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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;all_fakes, post: 85818, member: 55&quot;]I was wondering about the one in #7, but hadn&#039;t checked yet for closing price.&nbsp;&nbsp; $525.&nbsp;&nbsp; I guess dishonesty pays.....</p><p>As mentioned, the addition of real cedar-bark to these fakes does make them look more real; a disquieting development.</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as no two being the same, that is generally true with good artists.</p><p><br /></p><p>A major contemporary artist, Robert Davidson, Susan Point and many others would only make one of any design; they may do a series of similar ones, but normally artistic inspiration will intervene even if they try to do the same item again.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, there are minor artists who produce identical or nearly identical items; I&#039;ll mention Artie George, who is able to make enough small items, key-chain fobs, or such, to stock rotating displays at many shops.&nbsp; The items are small, and the designs have been simplified, so he can do it.&nbsp;&nbsp; He&#039;s native, and the items are hand-made; thus they are genuine, though not especially valuable.</p><p><br /></p><p>And in the past, the same kind of marketing pressure resulted in artists (I&#039;ll mention Ellen Neel, or Eli Tait) creating standard designs that they could do quickly and repeatedly, and these do look very much alike.&nbsp;&nbsp; Ellen Neel ran a stand in Stanley Park for many years, and had a series of standard designs so that one of her 8&quot; &quot;totemland&quot; poles would be quick to make, and she could keep her stand stocked.&nbsp;&nbsp; The kids helped carve and paint them, and so in later years she&#039;d often sign them and stamp &quot;made by the Kwakiutl Indians in Stanley Park&quot; on them.</p><p><br /></p><p>So if one sees an identical copy of a contemporary mask, it is pretty certain that it is not genuine; and if say Robert Davidson was asked to make a duplicate, he would sign it; (one of the signs of a fake is that it appears to be nearly new, but is unsigned.)</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; When considering the multiple copy issue, one would take into consideration the stature of the artist; the more famous, the less likely to make duplicates. </p><p>&nbsp; And many of the fakes are based on real older pieces, by artists whose work survives in very limited numbers, and based on pieces pictured in the museum publications....so one would have to believe that either the piece has been stolen from the Burke museum, or that a new piece by Charles Edenshaw has surfaced, and surprise, it looks exactly like the one in the Burke.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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