Anyone on this Lounge who currently surfs eBay looking for antique cuilleres needs to know that there is a seller of "FG ARTHAU'S" who is selling FAKES.

He first posted 2 for sale in December, which I bought. The photos were fairly good, & looked authentic. His rating was also good.

The first warning bells went off after he posted 2 MORE of this same spoon last week. This particular cuillere is a 3 star, & relatively rare, but it was possible that he had found a stash somewhere. When I wrote him to ask, he said he was selling them for a 3rd party & didn't know how many they had, or where they came from. So I waited.

The 2 I bought came today. I took pictures which I sent to Oxygenee who is probably one of the top 5 experts on antique absinthiana. Oxy's answer was pretty straightforward: THEY ARE FAKE. I had already surmised as such, because they are covered in peeling gilt! The workmanship is not the best. They look like they were made yesterday & lightly tarnished. They are crappy repros!

The seller uses the name les alloues on eBay. His real name is Laurent Rauturier. BEWARE!!!!

Thanks for the heads up. Too bad, as those were nice looking spoons.
Good thing we got our team of absinthe fraudbusters on the lookout.

I am sorry that happened to you. I have my reservations about purchasing anything ANTIQUE now after the bad press from a zionvirgin on ebay.

HellO-pie!!!

Here are some close ups of the spoons. You can see the big crack (?) in the one. I also took some of the handle, the stamp shows through to the other side. It was a drag coming home from work to be told "the spoons came and they are probably fake" Thanks to the "Fraud Squad" for helping crack this case.

Whoops, didn't mean to make it that big but the detail sure comes thru....
Here are a few more (smaller)

the other side

the other spoon

A real stamp usually does.

Then edit.

Crosby, I'm asking this in the nicest possible way: HOW????

I had the same problem yesterday when trying to post a picture; each time I went back & edited. I tried changing the format to a smaller pixel size, I tried going from jpeg to gif, I tried saving the photo as a thumbnail....each time I re-posted, it still was humongous. I ended up just deleting the photo entirely.

So, please, for those of us without your specialized knowledge of Forum/ chatroom HTML, tell us how to avoid posting too-large pictures.

If you have Photo Shop, or Photo Shop Elements, go to resize image, look at the original size of the image, and reduce the size in inches.
Also when you save the jpeg, select a bit more file compression.

You can also shoot a smaller size image through your camera setting.

Shit, even I can do it.

there are also many freeware image editing tools...

the gimp, for instance...

Sorry you got screwed, guys.
This is an example of one of the many reasons why I just don't buy anything.
Ever.

just read the instructions.

I don't buy anything either.
I steal what I want.

That's another reason you've been banned at all the PayLess shoe stores in the Allentown area.

Bethlehem ain't far.

just follow that big star.

No silly.
Those were wise men.

ohhh.

not guys

Yep.
The star is on South Mountain.
You'll see it Lambster, you'll see.

ohboyohboyohboyohboy!

Sorry about that. Thanks to who ever shrunk the photo. I only had about 5 min. on the computer yesterday and had to get off before I could change the pic.

I thought that might be the case. But as this would have been the 1st "antique" spoon I've bought I wasn't sure. Thanks.

If anyone's interested, I have an authentic absinthe bridge I'd like to sell ....

DG

Are you sure it isn't one of Cormenier's fake absinthe bridges?

Eww...