EBAY FORGERIES OF DUNHILL NAMIKI LIGHTERS AND PENS, BEWARE AND BUY THIS BOOK!

Description

THIS LISTING IS FOR A BOOK WHICH OFFERS FREE EXPERT ADVICE ON VETTING EBAY ITEMS AS WELL AS THOSE. FOUND ON PEN WEB SITES SUCH AS PENTRACE. BEWARE AND READ ON. So you have just found a posting on ebay for a black lacquer signed Dunhill  lighter that is yours for all of 00. It is mint looking and the seller has a high rating. Is it a fake? Read this and you will have a tool to know it is a fake. THIS Iisting is for  one of the two split press  runs of my 1999 book about Dunhill's relationship with the Namiki Pen Company (Pilot Pens, the world's largest pen maker). .I am STEPHEN OVERBURY the author and publisher of this book and the picture in this listing is obviously NOT the book! I am experiencing probems with ebay posting decent pictures though to see what my book looks like and some contents,  just google the title, ALFRED DUNHILL AND THE ART OF JAPANESE LACQUER PENS, WITH MY NAME INCLUDED AND A CO-AUTHOR, JULIA HUTT. Julia is a former head curator of the Oriental Division of the world famous Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England.  Since I released this pioneering title,  over a dozen other books have flooded the marketplace, one of which even copied, word for word, the contents of my book. Rather flattering. I lived in Japan for two decades studying the Japanese craft of makie while there and learned how to determine quality work. As a pen dealer and collector for fifty years I have had the fortune to buy and even sell some of the best examples. Now, long since retired and no longer collecting, I am reaching out to share what knowledge I have to help fellow collectors avoid being taken to the cleaners on this platform at least.I find it distasteful at the number of con dealers online who are listing their imitation machine made mass produced pen designs and listing them as the real craft when clearly the product is not. I have noticed listings that claim home made cap bands were made by Pilot to protect makie  pens during the war. Nonsense. More likely the cap has suffered a crack and has been shaven and a home made band has been placed on the remaining lip to give it an extra length and strengthen the cap from further damage due to posting.I personally find it bothersome to read under the ebay Dunhill Namiki section a black Dunhill lighter for 00. It was described as Chinese lacquer made in Japan and it bore the signature of one of Dunhill Namiki's artists. First of all, Namiki  used Japanese lacquer. Second, they never signed items that were plain uneventful undecorated black  lacquer. The signature was painted on recently , a forgery. Another telltale sign was the lack of any marks indicating the item had been used in the last ninety years. That;'s generally a sign.  Have you found an asking price of  0,000 or more for a pen in the same sub category? Imagine that, the same pen  that you could buy on any given day for under ten grand in endless outlets around the globe.  But if you don't know, if you are just starting out to learn about this ancient craft, you are in the category of being a target and getting ripped off. Happens all the time with high end items.  Collecting exotic pens and lighters can be a land mine for sure,  especially dealing with makie pens but  also any expensive "art" pen, overlays included . Don't step in it! Protect yourself. If you purchase my book you will be introduced to the techniques of makie  and top examples that were made in the thirties. That's a start. But I will also provide up to one hour free of charge for a one to one consulting service using facebook video chat to focus on specific pen items or listings. We can both take a hard look at what a given sales pitch really means.  I will tell you the inside story about the dealer you might not know. I will give you an overview of the item you are attempting to bid on. I will alert you if it is a fake or a scam listing. No fee. Just passing along good will that I learned the hard way over fifty years. Check out the other listings throughout the web to see how much my book costs elsewhere. Here, with the one hour consult, I will charge a mere one hundred dollars and for Canadian and American buyers a flat rate of twenty five u.s. dollars for shipping the book. The facebook one hour consulting call is free of course once we have both signed up as friends, an easy thing to do on facebook's platform.. Canada Posts tells me most states can receive the book within eight days. . I can ship anywhere in the world but outside of Canada and United States the rates are higher and I must check with the post office to inform you of the exact cost so please email me first.  If you are even thinking of purchasing a pen for more than 0 during these uncertain times, when your only option is to buy blindly through mail order   as opposed to the best way of seeing and handling the item at a pen show, consider my offer to evaluate any kind of pen and get professional advice to determine whether or not you are being taken to the cleaners, a regular hazard for novice pen collectors. I am willing to provide expert evaluations on any kind of pen, old or new, overlay or plain, Montblanc or Pilot or Waterman ...any brand. Remember, information is king. Don't be had by learning the hard way as I did. For those of you who are unaware of my background, google STEPHEN OVERBURY PENS and read the profile in the LA Times and Antiques Trades Gazette. I have written articles from time to time in the flagship journal publication of the Writing Equipment Society (WES), which is the largest pen club in the world. You can be sure a lot of dishonest dealers will not like this unique rocking the boat service when it impacts their bottom line,  but let's face it, life  is more fun when you acquire genuine artifacts with your hard earned cash .Enough of being had! It should also be noted even the so called intelligent pen chat lines have falsified information. For example, the newpentrace.com site which at one time had tens and thousands of members and now about a dozen active ones, in April posted a request on how to sell a group of vintage Parker pens. The problem with this post was that all the pens were fake as any collector of intelligence would realize. We have included a picture of the post which was included by someone using the handle of "Andy". The administrator left the post running potentially fooling new comers. We note, even makie images were photoshopped onto these fake pens. It's incredible, but true. The following was how the post in the main message board innocently began:
Who to go to for Exotic Vintage Pen Appraisals?
Posted by Andy
on April 1, 2021, 8:21 pm
Anyone know a good resource to find current appraisal rates for more exotic vintage pens? I've enjoyed having them, but it's time for some of my more unusual Parkers (including these English Streamlined Duofold Seniors and this early prototype (?) lever-filling double jewel 51) to move on to someone who will appreciate them. It's almost impossible to believe that I could just physically hand these over to someone else, but that's where I find myself today.
Tomorrow could be different- we'll see.
The site's two administrators took sides with this deceptive seller and claimed it was an April Fools joke. Yet the post was left uncensored, fooling many newcomers and opening them up to purchasing fake goods. This is how deceptive things can be. Even pen books play this trick as most are written by dealers who would do anything to earn a tidy sum.