The increasing popularity of garden and lawn ornaments has created an expanded market for reproductions of those items. Shown here is a reproduction Victorian era cast iron pedestal with gazing ball. Three Art Nouveau-styled mermaids are equally spaced around a 30" tall base. Other decorations include tridents, sea weed and shells. A bronze colored paint with an artificial patina covers the metal surface. The base supports a 10″ diameter glass silver mirrored ball. Vintage stands, statues.

A series of new advertising pot lids has been issued in exact copies of vintage designs and shapes.

Most reproductions are usually machine-made mass produced copies of hand made originals. In the case of new pressed-back style kitchen clocks, however, this situation is reversed. The reproductions are hand carved and the originals are machine made. World Fairs, Spanish American war, political portrait, tropical wood or oak - design stamped or pressed

Scarce and novel examples of original 19th century Black Forest carvings are being reproduced in resin or plastic.

A series of small chests resembling antique spool cabinets have been sold in several holiday mail order catalogs. The new pieces are based on cabinets originally used by J P Coats a leading sewing thread manufacturer of the 19th and early 20th century.

Bronzes by Frederic Remington are among the most widely reproduced of all metal sculptures. Some unauthorized copies of his work have been traced to at least 1920. But since the copyright protection expired in the 1960s, the number of reproductions in the market has exploded.

Authentic figural trade signs are recognized and prized as American folk art. They have been collected, admired and displayed in museums since the 1930s. Because of their popularity among collectors and use in interior design, original trade signs command high prices. Low wage workshops in Indonesia, the Philippines and other Asian countries are now reproducing some of the most desirable figural designs for the decorating and gift trade. Over the years many of these new pieces have been filtering into the antiques market.

Over the past two decades, particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, ever increasing numbers of Russian icons have been seen in Western countries like the United States. Much research has been done on ancient icons but very little is available on Russian icons of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century. This article will help the dealer, appraiser or collector sort through the misinformation, outright fakes and questionable pieces found in the market today.

There it was! The Federal period (Hepplewhite) dressing table of my wifes dreams. We only had about 12,000 miles, mostly by foot, invested in the search but finally we had found it. It was exactly the right size: 40 wide, 31 high, 20 deep. Color was excellent, the patina warm and glowing. The sale was virtually completed before we cleared the shops doorway. All that remained was a diligent examination carried out more to let the seller know he was dealing with a pro rather than find problems with this obviously prime specimen. What could possibly be wrong? Information on identifying antique furniture (dresser, vanity, bureau, table) - dovetails, chamfering, wire nails, planed, veneer, power and hand tools.

You can take Stevengraphs off the list of items not being reproduced. It is a reproduction of a bookmark originally issued for the American Centennial in 1876. Before we discuss how to tell new from old, lets review the background of Stevengraphs.