Fake or not

I have a Temuka Sailor Duck figurine and also Mexican Hawk. I asked about these a while back and apparently if genuine they are quite collectable, however it was mentioned there are some good fakes around. How do i find out if they are genuine. i live in Dunedin

Hi Maree

It is true that a potter named Roland Grupp was said to have faked the Mexican Hawk at one stage. There may be a slight difference in size between the fake and they real ones.

Someone really needs to put up a picture of the two side by side one day so we actually know what we're talking about. Until then, this is one of those good old Kiwi pottery yarns with compounded embellishments on a theme. By some accounts Roland Grupp would have been a good character for a Barry Crump book. Even the name has a certain Goodbye-Pork-Pie ring about it.

Back to your two pieces; the fact that you have these two together may be significant. Did they come together? If they did, it's very likely they're kosher.

One thing I've noticed over the years is that they are often found as a pair. This means I believe, that they were probably once owned by a former worker at Temuka who received them as Christmas gifts in consecutive years (like 1948, 1949 for instance).

Hope this helps.

Thanks teaandcoffee for your reply. We found them amongst my partners parents belongings after they died and he remembers seeing them at his grandparents house. However they had no connection with Temuka that we know of.

That makes sense too. They could have been shareholders in NZI or valued retailers of Temuka ware - any tangible association with Temuka might have seen them entered on to Mr Lovatt's Christmas gift list.