Bear Thompson - fake or not?

On an earlier note...I did politely contact a seller who had listed a frame of 30 Eskimo fetishes; here is his nice response:

"Thank you so much Steve, I admit I had to laugh when I read your comments! I tried researching as I said but just didn't do enough due diligence this time I guess. Sometimes I just better go with my gut - something told me it wasn't what it seemed. Anyway, thanks again Steve I'm going to take the posting down and check out that catalogue you mentioned.
My best,
Randy

Your previous message
Hi,
I can tell you are a 100% honest ebayer, so I hope you don't mind if I provide some information on these items.
These are carved in Indonesia as a cottage industry, and imported by the bead-trade. That is why they are so similar in appearance, yet represent many unrelated cultures. The material is Indonesian water-buffalo bone, stained with tea. Several ebayers have written guides with photos, which I could refer you to; or see hohbead company's catalog, search for bone pendants. Price is around $3 each.
Best wishes to you!
Steve"

 

were they like this....

 

or this.......these are unique and hard to spot......

 

No; those are not bad, though. I'd note that the edges of some areas are rounded, where one would expect "stop-cuts" in native work. I'm thinking of a large green and gray sun-mask, and several others, listed around 2005, I think. I'd probably not have known they were non-native except for the relisting with the changed provenance.

My pics are on a different computer, and I'm not home at the moment, but I'll dig them out.

 

I'll be watching....

When the sun and moon masks started showing up , I had a tough time figuring out if they were real or not....until I saw the backs...

 

Yes, that one is quite similar to the ones I recall, really very good, from the front. Many aspects are quite correct, nice-shaped U-forms, good taper to the form-lines, good balance of positive and negative areas, and the rules on concentricity are followed. Nice relief in the mustache. The ovoids on the tips and cheeks are a little loose, but there are natives whose ovoids are equally loose.
If honestly sold, and someone wanted to put it on their wall, I'd say it is a pretty good introduction to NW Coast native style. They might outgrow it; but it is more correct than the things Freddy Fencepost does, at least.

 

& the colors are correct,,,,none of the puke brown....nice touch at the end of the rays..a well formed mouth....& everything you said !

When I saw this....it really scared me !!!!

 

And komo, you correctly deduced the family of masks I was talking about. My pics of the masks that were originally listed as imports, then relisted as genuine, are dated Feb. 2004; here's a yellow variant, perhaps not quite as good as the green; and several pics of the long-rayed version, really a darn good job of imitation. In the close up of the eye you can see the tropical wood-grain; but there is not much else to reveal the origin.
Over time one does see the multiple-copy thing, of course.

 

For comparison, and noting just how well the eyes are done in these particular Indonesian masks, an eye by Richard Hunt, and a Willie Seaweed mask.


Here you can clearly see the red cedar grain; and the eyeball itself is less flat than in the fake; but otherwise, you can see that the fake has well-done stop-cuts, meeting in a triangular point; painted red, surrounded by a black fine-line.
It is scary how good the Indonesian mask is.

Here's Willie:



Love the Alert Bay/Blunden Harbor white undercoat!

 

Yup, got those , & like you say , they're so nicely done that it really made me stand up and notice.
About that time there were a lot of Carl Simeon ( + his carving buddies..) masks on eBay & I couldn't help thinking that the darn Indonesians were doing a better job of it than actual 1st nations carvers !!

" Love the Alert Bay/Blunden Harbor white undercoat!"
Yes !....I remember that !!! ..)



& the big one.......I keep a special pic of that one !!!

 

Yes, those green ones are scary-good for sure. Your big one is a different mask than mine, less taper to the black form-lines, but better ovoids. Clearly the same "family" though.
There certainly are native masks that are not as good. Scary.

 

i wonder just how many of the big ones are out there....

 

At least two! But they aren't one of the commoner ones, which is good. One of the things about the BT fakes is that not only are they fake, they are the most common ones.
Or were until the cedar bark was added.

 

Is there anyway we can discuss privately?

 

Hi
Is there anyway I can talk with either of you two privately?

 

Hi
Is there anyway I can talk with either of you two privately?

 

At the top right of your page...it says INBOX....if you click on it , you can start a private conversation with either ...or both of us. Just follow the prompts.
We will get a notice in that area of a started conversation.

It's not a phone text , so there may be a delay in getting back to you depending upon when each of us is online, on this site.

 

You are so right. I met Freddy over ten years ago and have bought and sold close to fifty of his masks. I knew exactly what I was buying and made sure my clients also knew what they were buying. I focused on the corporate market like lodges, restaurants and hotels. The prices were so cheap compared to real quality west coast carving it made good business sense.
I have been telling Freddy for years he should use correct materials and designs and get away from all this negative feed back, sell quality for thousands instead of quantity for hundreds.

 

You are so right. I met Freddy over ten years ago and have bought and sold close to fifty of his masks. I knew exactly what I was buying and made sure my clients also knew what they were buying. I focused on the corporate market like lodges, restaurants and hotels. The prices were so cheap compared to real quality west coast carving it made good business sense.
I have been telling Freddy for years he should use correct materials and designs and get away from all this negative feed back, sell quality for thousands instead of quantity for hundreds.

 

That's 50 masks that will some day enter the secondary market , & I have no doubt that they will be sold one way or another as authentic 1st nations carvings.

It may have been good business sense to you , at the time, but bad business for anyone who comes in contact with these from here on out.