Hitting the Big time!

[Spartancrest]

You know you have hit the big time when the Chinese have stolen your design and run off thousands of cheap copies. Ford Hallam must be so proud!!! [NOT?]
http://followingthei...us-flower-tsuba.html

 

 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/275256215627     https://www.aliexpre...005004465485210.html         They have even taken Ford's kanji mei and used it! The fakes have duplicated both sides - I don't expect Ford's piece to have the same view on both sides. [only one view available on-line]

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2023 by Spartancrest
lost image

[Teddy2808]

God this makes me so incredibly angry. Knowing the amount of work that goes into the production tsuba firsthand and then having it so poorly ripped off makes my blood boil especially because of how great of a person Ford is.

[Spartancrest]

1 hour ago, Teddy2808 said:

Knowing the amount of work that goes into the production tsuba firsthand

I have seen dozens of museum quality tsuba copied by the Chinese and others, like Ford's example, if they can't find the ura view they often resort to either mirror reverse the image or sometimes put an image from another totally unrelated piece. Never very successful.

These two guards are based on four Paul Chen / Hanwei modern renderings - based in Taiwan he would make a good target for the Chinese to go after - nothing is safe and nothing is recognized as copyright.  Anyone with working eyesight would avoid these poor imitations!

[Larason2]

Thanks Dale for bringing this to our attention! When you see how gorgeous Ford's original is, it's not a wonder others want to copy it. Still, it is very sad. Ford has done so much for the art, and as he sits in the hospital, others are making money off his work instead of him.

[Teddy2808]

57 minutes ago, Spartancrest said:

Anyone with working eyesight would avoid these poor imitations!

I wish more people would realize this. I’ve tried selling some of my tsuba and I’ve had people come to me and say here’s this absolutely horrendous cast tsuba thats 90$ I’ll buy yours for 150$ because otherwise I could buy a cast one for better value. I would barely make my material coat back much less be compensated for the high amount of skilled labor. People don’t see the countless hours that go into the production of fittings and unfortunately the majority don’t view it as art either just a product.

[Spartancrest]

8 hours ago, Teddy2808 said:

People don’t see the countless hours that go into the production of fittings

This is very true - As expensive as some fittings can be, we collectors are still paying far less than what many pieces would cost if they were being made today. What has driven the prices down is the almost limitless number of pieces still finding their way to the market. Simple supply and demand, with millions of fittings still doing the rounds or coming out of attics or great grandfathers collections, it looks like a long time before even original pieces will run out.

[Curran]

That is quite funny.

Ford does a Natsuo level hommage.

The Chinese do a knee level knockoff.

Inside me is the urge to make 1000 photocopies of the chinese knockoffs and flood ebay with them at 1 cent each + $99 delivery charge.