Whitefriars

Whitefriars Textured Range Fake vases

There have been various well known patterns that have been faked or reproduced. The main ones are the Onion Vase, the Hooped vase, the Drunken Bricklayer and the TV vase. Below are 3 pictures of a fake onion vase. These vases are very close to the original and quite often hard to spot. Generally on a fake the texturing is courser and the top of the vase has a round opening. Some Original Whitefriars Onion vases do have this round opening but most will be oval. The biggest tell tell sign is the base. On an original you will see mould marks on the base and a ground pontil. A fake has a smooth ground base with a moulded pontil.

Below are 3 pictures of a fake hooped vase in Aubergine. They did do a good job when faking this vase as you can see from the pictures and it is hard to spot the differences just from the pictures. Once you get one in your hand and compare then it is very noticeable. Generally all fakes are taller than the original and the texturing is a lot coarser than the originals especially on the herringbone pattern. In picture 2 you can see the same moulded pontil and ground base which is opposite to the originals.

There have been various different fakes produced of the small Drunken Bricklayer ans some that simply state they are in the style of Whitefriars. The pontil is moulded rather than polished and the dimples on the centre brick are much more in a column on the fake rather than a more random alignment on the original. If you compare the first photo with an original brick further up this page you can see this. Photo two and three show the moulded pontil.