The Cambridge English Dictionary says
Fake : an object that is made to look real or valuable in order to deceive people.
There is the crux of the matter. These “new” items are intended to pass for genuine Barsony. If they are sold as “50’s lamp” “Barsony style” then there should be no problem – if people like the look, they don’t care where or by whom the item was made. If however they are passed off as a genuine article, then deception is intended.
Does it matter? Well, do you feel the same about a fake Rolex being passed off as genuine, or a 18ct gold plate ring being passed off as 18ct gold?
You say that real original Barsony is over-priced – well, the price of anything is what people are prepared to pay. There may be genuine rare Barsony examples that change hands for high prices but to the collector, they must be worth it. To me these fakes have spoiled the Barsony market – many of them are crudely made and crudely painted, and have devalued the original product. But then I am not a Barsony collector. Sadly in the world we live in, anything that has a consistently high collector value will ultimately be reproduced ie faked – the technology we have today allows that. This is different of course from new editions of vintage items being re-issued by the original factory, or being made new under licence. There at least you have some guarantee of the original quality. But still it should be made clear that these are not vintage items, but reproductions.
I would hate to try and estimate how many items (both new and second hand / vintage) that are on eBay today are not what they are being advertised as. This may be because of genuine error, ignorance or deliberate deception. But the result is the same. It is one of the reasons many genuine collectors have left eBay (and these boards.) (Sadly most of the well-informed and helpful people who participated in this original post.) For myself I would never spend large amounts of money on something I had not personally inspected.
