Quote:
Originally Posted by hagwalther
Hi Guys,
I understand that the current Gaunt company has nothing to do with the original.
What are we talking about here? The unofficial commissions made by Gaunt for dodgy dealers to defraud the collecting community or by others knocking off badges with a Gaunt name?
Sounds very iffy to me and in all honestly I'd tell 'em to get stuffed unless they are keen to reimburse members here for the quality of expertise held by said members on the subject.
Regards
Chris
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I'm astonished that no-one simply lifted the telephone and asked or tried sending an email. Then a full explanation would have been given to whoever enquired.
The company registered as J R Gaunt at companies house is indeed Cleave and Co. It has no connection with the original J R Gaunt.
However, following forgeries of CAR badges made by J R Gaunt the original company is being re-established for the CAR badge side of the business only.
As part of that process the trademark and hallmarks have been re-registered. A VeRO registration has also been lodged with eBay.
A consequence of that is that there is now a legal entity existing who can act against anyone replicating any J R Gaunt article and claiming it to be (eg) Sterling Silver and made by J R Gaunt. As such an item would have to have been assayed in Birmingham then if it has a (fake) hallmark on it that is a criminal offence and if it is offered for sale as Sterling without a hallmark that is a civil offence.
Passing off an item as J R Gaunt without the permission of the trademark holder is another offence.
This whole exercise is being done to prevent classic CAR badge collectors being ripped off. A tangential benefit is that SOME of the military badge fakers could have been stopped.
If the members of this forum don't want anything that could stop fakes being produced done that's fine; there was no hidden agenda.