FAKE Re-Glazed and New Gold on McCoy, Shawnee - BEWARE

As if McCoy and Shawnee collectors didn't have a big enough challenge in trying to distinguish reproductions and fakes. With reproductions, if one had the time to measure the piece and gepare it to an original, you could stand half of a chance to avoid buying a fake.
Well now we have a new challenge and it stinks. Authentic original pieces of McCoy and Shawnee are being bought (some times with slight damage or imperfections) and they are being repaired, reglazed, newly trimmed in gold and have new decals applied - all of that and then reglazed. How is that possible. Decals and gold trim get fired at a much lower temperature than the original firing of a piece of pottery or cookie jar.So a retired man can go to an auction,flea market or even purchase onokay under a differentname, and buy items cheaply because they are gemon or have damage. This talented man repairs the piece, trims it ingold or glazes it in an unusual color or applies great decals in order to turn an ordinary pedestrian piece of pottery into a unique or rare piece (I use the term loosely) and get a whopping premium price because the unsuspecting buyer reads a description that is able to claim the piece is authentic. The seller isn't lying. The piece is authentic.They just don't go into detail about repainting or reglazing.
Hereare some things to think about when buyingthese original "rare" color or gold trimmed pieces on okay. Does the sellerstate that the color glaze or the gold is original and factory glaze? OR do they cleverly state the piece is authentic and then in a separate sentence claim their is no damage and the flower is an unusual color? (Just one example). Another thing to ponder - is it possible that one okay seller only finds Blossom Time and Wild Rose pieces with rare colored flowers - white flowers, yellow flowers, blue flowers, but seldom just the good old production pink flowers! Can that same sellerreally have found 4 (not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4) Kissing Penguins or Love Birdcookie jars in the Brown glaze? Until now - there was one and only onerustic Penguins cookie jar known. Now there arefive and four of them have gee from one seller in Kentucky. What are the chances?And that same lucky lucky leprechaun of an okay seller has also had two Brown and Yellow McCoy drum cookie jars.We own one. We were thrilled to find it. It is justcold paint over the white pottery. But this seller has had two and one was glazed brown. Hmmm. Almost the same brown shade as the most recent Kissing Penguins. In fact - the color is very much the same, but unfortunately the okay rules prohibit me from posting someone else's pictures. I've saved them. I wish there was a way to alert all okay buyers of the hazards of gold trim McCoy and Shawnee. Did someone tell me that this seller has a Shafer 23K gold stamp? or was that my Ambien making me dream weird things? I don't really know, but again, anything is possible.
I realize I could becausing some speculation on pieces that are authentic and genuine in their making and their glaze and decoration.To avoid missing a very good piece, write the seller. If they will take the piece back if you think the glaze looks thick and dull even while being glossy -- if they will take a piece back because the gold shines, but not like old gold but like new gold, if they tip toe around the answer by saying "well I wasn't at the factory standing next to the glazer when they painted it (that's the line I got.),be careful."
Personally, Dan and I are selling some of our collection and we bought gold trim and odd colored pieces. But wewill be able to tell you with certainty that the piece was that color or gold trimmed when we made the purchase - we did not "post purchase" repainting of the item.
For more information, I wish I could direct you to the McCoy Society pages about ethics and reproductions, but sadly, they purchase the crap and openly support this Blue Grass seller. If you want to read the truth, you can do a search on Shawnee pottery and find a website that doesn't avoid confronting the truth of this matter.
Bottom line - we don't think people should be overpaying for newly decorated pieces as if they had gotten a rare factory gem thatwas done by an employee. As collectors, we all find some bonus in a piece that was a lunch hour piece decorated by an employee of the pottery. But that bonus and extra value isn't there if someone is firing up a kiln in their garage orbasement and did the modifications last week. And a buyer should know what they are buying. Soask. Chances are ifa piece if overly dripping in gold, it's new gold. And even marked by Shafer doesn't remove the possibility of this home ceramist having aShafer stamp OR buying a piece marked Shafer and cleaning it up, repairing it and addinggold to cover the repairs of chips and cracks.
Really, what are the odds that a collector doesn't have a normal production piece to sell? Anyone that lucky should be buying Rookwood plaques, no?