There is a growing trend these days to sell reproduction as old (and thereby fool and con people) .They are only copies of antiques but are increasingly finding there way onto ebay and sold as genuine items to the unsuspecting public .to avoid this try to find  a dealer or collector and ask or email  before purchase if the goods are genuine and original.ask for a receipt with a written discription so that if it turns out not to be genuine original  etc and you get no help from ebay then you can at least in this country go to trading standards. .look at the sellers feedback. how many "masons style" jugs and bowls has he sold or how many" cranberry" glass oil lamps can he get you . in most cases unless you are a specialist dealer in such items who will always have a large stock and not be afraid to put his or her name onto a proper buisiness headed sheet when selling .

remember caveat emptor or in english buyer beware if the item looks to good to be true then it probably is with the market going more global as time goes on there are going to be more and more people especially from the far east coming to rip you off . reproduction is not bad if you want to live with repro and  you could not possibly afford the price of an original but nowadays it should all be correctly described and left in its own ebay category

many of the reproductions can be readily purchased from the retailers who stand at the larger of the uk antique fairs .  swinderby newark etc  this is not an advert for them but if you want it then save yourselves being ripped off and go direct to source. brass horned gramophones£30-£40 each.genuine oil paintings of ships £10 pounds upwards with nice heavy gold frames .

 There have been instances which we have seen of a  man at an auction some years ago when reproduction was just coming out who couldent believe his luck when he bought a "masons" wash jug and bowl for £80.00 and then a "carltonware" set of faeiry bowls for£50.00 and a "brass telescope on a tripod "for £120.00 as well as other items .in the cue to pick up his bought goods he was virtually dancing and was so full of himself launched into conversation with the people alongside himself .the conversation was rather short lived as the man said that the local antique dealers must be mad not to bid on the items which he had just bought.the two dealers told him that the goods where reproduction but he was having none of that so they asked him if he was coming next week .he was to buy even more bargains like these .imagine his suprise when the following week he got there to find a "masons wash jug and bowl" this time fetched £25.00 "carltonware set of faeiry bowls "£18.00 and a "brass relescope on tripod" £80.00(the telescope was bought by yet another "clever" person who thought he could re sell it for £300+

 Both men where never to be seen again at any auctions in the area. the truth is that these days everyone is an antiques dealer .they  have watched flog it ,seen antiques roadshow and cash in the attic  and even read a book and thought how easy it looks ....well in truth its a lot harder some of my antique dealer frends with 40+ years in the trade are still learning (and sometimes getting caught out with a new reproduction new on the market) hopefully this may steer some of you away from being ripped off and put antiques and repro into there own categories