The F.O.E. Report 2006-04-02

R.S. Prussia sub-report:

Bee Boaz (eBay handle kwikblue), our official agent for R.S. Prussia and related products, wrote this as addition to her extensive report on single auctions:

Start of review: 3/28/06
Finished last pages: 4/1/06.
Total items in RS Prussia & Related category: 2107

I. Not every fake or fraudulent piece found was mentioned on the list:

(a) If the seller was new and had other valid items, they were given the benefit of the doubt.
(b) If the item was a fake and the seller disclosed that in their description, it was omitted from the list.
(c) I found a good number of pieces I strongly believe are fakes with marks of R.S. Germany and others used, but felt helpless to prove their fraudulent origins having no documented evidence in either my RS Prussia books or my Fakes & Frauds books & journals. These items had to be omitted and I can only caution everyone to beware of items with these marks & to become familiar with the genuine Reinhold Schlegelmilch pieces to know a likely genuine mold & decoration from a knock-off.

II. Titles reading R.S. Prussia XXXXX. Go into the listing and find that it is a fake, while the seller says it is a fake or "reproduction" in their description. May even have a fake RS Prussia stamp too boot!

(a) Question - If it is a known fake with a fake stamp, then how is it legally an "R.S. Prussia" and quite all right with Ebay to title & list the fake item as RSP? I feel the title alone is false, muchless the carp seen in the listing! So, how do you get away with an opening statement of R.S. Prussia in the title? Shouldn't the title have to read R.S. Prussia Fake/Repro or something? Tons of those on Ebay right now under the R.S. Prussia category.

III.Alarming identical descriptions pre-written by the reproduction distributors and used by several of the fake sellers. Please read & see my attachment as the example from which I copied and pasted directly from a seller's page. You can do a search for R.S. Prussia Oyster Plate to get an idea of what I am mentioning here.

(a) Point is this - I am unable to find any oyster plates produced by RSP in my 12 RSP books. How can these multitude of fake RSP oyster plates be considered reproduction pieces? They aren't copies of anything and are phantasy pieces with fraudulent stamps. Therefore, they are not copies of original R.S. Prussia collection line wares, unless they are calling their own phantasy pieces (made when?) the "R.S. Prussia Collection". Where are they getting this verbage? It is totally misleading. And it appears to have been written to squeak through Ebay loops & internet fraud legalities. The sheer wording of these descriptions are very shady & alarming to me.

III. Last, but not least - I counted all the items listed under R.S. Prussia & Related that should not be in that category. Out of 2107 items, more than 1057 items are not RSP.

(a) When Item Specifics was removed from PGP, Ebay pinks stated they would be working closely with us to improve our categories. Back then, someone on the PGP Board brilliantly suggested that porcelain needed generic categories of simple country of origin names to properly list & assist with searches for items. My statistical findings from this RSP review show that person was dead on correct! These more than 1057 items are being lost and drowning in the RSP category for lack of a proper category classification. But all of them would not be lost if they were placed into porcelain categories for "Germany" and "Austria" and "France" and "Czechoslovakia," etc.
(b) R.S. Prussia & Related = Reinhold Schlegelmilch, Erdmann Schlegelmilch, Oscar Schlegelmilch, & Carl Schlegelmilch. And all their trademark lines!
(c) NOT related = Winterling, Beyer & Bock, Mitterteich, MZ Austria, Bavaria, Germany, O & EG, Pirkenhammer, Austria, C. Tielsch, etc. are examples of great porcelain items I found in the RSP category for lack of any better place to be listed.

This is all that I can conclude, question, or suggest after these days spent reviewing and look forward to seeing everyone else's findings!