive an e-voucher when a promotion is running. If you have not bought through us previously, you can still register for our e-mailing list by completing our enquiry form, fill in your details and select 'other' as enquiry type and type 'Please add me to your e-mailing list' or similar text in the 'Enquiry detail' box. We will then send you details of offers or promotions which may be of interest to you. If you also include details of your area of interest (eg Clarice Cliff, Troika etc) we can make sure you only receive information that is relevant.
Recommended Reading:
Troika Ceramics of Cornwall by George Perrot
Troika Pottery St Ives by Carol Cashmore
Collecting Moorcroft Pottery by Robert Prescott-Walker
Moorcroft (Revised Edition 1897-1993) by Paul Atterbury
The Complete Clarice Cliff by Francis Joseph
Comprehensively Clarice Cliff by Greg Slater
Charlotte Rhead; Potter & Designer by Bernard Bumpus
Links:
Digital Museum of Cornish Ceramics
An excellent resource for researching Troika Pottery. The spirit of the museum is to provide information for pottery lovers and researchers about the many Cornish potteries and the potters, decorators and ceramic designers who work or have worked in Cornwall. Special attention is given to marks and signatures to help researchers with identification wherever possible.
Tetbury's PREMIER antiques centre, with over 40 dealers offering furniture, silver, ceramics and collectables. Deco to Modern selected Long Street Antiques as their retail outlet, and you can visit us at Unit 52
Page updated Tuesday 6th September 2011
