Panton Ball Lamp fakes  

Hello. I'm a huge Panton fan...
Hello. I'm a huge Panton fan too and have been for years. He's the one that got me into design and I owned many, many both common and rare item by him, even a few prototypes. Now I just collect his fabrics.
I don't have much experience with the Ball lamps, however I know that they're being reporduced by the Danish company Verpan, who bought the right to produce Panton's lamps from his wife, Marianne Panton (for what seems to be a very small amount). However, I too have noticed several Ball lamps suddenly appearing esp. on eBay.de right up to when Verpan announced that they would reintroduce the Ball lamps. This is not uncommon. When design classics are being reproduced, collectors and stores often hurry up and sell the originals as the prices tend to drop a bit. Are you using Vitra's huge book on Verner Panton as guidiance? - because then you should know that it's far from complete.
But yeah, there might be something fishy going on.

Verpan
Yes, I know that Verpan are producing new ball lamps under licence. These are easy to identify, they are white, or red/orange, and they are signed Verpan.
The fakes that are in circulation now have bigger balls, they mix sometimes blue and red balls (I even saw one in yellow and blue!!), and plastic is different than the Luber ones...

the ball lamp on ebay...
seems to have an old lüber sticker on it. How do you determine it's not a real one?

luber sticker
All the real old luber lamps I have seen had no stickers. The one on ebay looks too nice to be true! Also, colors are wrong, this model should have 4 different colors : Purple, pink, red, orange. The balls are too big. Luber created ball lamps with big balls, but not that type...

an other fake here
It is 3 times this one appears on ebay... 100% Fake
http://cgi.ebay.fr/Lustre-Verner-Panton-type-h-edition-Luber-tres-rare_W...

a thing about fakes
I to have a big panton collection
and have done research for several companies . on the word fake and what it means . Herman Miller one of the only companies in the industry to go to court to protect the rights of there produts ie, EAMES chairs was awarded a
trade dress certificate ( that means that the Eames lounge chair will always be the property of Herman Miller and the Eames office ( that is why you see very few knock offs of that chair knocked off to the T. (seemless sides and 5 star alumium base .
vs the Barcelona , Wassley chair and others ( cause deep down the overseas makers are not ready
to go against a team of lawyers
from Herman Miller for trade dress violations , but other small companies
that made great stuff they don't even give them a second though. about so they have been knocking off ther items for years and over time have actually gotten better , and the dirty word of fake has gone away . It is now simply a copy of the original or as some are saying since Herman Miller and knoll have started to sign there items i.e. Mies on Barcelona and Bruno ,
Nacguchi on the table , Eames on the lounge chair with clever signatures
Buyers are simply saying i have purchased a unsigned piece . with total respect to the the original.
I own almost 100 original mid-century
designer pieces and have a few UNSIGNED pieces and I am proud to own them as they are great and would not been able to have them had they not be reintroduced to the world. (sorry about the spelling no spell check)

The problem is that sellers...
The problem is that sellers of these fakes say that they are REAL ones, and they are asking top prices for them !!

Hello Ka...
All you can say honey is "Buyer Beware", there is always going to be someone who rips somebody else off, thats life...not fair but it happens. It will of course never happen to you.

fakes
By now any one that reads these blogs should know that anything that
does not come from Knoll, Herman Miller, Fitz Hansen and a few others would be reproductions.
DWR is one of the few companies that sells there merchandise at full tilt with no money off, so it does make it somewhat difficult for the average person to afford mid-century furniture .
That is why stores like Alphaville and Furniture fancy were created to come up with fist class reproductions that the average person can afford from China ., and does not want junk made from White on White that breaks upon delivery to your home ( if not shipped broke to begin with ) Know matter how smart and knowledgeable you think you are about mid-century furniture always ask the questions 1) origin of maker 2) what is it made of leather or pleather
what type of wood etc if you are paying for the good stuff 3) don't act dumb since you are not or you would not be reading these blogs .
This will help every one from getting ripped off on crappy reproductions better known as FAKES.
I will publish the best repoductions
to fill your mid-century home that you will always be happy with, and do not look like bad imitations... Also the ones to stay away from that will under any circumstance they would be a reproduction .

Talking of fakes...
Has anyone noticed these "sintesi Orbit" chairs being touted on ebay as "Ron Arad Tom Van / Tom Vac" chairs? how do they do it??.You have to laugh.Item number 160069921508.