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Dear
Customers and Artistica's "aficionados":
We
have recently learned that several Chinese manufacturers have
shamelessly copied and knocked off in China, selected Artistica
products originally designed and manufactured by us in our Italian
workshops.
Obviously, we feel awful about this, but unfortunately there is
nothing we can do to prevent the
Chinese from shipping these counterfeits back to the United States
market.
At the same time, we feel
flattered by the fact that our Artistica’s products have reached
such a privileged class valued enough to be worth of being “copied”
and knocked off in such a large scale!
After all this “status” was customarily reserved for prized
international brands such as Gucci®, Luis Vuitton®, Nike® etc….
We had recently had the
opportunity to take a close look at this counterfeited products, and
frankly in spite of the Chinese manufacturer effort to give them an
“Italian” or “Tuscan” feel, we can definitely assure you that they
definitely still look “Chinese”!
Learn how to identify a
knockoff Artistica majolica piece:
Frankly anyone with a little of sense for good quality Italian
ceramics will be able to immediately identify any of these Chinese
knockoffs from far away… In any event here some hints for you:
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First the most obvious characteristic
is within the design of the pattern itself:
Colors are kind of faded, painting is shoddy almost childish
to say the list, many details are from decals, and definitely not hand painted, and
most of them feature the typical Chinese crackle glazing in a subtle
tone of gray.
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These ceramic products are NOT made
from hand thrown clay like ceramics manufactured in the best
Italian tradition, but made of white synthetic liquid clay poured
into a mold… The results are lightweight paper thin vessels,
with undefined handles
and generally featuring a surface way to smooth to resemble an
original hand-made and hand-thrown clay product.
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In general, the whole look of every Chinese made
product is glossy, colors are flat,
nothing close to the Artistica’s genuine and hand-applied “Old
World” look!
Furthermore, remember that EVERY
single Artistica’s genuine product is clearly marked “Artistica-
Made in Italy” or simply “Made in Italy”. Most of times, this
marking is under glaze and therefore indelible.
We just want to inform all of
our clientele, that it was our decision not fight the Chinese
production of these knockoffs of our products, as
we all know that China steals everybody's manufacturing,
copies products worldwide, and puts people out of work.
Tracking down the source of
fakes is big business for private detectives in China but few
lawsuits are successful.
We have opted instead to continue concentrating our efforts to
further develop our collections, researching for new and better
products that we can proudly supply to our customers like we have
done so far since the inception of our company.
We would like to
thank all of our clientele for the appreciation and commitment only
to high quality and genuine products.
Sincerely,
Marco Margaritelli
Artistica Italian Gallery
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