Authenticity vs. forgery: examples & tips

Caution!

Not every source sells genuine “Floras”! Caution is always advised with apparent bargains. You will find a number of examples on this page.

Tip / rule of thumb

Anything that is offered extremely cheaply is very likely to be counterfeit. Every dealer makes enquiries beforehand and everyone knows the name Flora.

Flora-Fälschung: Teufel

Example 1

Forgery after a postcard

Here you can see the forgery after a postcard. The card is genuine, the drawing is of course a forgery - in this case easily recognizable as such.

We cannot give you a general recommendation, because in order to be able to expertize a forgery with certainty, we have to hold the sheet in our hands.

Particular care should be taken with online auctions (eBay, Willhaben, Ricardo, etc.), as attempts are often made to offer such items there. Rarely (but nevertheless) do we discover counterfeits at regular auctions.

Real art postcards in the store
Huhn Fälschung

Example 2

Forgery of signature and number

The example shows an invitation card with a depicted etching on which the number has been added a second time.

Often the signature is also copied, and this falls under forgery. This copy was offered as a print.

Real flora etchings in the store
Vogelhändler Fälschung

Example 3

Forgery of a drawing

Drawings are often offered in small auctions, usually by people who have previously bought from the Roma stalls at the Naschmarkt in Vienna. We also spotted the stall and warned them, because the hand is always the same.

The example shows a Tyrolean bird dealer (with two unidentifiable balls), paper wrong, stroke anyway - even the signature is a crude forgery.

Real pen and ink drawings in the store

Our services & expertise

Service for private individuals

We offer an expert opinion from € 50 (minimum) up to a maximum of 4% of the value.

Anti-counterfeiting service

If you have been taken in by a counterfeit (this expertise is free of charge), let us know who the dealer is and we will help you to get justice.

If you report suspected counterfeits to us in advance (auction or dealer), we will of course investigate the matter and, if necessary, demand the withdrawal of the offer.

Service for auction houses

Our expertise is free of charge before an auction. After the auction, however, our services would be subject to a charge, as experience has shown that there is often a need for them.

Collector expertise

If you have a collector's expertise for several works, please contact us in advance.

Further examples

Counterfeiting landscape

Unfortunately, however, the forgery landscape is more diverse than the examples shown, which presumably always come from the same hand. Earlier prints (calendars) are also sometimes traced very precisely in pen and in theory everything would be correct, even the sheen of the ink. In most cases, however, there are printed strokes underneath and the paper is also incorrect.

The devil in the detail

If you trace the strokes with a good magnifying glass, you can often see the printed stroke next to the traced feather stroke in one place or another. The line is also too thick, Flora's feathers were very thin.

In all cases, it is better to get an expert opinion than to find out years later that you have a fake.

Further forgeries of Flora works

In the following, the drawing “Der gute Ton” was badly copied by the Naschmarkt forger and he did not even copy the title correctly as “Die schönen Töne”. The sheet is also completely out of the norm, it measures 50x70 cm, but the large early papers only measure approx. 43x61 cm. The three birds on the right were probably meant to be ravens.(Here is one of the originals of the theme as a postcard)
The last example in our selection shows a “Marionette Ballet”, also by the same hand as Roma am Naschmarkt. The etching exists, of course, and this was poorly copied and is also called “Marionette Trio” in the original. (The original of the theme is available here in the store)

Types of counterfeits

Generally speaking, forged drawings by Paul Flora are also appearing more and more frequently. We have not yet discovered any pirate copies of etchings or lithographs.

However, there are indeed misnomers, e.g. offset prints (posters) that are signed by hand are offered as lithographs or offset lithographs.

The technique of offset lithography does not exist, because lithography is printed from stone (= lithos, or alternatively from a zinc plate) with real rolled-on ink, but the offset print is a halftone print using the four basic colors yellow, cyan, magenta and depth (=black).

Incidentally, there are no screen prints from Paul Flora, that would be an intermediate product with real color but with a screen raster.

Rights of the estate representative

In principle, the estate representative has the right to destroy forgeries and we exercise this right. We have all forgeries sent to us (validated or not) and keep them in the archive. Otherwise we would sue and also file a fraud complaint, because from the moment we approach a consignor at an auction or similar about the fact of the forgery, he is committing fraud with intent. However, it should be noted that even ignorance does not protect against punishment.

The representation of the estate itself is of course exempt from any suspicion and therefore completely unobjectionable: