Pipe forgeries
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I have one of "benandci's" pipes from ebay, which is labeled as a HS Studio Hand Made pipe. The "H" supposedly stands for "Huke's" or "Huge Stone". It is a blasted take on a Anne Julie tulip design and is quite the looker. It smokes very well and was worth every penny i paid for it...all $60 of it. Was the design borrowed from a prominent shaper? Yes. Was it mislabeled and counterfeited as said shaper? No. Do carvers borrow designs from each other all the time? Yes. The counterfeiting is wrong and should be dealt with swiftly if that is the case. Either way, i'm happy with my chinese counterfeited Anne Julie, lol.
Here's a thread i made about the HS pipe:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/huge-stone-aka-hukes-pipe-well-see-how-it-turns-out
Here's a thread i made about the HS pipe:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/huge-stone-aka-hukes-pipe-well-see-how-it-turns-out
Pipe forgeries are not very common. The time it takes to make a really quality replica of a name brand that would command high dollars is not an easy task.
Now, I just very recently had an eBay buyer who "claims" I sold him a couple of counterfeit Aldo Velani pipes, and that he reported me to USPS for shipping counterfeit items across state lines. Yikes!
I blogged about the story on my website as I thought it might give someone a laugh -
http://www.pipestud.com/301/1619175.html
I'm off to take some more Excedrin!
Pipestud
Now, I just very recently had an eBay buyer who "claims" I sold him a couple of counterfeit Aldo Velani pipes, and that he reported me to USPS for shipping counterfeit items across state lines. Yikes!
I blogged about the story on my website as I thought it might give someone a laugh -
http://www.pipestud.com/301/1619175.html
I'm off to take some more Excedrin!
Pipestud
HAHAHAHAHAHA, Pipestud i just read your blog post and got an ab workout with all the laughter that ensued. Society seriously underestimates the amount of stupid and unreasonable individuals that roam the face of the earth. Just when you think you've seen/heard it all....NOPE! Someone like this comes along and proves you wrong. The guy trying to pull this stunt and get you in trouble with the USPS for a pair of documented authentic MID-GRADE(!) pipes, is like trying to take a parking ticket to the Supreme Court. :rofl:
Just off hand, it seems like the labor it would take to make a good knock-off replica of a high quality pipe like
a Dunhill, Tinsky, Castello, or any of the more rarified artisan pipes would not repay the effort. Forgers of art
are going for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on occasion. Gaining two or three grand at a pop for
months of work, for a fussy, discerning pipe buying customer, would be a likely way to get a quick trip to the
slammer, I would think. I think the crooked money is made online passing off pure crap pipes with rosy
descriptions, which is done all the time. Apparently, many buyers are too ashamed to fight back, and so it goes.
By the time an adequate pipe "forgery" was produced, the investment by the forger would equal the price he was
getting, which isn't cost effective ... crime.
a Dunhill, Tinsky, Castello, or any of the more rarified artisan pipes would not repay the effort. Forgers of art
are going for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on occasion. Gaining two or three grand at a pop for
months of work, for a fussy, discerning pipe buying customer, would be a likely way to get a quick trip to the
slammer, I would think. I think the crooked money is made online passing off pure crap pipes with rosy
descriptions, which is done all the time. Apparently, many buyers are too ashamed to fight back, and so it goes.
By the time an adequate pipe "forgery" was produced, the investment by the forger would equal the price he was
getting, which isn't cost effective ... crime.
Since they were mentioned, HS Studio, Silver Castle, and Golden Age are not forgeries of anything. They are associated with Trypis the Canadian pipe company, and they are a group of artisans that are making handmade and they are slowly being brought into the US market. I tracked this company down myself and have several emails where I was trying to figure out where these were coming from. I have one of the SC bamboos, well made.
Cosmic, only reason i mentioned them was that the "benandci" character is the main distributor of them. I had an email convo with Marty Pulver about it and he actually had (not sure if they are still there) a few of them for sale on his site. He said they looked well made and i agreed upon receiving mine. It surely is a fine little smoker.
I remember the benandci thread. Some of the makers were contacted and said that the pipes up for sale were not their work. Marty Pulvers commented on it on his site and had some sort of involvement in getting the plug pulled. He wrote something about being told that it had been an "experiment". A clumsy looking Bo Nordh sold for $8300 before the business was concluded.
All in all it was very entertaining.
When certain pipe makes go for a good five figures there's a pretty good motivation to produce a fake. But it hardly seems to be likely to generate an epidemic.
All in all it was very entertaining.
When certain pipe makes go for a good five figures there's a pretty good motivation to produce a fake. But it hardly seems to be likely to generate an epidemic.
Great blog Steve.
This is one of my favourite all time threads - where the whole thing just . . .er . . . got weird:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-jess-pipe
This is one of my favourite all time threads - where the whole thing just . . .er . . . got weird:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-jess-pipe
Thanks Peck, and yes sir, I certainly do remember that thread. It spread far and wide around the pipe world and ended that crooked sham.
Pipestud
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