Hi

As a note to this guide you will find that there are no pictures. There appears to be a fault with the Ebay guide insert picture factility. I have spent hours on the phone on numerous occassions to Ebay support and nothing ever happens. If you would like to see the images please email me on sales(at)georgebaxter.com or look at our fakes and forgeries page on www(dot)georgebaxter.com

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As collectors and researchers of Baxter prints we have been constantly watching Ebay for many years. As dealers in Baxter prints we have always restricted our Internet presence to our own website. This is purely because it is a specialist market and finding replacement stock of the right quality is not easy.

However we now feel the time has come to create a Buyers Guide to help the new or experienced Baxter collector from inadvertently parting with good money for fake items. As such, we think it is only fair that, if writing a guide, we should be playing an active part on Ebay so, from now on, we shall be selling a small number of guaranteed genuine items.

Virtually all the Baxter sales we have seen over the years are either general dealers selling the occasional Baxter item/small collection or private sales. 99.9% of all Baxter items have honest descriptions, as the seller sees it, we are sure there is no intent to deceive. Conversely there have been occasions where people have contacted our website for a valuation and have been advised that it is a 'worthless' fake then ignore this information and place it on Ebay describing it as the genuine article. It is not our place to intervene - buyer beware, etc. - but hopefully this simplistic guide might help. For more in depth information please see the 'Fake and Forgeries' page on our website - and even this only touches on the subject!

Why so many fakes? In the 1920's the value of Baxter prints went through the roof, totally disproportionately to other antiques e.g. a rare 'Launch of the Trafalgar' sold at auction for £400, which, must have been at the time, the value of a good sized house. Today's value is nearer the price of a cheap second hand car! At the time a fully illustrated guide to Baxter prints did not exist and information was scant so people would try to pass all sorts of prints off as original Baxters. So ... how to identify fake Baxter prints.

Rule 1    You should know if the image is one that Baxter produced - at any one time on Ebay there is bound to be prints described as Baxter prints that are not. Some use the term 'Baxter print' very loosely and they are in fact offering prints by Kronheim or Le Blond which are printed by Baxter's method so, at best, should be described as 'by the Baxter process' or 'Baxter process prints'. There are many examples of sellers using the term Baxter print to describe any mid Victorian looking colour print - we highly recommend that any collectors purchase a copy of 'The Guide to Baxter Prints' which illustrates all known examples, as at 1984 - it has been out of print for a number of years.

Rule 2    Don't trust the embossed seal! In the 1920's someone produced a fake Baxter embossed seal (with and without title) that could be embossed onto any piece of card and any old print would suddenly look genuine - please see rule 1. In our vast collection of fakes there are prints by Le Blond, Kronheim, Mansell, Nelson and who knows who else on card with an embossed seal - this can be even more confusing when the seal shows the title of a genuine Baxter print. We have examples of Belle of the Village, Parting Look and Napoleon 1 (all prints produced by Baxter) all showing an embossed seal with title but the print is nothing like the one that Baxter produced.

All the above are FAKE Baxter prints even though they are all on card showing an embossed Baxter seal which, of course, is a fake in itself. 1) A Mansell print, a seascape by Nelson and a print of 'The Prince Frederick of Prussia' with embossed title but not the Baxter version 2) A very common fake, it could be any two prints from Le Blond's Regal or Fancy sets on a fake mount.

Rule 3    If it is printed just in red, it is guaranteed to be a 1920's fake - the most common of which is shown below i.e. the round print usually called 'The Little Gardeners' being a large version of a genuine Baxter print.

The Gleaners, a later reprint taken from Baxter's plate and then the most common fake in this category, The Little Gardeners, which is larger than the print by Baxter and in reverse.

Rule 4    If the print has the wording 'Baxter Patent Oil Printing 11 Northampton Square' printed just under the image on the right hand side, as shown in the image below, it will, more than likely, be a fake.

They can be found printed in brown, in red and also hand coloured. ANYTIME you see any of the images below they will always be fakes, with or without the lettering noted above.

Clockwise from the top left - Going to Church, The Trysting Place, The Gleaners and The Moorish Bride - all fakes printed after Baxter's death hence sometimes called the Posthumous Plates (possibly the plates were produced but never printed from by Baxter)

However we mention one print 'Boy Throwing Stones at Ducks' specifically because Baxter did print from this plate in 1836 but if it has the lettering described above it is definitely a fake. If the lettering is trimmed off and hand coloured, how do you tell the difference? There is a 95% chance that any copy will be a fake. Please see our website for further information and comparison.

Both the examples above are fake. The print on the left has the lettering as described and a small amount of hand colouring. The more sophisticated fake on the right has had the lettering trimmed, the hand colouring is virtually complete and also, the finishing touch, a coat of gum arabic to fake the distinctive Baxter gloss finish.

Rule 5    Beware of 1920's photographic copies - many were faked and the four most common are shown below - clockwise from top left: Nelson, Duke of Wellington (with arm), Napoleon 1 and HRH Prince Albert. Please see our site for further information.

Rule 6    Beware of prints of Nelson and Peel as around 80% of examples are fakes. Prints of Nelson could be a photographic copy - see rule 5. They are on the same printing plate, which was reprinted from in the 1920s, as shown below. If you see the text under the print there is a 99% chance that is a fake. One easy way to tell the difference with Peel is that if he is wearing beige trousers it is fake as in the Baxter version they are black.

Rule 7    Beware the signature 'Published Oct 7th 1854 by G Baxter Proprietor and Patentee London'. This text only appeared on one print 'Belle of the Village' but a rubber stamp was made up with this wording and applied to many thousands of prints, mainly Le Blond and Le Blond Baxter prints, to pass them off as the real thing. It is virtually always crooked (sorry about the pun) and sometimes is hidden in the corners. If the print has this date and is not Belle of the Village it is not a genuine Baxter. A Le Blond version of Belle of the Village with this faked signature is a little harder to spot!

Rule 8   Hand colouring - under this section, in theory, any Baxter print could have been faked. At any time a black and white first pull from the plate could have been taken then hand coloured BUT with the intent to pass it off as the real thing. The only way to protect yourself here is to be vigilant, watch out for wish washy colours, colours that differ from those in the reference books and those that are only half coloured - experience will tell. In this category beware of prints of 'Me Warm Now' as around 80% of examples are fakes being hand coloured in varying quality, some are easy to spot while others can be a lot more difficult and only distinguished under a magnifying glass.

Three very common fakes being hand coloured reprints from Baxter's plates - The May Queen set (80% copies seen are fakes), Me Warm Now and a hand coloured copy of HRH Prince of Wales which might fox all but the most vigilant collectors!

Rule 9    Don't always believe the seller but make your own judgement. This might seem harsh; we are sure no seller would lie but as you can see from the above, someone who does not specialise in Baxter's can easily be fooled and describe just what they see. As to condition, again you must make your own judgement. We often see examples on Ebay stating 'Excellent condition' when in fact the print is badly faded. How does a seller of general items know if a print is un-faded condition if they have never seen a genuine Baxter print before and this is probably the first Baxter print they have ever sold? Please feel free to use our site to compare images and see what a good print will look like.

This guide will continue to be updated as further examples become available. If you have anything you would like to add we will be very pleased to hear from you.

Hopefully this brief guide will be of assistance, it does not cover all the possible fakes out there but we feel it does cover about 80%. We are limited to just 10 images in this guide so please take a look at our 'Fakes and Forgeries' page for further information and use the images in our 'For Sale' and 'Gallery' pages as a reference resource. If you have specific queries or would like an unbiased opinion on any item please feel free to email - details on our website are on our Ebay 'About Me' page.