F Heck Racine FAKE

This is the bottle pictured in "Bottled in Belle City". The one pictured above was recently determined to be a fake putting an end to a hoax that lasted 30 years! It is in a major Racine collection and the owner has just recently come to realized that it is not old. There is at least one other in another collection. The owner of the one pictured here discovered that the inside of the bottle is not glazed (old ones always were) and that the clay looks like new - interesting considering that it was supposedly dug. It was purchased from a construction worker who said he found it in the ground. It was made to look old by grinding and chipping and otherwise roughing it up. The stamp on this one looks odd because it was inked to highlight the stamp, but the stamps are identical on all of them.

It appears to have discoloration under the glaze and a different look. The stamps are identical according to the Racine collector who saw the bottle in person. It's not known why the fakes were made and sold as real. It does not appear that the fraud was intended to make a lot of money. Still, it's too bad that it has been allowed to go on for this long. Be careful when buying clay bottles because there are fakes out there.