Recently I have learned that there is a group of scam artists out there passing off fake Dunhill Namiki pens to the Japanese pen community. I guess this was inevitable.Wherever there is value and money, someone will find a way to take advantage of it.

This group is apparentally working out of Hong Kong, and seems to have Steve Overburry's book, "Namiki" They have used the images from the book to create replica Dunhill Namiki pens.

These pens look very much like the real thing in their photos. Unfortunately most of these pens are sold on-line, so it is hard to distinguish what is real or not until it is too late.

The Key point for this guide is Before you buy a vintage pre war maki-e pen, ask to see an image of the feed. Many of the fakes that I have seen had modern ribbed feeds. Vintage Dunhill Namiki feeds are always the flat style feeds typical of the 30's. This is key in spotting the fakes.

Also the A Grade Dunhill Namiki pens generally use Takamaki-e, or a sculpted lacquer technique. In a good image of an authentic Dunhill Namiki pen, you should be able to see the specular highlights, depicting the raised surface. The fakes seem to be silk screened or some other cheap printing technique. The images look good, but they are flat.

Do not be fooled that a pen is an Authentic Dunhill Namiki because it is in what appears to be an antique Namiki box with the old style Namiki papers. These seem easy for these scam artists to reproduce, and they have been used to reel in several veteran Japanese collectors.

As with most things on the net, if a deal sounds to good to be true, it probably is.