CONTENTS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Introduction People mentioned in these articles Background The Republican elephant The first fake marks Rohac corkscrews as shown in the catalogue Rohac-designed corkscrew copies marked whw Corkscrews marked RENA A selection of fake RR marked corkscrews The hitchhiking monkeys More on pretzel holder conversions About hinged corkscrews Warning signs Comments Appendix 1 more Rohac designs Appendix 2 notes on metal reproduction Appendix 3 more specific examples
Introduction I have been studying Vienna bronze figural corkscrews with the goal of publishing a compendium of the various pieces designed, made and sold by Hagenauer, Rohac, Auböck, Baller and Bosse from the 1920 s to the 1960 s. In the course of my research I encountered some anomalies as to marks. Specifically, marks were on pieces where they don t belong, because the pieces were the products of a different designer. If anyone can provide an alternative explanation to account for all of the observations I have documented, I would be grateful know about it. It has been difficult over the past months to be watching the marketplace and seeing what I believed to be fakes bought and sold. How to warn fellow collectors? When? In consequence of my recent trip to Vienna, where I spoke with some of the people most closely involved with the legitimate businesses, and obtained written documentation from an expert on the authenticity of marks, I now feel compelled to alert the collecting community. I was not expecting to publish anything for another year or two as my research is not complete; however, I decided that I really must put something out too soon rather than too late. I know that in publishing my conclusions I am presenting painful news to collectors, and de-valuing by a considerable amount dozens of pieces in my own collection. There is no joy in this. The dealer with whom I dealt has refused my request for refunds. While www.hagenauerfakes.com is primarily concerned with Hagenauer corkscrews, it also features corkscrews marked RR and RENA. My research is ongoing and includes Rohac, Bosse, Baller and Auböck marked corkscrews. W. Meadows July 21, 2009
People mentioned in these articles - Karl Hagenauer (1898 1956), the designer of the Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien stylized Art Deco corkscrews in the form of people and animals (corkscrews were relatively insignificant in his greater body of design work, from household items to sculpture to furniture). One source dates his creation of the whw logo to 1920; another puts it a few years later. Very early pieces may be found with neither whw nor MADE IN AUSTRIA. Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien was unusual in that they distributed most of their own products. An exception is that Rena Rosenthal distributed their items in the USA. Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien produced items for her marked with both the whw mark and RENA. - Richard Rohac (1906 1965?), designer and producer of the Austrian figures marked with mirrorimage capital R s (which I ll refer to as RR). Rohac s designs were all more or less life like versions of people, animals and a few tools (in contrast to the very stylized designs from Karl Hagenauer who was designing thirty years earlier at the height of the Art Deco period). - Rena Rosenthal (1880 1966), a New York City retailer of modernist style items, including products from Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien. Despite often-published speculation to the contrary, the RR mark has no connection to Rena Rosenthal. - Karl and Ron Hagenauer, son and grandson of the designer Karl Hagenauer, who operate the Galerie Karl Hagenauer business in Vienna. - Karl Gödde, one of the principals of Gödde Brothers, who were the exclusive sales and distribution outlet for Richard Rohac from about 1950-1965. Rohac s factory was about 200 meters from Karl Gödde s office; they met almost daily to discuss manufacturing priorities and Gödde s ideas for new products that Rohac could make and he could sell. I met with Karl Gödde in Vienna in May of 2009. While he and Rohac had a buyer/seller relationship, I realized during the interview that they were in reality business partners. Rohac did not speak English and had no international sales contacts thus had no outlet for his products without Karl. Karl Gödde stated that his company never dealt with Rena Rosenthal. - Erich Scheidl, a Viennese goldsmith and expert on hallmarks, with whom I met with in May 2009. His system for comparing marks is slightly complicated but there can be no doubt about it being accurate. It shows for certain that two marks are either from the same marking die or that they are from two different dies. Mr. Scheidl charges 300 per item to provide a written opinion as to the authenticity of its mark. - Dealer X, an Austrian dealer who specializes in Austrian figures, including corkscrews. He presently sells under three different names on ebay.
Background At a point in my book research, with some dozens of whw marked pieces in my hands, I began to suspect the authenticity of so many of them coming from a single source when Hagenauer corkscrews are relatively rare in the collecting world. I spent more than two years closely inspecting more than 200 Austrian figural corkscrews and some Austrian non-corkscrew figures. My plan was to find all of the known authentic marks, in order to show which marks were fake. It became obvious that what I was trying to do was impossible; one could never prove that one had gathered up and catalogued every original and authentic mark. My basic premise is that a whw mark on an item that was never made by Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien is not authentic, and that specific mark s presence on any other piece logically proclaims that piece to be not authentic. Other marks present on pieces bearing the fake whw are thus highly suspect as well. Their taint carries on to pieces not marked with the forged whw. I came to the realization that while Erich Scheidl s method of mark authentication is excellent, it cannot prove that a particular mark is real unless examples of all real marks are available for comparison. However, it can prove that one mark does or does not match another mark. The method will show that a specific fake mark matches other fake marks. The trail begins with the elephant.
The Republican Elephant On the left is a drawing of an elephant bottle cap lifter from the design patent by the American Kurt Rettich #D87, 644 issued Aug. 23, 1932. On the right is a photo of the design patented cap lifter. This is a corkscrew elephant with brown patina marked whw and HAGENAUER WIEN. I bought a nickel-plated and a brass version from Dealer X. You might well wonder how is it possible for a USA design patent cap lifter to turn up as a Hagenauer marked corkscrew. It looks like it would be pretty easy. Make two wax models of the cap lifter, stick the two of them together and spread the hind legs. Cast in brass, mark as required, insert corkscrew and sell. These elephants are stamped with what I call The first fake marks.
The first fake marks In my opinion, no mark illustrated on this site is authentic. The key features of this whw mark are that there is a bite out of the circle at about 1 o clock. Below the H, at 6 o clock, is a dip in the circle. Above the H, at 11:00, is a bulge up in the circle. The right W almost always touches the outer circle (depending on what angle the marking die was held and the force with which it was struck). whw #1 The HAGENAUER WIEN mark is crudely done with uneven letter sizes and wobbly lines. Notably, the E in Wien and the second E in Hagenauer extend below the base of the letter following. The bottom left of the H is often weak. HAGENAUER WIEN #1 One of the marks at left is from the corkscrew copied from Rettich s elephant cap lifter. The other eight are from pieces whose originals are pictured in a 1954 catalogue of Rohac merchandise. None was ever made by the Hagenauer workshop. Using the Scheidl methodology we can confidently compare these two marks with lots of other marks on lots of other pieces. These marks were duplicated on many items along with many other marks used in different combinations; thus we will be able to follow the trail through tainted MADE IN AUSTRIA, RR, and RENA marks.
The Rohac corkscrews, as shown in the catalogue Above are the corkscrew figures shown in the 1954 Gödde Bros. catalogue. According to Karl Gödde, who sold them, these were designed and manufactured by Richard Rohac in the 1950 s and were all marked RR. He also stated that Rohac never copied a Hagenauer design. Ron Hagenauer confirms that these figures were never designed or manufactured by Hagenauer Werkstätte Wien and cannot legitimately bear a whw logo.
Rohac-designed corkscrew copies marked whw These copies of Rohac pieces are all stamped with the whw #1 mark. All were offered for sale by Dealer X. Many come in both bronze and nickel-plated versions. Hagenauer never patinated items like this. These items all show the size loss found in any metal copy from the original (see Appendix 2); these whw marked pieces are all smaller than the original Rohac pieces. These are not Hagenauer designs but copies of Rohac designs. They are all stamped with the whw #1 mark and in some cases the HAGENAUER WIEN #1 mark. Thus the Handmade mark, as seen in combination here with these marks, cannot be considered authentic.
Corkscrews marked RENA All of these pieces were sold by Dealer X; they are all marked with the identical RENA mark, plus other marks, including the whw #1 and the HAGENAUER WIEN #1. Three of these are Rohac pieces; one is a copy of a Hagenauer piece and one is a modified copy of a Hagenauer dog with a folding worm and cap lifter added (more about hinged worms elsewhere). Four of these pieces have the dark brown patina that Hagenauer never used. Because Karl Gödde, Rohac s distributor, is very clear that he never sold to Rena Rosenthal, we know that this RENA mark cannot be authentic. (It differs significantly from authentic RENA marks we have seen.) Rosenthal did sell Hagenauer pieces which, according to Karl Hagenauer and from the few examples known, were marked both RENA and whw. Every legitimate RENA item (corkscrew or otherwise) we have seen has also been marked MADE IN VIENNA AUSTRIA. Thus we have the following new marks to add to our list: a RENA and a MADE IN AUSTRIA. This specific MADE IN AUSTRIA mark is seen not only on RENA pieces but also on whw and RR marked pieces.
A selection of fake RR marked corkscrews All of these, except the crouching monkey and leaping ibex, are marked with the above-illustrated MADE IN AUSTRIA mark. (Correct MADE IN AUSTRIA marks on Richard Rohac pieces are elliptical.) They are all marked RR. Karl Gödde stated that he never sold the Danube Tower or devil; they are from unknown designers. The crouching monkey is nickel plated; Karl Gödde stated that Rohac never used nickel plating as it was too expensive. With rare brass-only exceptions, Rohac items were finished in his black and gold look. The donkey, elephant and sturgeon are Rohac designs but smaller than the originals, showing the size loss that occurs during the copying process (see Appendix 2). The RR mark used on these pieces is therefore unlikely to be authentic. They all came from Dealer X who has also sold the devil and dancing elephant marked as Hagenauer pieces. The three marks above right are from the monkey, donkey and sturgeon. Note the broken line at the bottom right corner. Below right are from the devil (double struck) and tower.
The hitchhiking monkeys Here are four examples of the hitchhiking monkey designed by Rohac. Monkey #1 you have already seen with RENA, whw etc. marks. Monkey #2 is marked with the forged Handmade, whw, HAGENAUER WIEN marks, and has the dark brown patina never used by Hagenauer. Both came from Dealer X. Monkey #3 is stamped with the suspect RR and MADE IN AUSTRIA marks. These are very uncomfortable corkscrews to hold. Monkey #4 is almost impossible; however bending the arm up made the others slightly more acceptable to use. While no corkscrew of this design is shown in the Gödde catalogue, there is a pretzel holder, shown here. Monkey #4, with its right arm down, most closely resembles the Rohac pretzel holder. It is marked with a different RR and MADE IN AUSTRIA mark than I had seen previous to April 2009. While correctly elliptical, this MADE IN AUSTRIA mark is quite crude; note the short top and long center bar in the E and the uneven IN.
More on pretzel holder conversions At right are Rohac-designed pretzel holders as shown in the Gödde 1954 catalogue. Fakes could be made by replacing the pretzel rod with a corkscrew, or inserting a worm into a copy. At left is a Rohac pretzel holder marked RR and a Hagenauer corkscrew marked with the whw #1 and HAGENAUER WIEN #1 marks and bearing the dark brown patina. The corkscrew was purchased from Dealer X. Here is another example of a corkscrew that started life as a pretzel holder. One day Ron Hagenauer sold this Bosse rabbit corkscrew and this Bosse pretzel holder to Dealer X. Within twenty-four hours I was offered the lower two corkscrews by Dealer X. On unscrewing the worm I found a very freshly cut off worm thread in the bull.
About hinged corkscrews Hinged Hagenauer corkscrews are extremely rare and were mostly sold in America. A is a genuine Hagenauer piece. Note the spherical hinge. B and C were sold by Dealer X. They come in different versions, made with the cap lifter hook both up and down. Note the cylindrical hinges, crude extra-large bottle cap lifters (about twice as thick in all dimensions), loss of detail in the feet, and eyes. Various pieces feature the whw #1, the HAGENAUER WIEN #1 and Handmade. Some are also marked with a very tiny KARL, and others, like the elephant below, with ATELIER HAGENAUER. So, we have two more suspicious marks to add to our list. This elephant cap lifter is an authentic Hagenauer piece. The right hand elephant is a copy of it with a hinged worm added. As is normal for copies, it is slightly smaller than the original. It bears the whw #1 mark. A real Hagenauer hinged worm looks like #1. Some key features are: o The hinge has a ball shaped convex surface. o The rivet pin is invisible or only faintly visible as it was inserted before the nickel plating was done. The hinge found on most of the pieces I have seen, sold by Dealer X, look like #2: o The hinge has a flat surface with a poor finish. o The hinge rivet pin is very visible, having been crudely hammered in after the plating was applied, in all cases I have seen.
Corkscrews in general Warning Signs Here is a list of red flags. If you have to drop more than one suspect on a single piece... SIZE: If it is smaller than a known good piece, suspect a fake. While we have no guarantee that something did not happen to a master mould in the foundry and they had to resort to making a copy of an existing piece, I have not run across this yet. PATINA: If it came to you with this very distinctive splotchy patina and a rusty worm, you should suspect a fake. The cowboy of unknown heritage comes in two forms, this folding worm version and a fixed worm version with the tail removed and the horses body bent. They are sold marked RR or whw. Here are more examples of the splotchy patina on this whw deer and whw leaping Airedale sold by the same dealer. CAST IRON: If it is made from cast iron and marked with any of the Austrian marks, it is a fake. Corkscrews marked RR Rohac had his black and gold line: a heavy black patina with bits polished off to reveal the brass. Very rarely, he sold pieces in plain brass. If it has any other colored finish, suspect a fake. If it is nickel plated, suspect a fake. Karl Gödde said that it never happened. If the MADE IN AUSTRIA is in two straight lines rather than curved, suspect a fake. Corkscrews marked whw With very rare plain brass exceptions, every authentic corkscrew that Ron Hagenauer or I have ever seen is nickel plated. If yours has any kind of colored patination, suspect a fake. If you have a Rohac figure marked whw, with a dark brown patina, you probably have an example of this patina. If it has the MADE IN AUSTRIA mark shown above, suspect a fake. If it has a round base, suspect a fake. I know of no authentic Hagenauer corkscrew with a round base. If the whw piece matches any of the Rohac designs shown on this site, it is a fake. If it has the cylindrical hinge shown earlier, suspect a fake. Corkscrews marked RENA If it is a Rohac design, it is a fake. If it does not also have whw or MADE IN VIENNA AUSTRIA, suspect a fake Corkscrews marked Rohac If it is marked ROHAC in a straight line, suspect a fake.
Comments I thank you very much for doing all this research work. You invested a lot of time in finding out how to identify these faked corkscrews. Starting about two years ago, I suspected that many of the corkscrews on the market were faked, but I did not fully see the dimension. I also bought a few of the first fakes as I thought they were original. Your work revealed details that help a lot in how to identify these fakes. I have to take the double terrier from my sales shelf; I will put it in the museum as an example for the faked corkscrew chapter of your book. Ron Hagenauer Galerie Karl Hagenauer, Vienna July 17, 2009
Appendix 1 Other Rohac designs These are Rohac designed figures as shown in the Gödde 1954 catalogue. Of these, only the mouse, number 21, appears in the catalogue as a corkscrew. Dealer X sold me the two larger elephants and the owl in corkscrew format.
Appendix 2 - Notes on reproducing, or copying a figure in metal When a metal object is copied using the lost wax or sand-cast method; the copy is always slightly smaller than the original because the metal expands as you heat it to liquid and then shrinks in the mold as it cools. Unless you can change the laws of physics, this is always true. The shrinkage is often hard to see on a bulky object, but quite easy to see and measure on a long thin object. An example is the Rohac sturgeon. The real one measures 11.5cm and the copy measures 11cm.
Appendix 3 More specific examples The Jockey Early on in collecting Austrian figures I noticed that the jockey came in a wide variety of forms with different tail angles, or no tail, different hoof angles, different worms. I started gathering up the different versions. I wondered why the wide variety of worms; from my experience in manufacturing, one standardized everything as much as possible. Belatedly I realized that it was extremely doubtful that one dealer could run across so many of these. After looking at the whw #1 and HAGENAUER WIEN #1 marks on them, and the various shades of brown patina on three of them, I believe that I have never seen a real one. Ron Hagenauer has only ever seen one example of a real one. Ron is not sure when he sold the only one he has ever seen to Dealer X; he believes it was in the spring of 2007. He does, however, remember that it was two or three months after that when he started seeing them turning up on ebay, sold by Dealer X.
The fighting cocks corkscrew Ron Hagenauer found three or four of these old castings from the 1930 s in his warehouse and decided that one could be made into an interesting and unique corkscrew. After cleaning it up, polishing it, and adding a worm, he sold it, unmarked, to Dealer X. About a week later Dealer X offered me this corkscrew. It has a patina and a whw #1 on the side.
The double terrier For some time, I had wondered about the double terrier corkscrew because, being very large and clunky, it was an atypical item for Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien to produce. At left is a well-known Hagenauer terrier corkscrew. I thought, Suppose one unscrewed the tail and made a couple of wax castings and stuck them together, tail to tail? Well, then we would have this not very rare one, as Dealer X sold several of them to me, all marked with the whw #1 mark. This example has the brown patina never used by Hagenauer. The single terrier is also available with the whw #1 mark.