Now, I know some of you reading this will think that you don't have any "fake" Waterford Crystal in your display cabinet and I really don't want to alarm you but let me fill you in on some of the facts.
Did you know that during the eighties and nineties, several companies were shut down in the United States and Europe by the FBI for producing counterfeit Waterford Crystal pieces? Most of the designs copied were the popular patterns of Lismore, Colleen, Alana, Kathleen. I have seen other patterns copied too. Usually this was stemware. For example, Goblets, Flutes, Hocks, White Wine, and Sherries.
Bowls, Vases, Decanters and mostly single gift items were also involved in the production. Any piece with a stem on it was fair game for these counterfeiting companies. It's still undetermined how many pieces of fake Waterford are in circulation in the United States but it is said to have run into the millions.
Do a Google search on: NY Times Counterfeit Fake Irish Waterford and see a report.
No sooner would these companies be shut down when another one would pop up under a different name. This was a very lucrative business and still is to some degree in today's market. Because of all the recent happenings at Waterford Crystal it will become more prevalent as time goes by, that more of these Waterford Crystal fakes will show up.
A few years ago I was doing a show in Virginia, a little old lady came up to me and asked if I could repair a Waterford Bowl that was chipped. She had this piece for several years, her daughter had purchased it from a Major Dept. Store, I won't mention names here.
On seeing the bowl I told her I could repair it, but it wasn't Waterford Crystal and that she should return it to the store. Two months later I had a call from the Dept Store manager explaining, he had been duped into buying Waterford Fakes and was unknowingly re-selling.
The very first thing you should look for on all Lismore designs is the Stem. Make sure that the sides of the stem is cut and not left blank. On the base of the stem you should find it cut with a sixteen point star, also known as a star burst. The end of the points should come out about a quarter inch on the base, but sometimes this varies due to the shapes and how they were blown.
When these scam companies were producing the "fake" counterfeit Waterford Crystal they had no way of flat cutting the stem on Goblets, Flutes, etc. and if they did? It was a poor effort that left waves and ridges and sometimes rough spots called carborundum streaks. So in essence, they tried to avoid flat cutting the side of the stem at all. I have also seen them with no star bursts, which will tell you immediately that they are NOT Waterford.
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