©Mark Kerr
13/3/00
| Here is a sample of
my collection, with some clear illustrations of the difference between
the real thing and the reproductions. The zookeeper and his menagerie are
among the most popular Guinness collectibles, each adding their own charm:
the ostrich swallowing the pint, the toucan balancing the pint on his beak,
the kangaroo with the bottle in his pouch and of course the zookeeper -
assumed to be John Gilroy himself. |
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There is a permanent
row / argument / discussion in the field of Guinness collecting over what
is a fake and what is a reproduction. Carlton Ware originals of the Zookeeper
and the menagerie fetch around £120-140, whilst the fakes can be
bought for £20-30.
In my opinion, a fake is
simply a reproduction being sold for the same money as an original. It
becomes a fake when the seller claims prices and qualities that clearly
are only in the originals. Just my opinion. However . . .
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| David Serpell, in his excellent
and informative 1999 book Collecting
Carlton Ware, makes the fairly unarguable point that if it's authorised
it's a reproduction. If it's not, it's a fake. And Carlton Ware never authorised
any reproductions in this series, and I quote: "To date there is no
known bona fide instance of a licensed Carlton Ware reproduction" (page
25). So that's that argument finished then. |
In this case
the difference in quality is clear: the artwork on the original shines
out: fingers painted on the hand, the mouth, the shoes, the collar and
buttons, all are clearly superior in the figure on the left in the picture
above, and on the right here. In the picture below, the artist just couldn't
be bothered - NOT a feature of the Carlton Ware factory!
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| The same lack
of concern over quality in can be seen in a lot of the reproduction
items. Although they have often come from the same moulds as the originals,
the finishing is less precise, and the painting pretty vague. In this picture,
only the seal is 'real' (although I love them all...).
And the next pictures show
why. |
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| In the seals
below, the reproduction doesn't even come close. The real one on the left
balances the properly proportioned pint on the end of its nose - the poor
old repro just has a pint-like shape stuck on the top of his head! The
real seal has flippers that look like flippers. The repro just has some
splodges of paint. I quite liken the grey colour of the repro, but the
black seal looks like a serious seal . . . black is definitely the coolest
colour here. |
By the way, if you have pictures
of any of the other Gilroy items please let me have a copy: I'd like to
extend this gallery to include as many examples of side by side comparisons
as possible. And I can only afford the fakes at the moment - so I'm not
a purist, they provide affordable collector's pieces. But owning the real
ones would be sooooo nice... If you're going to buy a fake, at least do
it on purpose, and don't be fooled.
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