It might be hard for anyone who knows much about the set to confuse a copy of the Wade/Beneagles Thistle Rose Chess Set with the real set of porcelain whiskey bottles, but I didn't know much about the set and seeing a listing selling the copy with limited photographs otherwise sight-unseen as is usual with buying online I wasn't sure I wasn't buying some kind of painted version of the copy. (After all other companies often make a painted and plain version of their sets.)
There are huge obvious differences, the size, the pawns. The pawns of course I saw, but the size didn't occur to me at all until I had the two sets side by side. So here are the two sets side by side in the interest of helping collectors tell what they're looking at even in online sales of individual pieces with limited photographs.
A few things first. The original is porcelain made by 2-piece plaster molds. There is a mold line. The pieces are hollow (and contained whiskey at one point, maybe they're more sought-after if they were never opened, but obviously good whiskey should be enjoyed!)
The copy is made in flexible 1-piece rubber "glove" molds. No mold line for the copy and the pieces are irregular because of the flex in the molds, however they may not all have the same irregularities. It is easy to see that my copy towers have bulging sides where the original is straight, that some of the bottoms of my copy are shorter or tapered, where the original is straight... etc... but you cannot count on these differences because a different casting of the copy might have straighter sides, fuller bottoms, etc...
I also don't know how the mold line on the originals might vary from piece to piece. They were probably cleaned by hand and the casting on some of the pieces seems better than others within the set. So I will mention the mold line sometimes, but not the bulging sides except to say that you can't count on it because it may vary. The mold line may vary too, but I don't imagine any originals have gotten rid of it entirely.
Obviously also my copy is painted and there is no painted original. I didn't know that when I bought the copy. Of course the copy could be made in black and white to look like the original.
I should point out molds for the copy are sold by supercast so anyone could be making the copy.
It's not really feasible to cast porcelain in rubber glove molds. Actually I think you could do it with a centrifuge, but it might be possible to fake it with a faux porcelain material and even fake stamp the bottom. It's not really going to happen, I doubt, since the set is not worth that much effort to copy and if someone wanted to go to all that trouble it'd be better to make new plaster molds for ceramics from the real set in which case this article wouldn't apply anyway... barring that this should help you tell the one set from the other.
Enough talk, pictures!
The bottom of Wade piece with the cork put back in it. Some of mine have pieces of cork forced into the bottles, rattling around, and some have red rubber stoppers instead which I can't get a picture of since you have to look inside the bottles to see them.
The bottom of a piece with no stopper. You can see the writing easier on this black piece. The writing on the white piece above didn't photograph so well.
The bottom of a pawn. The pawns appear to have a paper seal instead of the cork or stopper. This one is torn into but left more or less intact.
I don't have the box. I believe there are two kinds of boxes for these (Dwolf?) and they were sold with complete sets of pawns that were sold empty (other sources?) If someone wants to comment on that that'd help this article out. I believe the pawns are rarer than the other pieces because the pieces were sold individually but the pawns were only sold in sets of two, one piece and a pawn, and also in the box set without whiskey in them... if that's right. I don't have either of the boxes.
The bottom of the pawn with the label almost entirely removed.
My copy set came with felts. One was already peeled back and the bottom scratched into a little. It appears to be some kind of plaster or hydrostone gypsum cement. Obviously this could look like anything depending on the casting method, but it's very unlikely it'll look much at all like the bottoms of the original Wade pieces above.
The pawns obviously look completely different. It's absolutely impossible to mistake one for another. Orig: 3-3/4", copy ~1-3/4" (copy will vary in height.) I believe I've seen original pawns somewhere with crosses on top too. (someone comment on that?)
Now the real comparisons begin. Kings Henry VIII:
Well obviously they're different in height: Orig: 5-1/4, Copy: ~4-1/3 (will vary.) But that may not be obvious at all seeing only a picture of one, not next to the other, without the size listed. There are actually quite a few differences in the design, though, more than any other piece (except the pawns obviously):
Orig has puffy shoulders. Copy has striped shoulders.
Orig has circles on collar. Copy has roses.
Orig has design on shirt which matches sleeves. Copy has plain shirt and different design on sleeves. ...
Orig has round collar in back. Copy has square.
Orig has two lines of ornamentation around hem of cape. Copy has only one.
side view.
Roberts, the Bruce:
Orig. 4-1/4". Copy: 3-1/3"
Much less to go on here, but...
Orig. has a line at the bottom of the hem of shirt. Copy does not.
Backs
Side. Mold line pretty apparent on orig. May not always be the case.
Queens Elizabeth I.
The Queen have the easiest difference to spot. Orig, has holes under her arms. Copy does not as you can't do that with glove molds.
Backs. Holes under arms easy to see.
Side. (Orig. 4-1/4, copy 3-1/3)
Marys, Queen of Scots.
Orig. 4", copy 3-1/4"
In addition to the obvious holes under the arms, the original has a smooth top of the head. In the copy the lines in the front of the had extend half way up the top.
Backs. (Holes under arms)
Side. (Mold line.)
Bishops Thomas à Becket
Orig. 4-1/4" copy 3-13"
Orig. has crosses down the front of shirt. Copy has dots. Very different to see crosses in picture (sorry.)
Copy has more wrinkles on shirt where ribbons from mitre come down over it. Orig. is pretty flat there.
The side shows the mold line is particularly bad on the orig. here. The sceptre cross is stretched out into it. The copy actually has lumps that continue passed the edge of the cross and if weren't painted like it is they might look more similar, but the cross has as definite edge that is absent in my original. (My other original is a little different here, and possibly some others have the cross more defined depending how the mold line was cleaned up.)
Bishops Johns Knox:
Orig: just over 4", copy 3-1/3"
Copy has puffier shirt. Orig. has pointier nose.
Orig. has is a bit bigger and flatter.
Backs
Sides. Orig head is more forward. Very minor.
Sirs Francis Drake:
Orig. 4", copy 3-1/3"
(The base of this piece on the copy has truer sides than most of the others. This isn't do to the mold; it's the individual casting, so you can't say a piece with a full, straight base is necessarily original... You can say a piece with the bottom cut off early and the sides bulging and tapered in is necessarily a copy though.)
Orig. has dots on sleeves. Copy has lines on sleeves.
Orig is standing on some kind of round lumps, rocks?, bags?. On the copy the cobblestone design from the base continues on the top of the base.
Backs (yeah I need to get around to cleaning these orig.s)
The rope at the bottom of the copy is considerably longer than the orig.
Side. (Rope behind the foot vs rock behind the foot, mold line.)
Sirs William Wallace:
Orig. 4-1/4", copy ~3-1/4" (a lot cut off the bottom in mine, won't always be the case.)
Copy has horizontal lines through the handle of the sword.
Orig. has a smooth handle.
Copy also has a circle within the circle in the pommel. Orig. is smooth there as well.
Backs
Side.
Norman English Towers:
Orig. 4", Copy ~3-1/8"
Aside from the mold line you're pretty much on your own. I can't find any differences that aren't the result of the flexible mold being flexible.
Scottish TowerHouses:
There are more shingles on the copy.
The copy has 12 rows. The original has 9. Again hard to spot but at least there is a significant difference in these. The towers are pretty similar.
Obviously you can also look for the mold lines here.
Please ad more info about the boxes/variations on the Wade set to this thread as well as whatever comments you might have esp. if you spot some difference I haven't spotted or have info about any particular "run" of sets with the copy design.
Happy New Year.
Ty
-- Edited by ne0romantic at 01/01/2013 6:17 PM PST
-- Edited by ne0romantic at 01/01/2013 6:17 PM PST...and it won't let me edit the post anymore. Just tried to fix some typos and mention that the orig. Queen Elizabeth is considerably thinner from the side than the copy. This is true of a lot of the pieces, but her the most, and I think it's safe to say that's not entirely the flexible mold bulging, though some of it may just be from that.
Also here is a pawn with the cross on top from the web, found with Google image search:
