The One True Fake
Posted in 
I’ve been in an ornery mood all week, so I’ll stir up a little controversy tonight by telling the story of the “One True Fake”.
The internet can be an amazing tool to improve communications. Sometimes it can even expose a fake patch, and cause controversy, in a lodge 3000 miles away.
In his comments to an earlier post on this blog Bob Ross writes:
…This being said, this letter gives me a new reason to finally take “The One True Fake” on a Pilgrimage…
Most folks reading this won’t know what he’s talking about and some explanation is needed. Now for the rest of the story, as best as I can piece it together several years after the fact. I will exclude the names of the “guilty” even though that will make it a little harder to follow the story.
Sometime around 2000 a local collector was putting together a display of patches from Tslagi/Tsalagi 163. He had a good collection, owning most of the pieces. However, he did not have the 163 YS1. There are only two copies of this patch known and at the time their ownership lineage was well known within the lodge.
This collector found a patch company that would produce a sample of a patch and had a computerized style copy of this patch created and put it in his display. The existence of this patch and the display was not generally known at that time.
During the next couple of years an odd Tslagi flap was traded around the country. No one could accurately catalogue it, but since lodge 163 stuff is difficult to catalogue and not seen too often, not much thought was given to this. That ended when Bob Ross sent me an image of the patch at the top of the post. Independently, another image of the piece was sent to me by Mike Montoya. Both questioned what this patch was. Bob then sent me his copy of the patch.
Immediately I knew something was wrong. The patch was a contemporary computer designed patch for a lodge that changed its name in the late 1980s. Yes, the lodge had a few “CD” flaps, but those were not like the computer designed patches of today. The piece could not be authentic. I had something very strange. I then brought the patch to the 2002 Tsoiotsi Tsogalii Fall Fellowship and showed it to several lodge 163 collectors.
Amazingly during the day several other copies of this patch were found within the lodge. At least one youth had one of these oddball patches. No one had given it any serious thought or compared notes with other collectors! Upon investigation, some of the other owners of this patch were able to recall who they got it from. They all came from the same person: the collector who had the computer designed copy of the YS1 made!
Later that evening that collector showed up at fellowship, not knowing something was afoot. He brought his display of 163 material along to show off. Apparently this was the first time the faked YS1 was displayed. Some were upset that he dared to make a copy of the YS1, then they noticed the new fake and the copied YS1 seemed to have been made with the same punch pattern… and collectors were able to finger him as the source of the new fake. All “heck” broke loose and that collector has not attended a lodge function since. Local folks here get very upset when someone makes fakes of the lodge’s patches.
This all started because Bob Ross, a collector in California, thought to email me about a patch from my home area he could not identify. As a result, we dubbed his copy of the patch the “One True Fake”. I’ll leave it to the reader to marvel at the irony of this label. See what power the internet has unleashed?
There have been “threats” made that this patch should go on a pilgrimage back to North Carolina where it could be suitable displayed in some sort of reliquary-like container. It would have to be preceded by appropriately dressed patch-monks chanting suitable verses, treating it with the dignity of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
For reasons unknown to me, this patch has yet to be added to Blue Book even though its existence has now been known for nearly five years.
Well,
I really do feel bad for the guy that made the ZS-1 patch and is no longer attending the fellowships. He sounds like a guy that loved patches greatly and I do enjoy talking to folks that love patches.
Everyone’s first reaction is: “OMG! How and why did he do that…You can’t do that..FAKE!”
There is obviously a difference between the YS-1 protoype and the ZS-1 remake. The term prototype is not really that much more worthy of the word “official” than a fake. Face it, most prototypes are lodge rejects or simply samples created and trashed later. They were not adopted by the lodge. That is not exactly priceless lodge history but better labeled as novelty pieces that always seem to fall into collector hands. Collectors seemed overly eager to label these prototypes as “official issues”.
My first thought is he created this patch as place for his collection. It is better than having a piece of paper or blank spot in your display case. One could claim it was made in honor of the YS-1 flap because only “2″ are known exist.
The lodge could of adopted the patch if they wanted. I understand when lodges do not, especially if the patch isn’t available to all lodge members and the profits do not goto the lodge. I do understand.
But is it really a fake? A fellow lodge member made it obviously what I would call in respect of a difficult issue to come by. If that patch is the “ONE TRUE FAKE” then what in the world do you think those prototypes are? The patch being labeled as a fake was made in its image after all. It also appears there are several of them in play so its not like the patch was being hidden from the public all that much. The mistake was the method the patch was being dispersed and not being more upfront about it.
It is easy to claim statements like this when its not your own lodge, but its not like he made a copy of the lodge’s first flap or a rare dance ceremony patch. He made a copy of something most couldn’t careless to consider having in order to have a complete lodge set. I have no idea of the guy’s true intention but from what I read it does not look like he was trying to cause harm.
It was made without permission so technically, yes a fake, but those that know this person well…do you honestly believe it was done undermine the lodge or simply made to make a collection look more complete?
Ah, but John did not tell the entire story. He left out how I actually came into possession of The One True Fake.
This man from whom I received The One True Fake traded it to me as though it was an authentic Tslagi. He misrepresented what he had to me, undoubtedly thinking that since I am in California nothing would ever become of his dishonesty. He was shown to be wrong, and for this reason alone I am quite glad that he continues to be persona non grata to this day.
The hobby does not need any more dirt bags than it already has.
Note, the ZS1 is not a copy of the YS1. There is actually an undocumented Z that is a copy of the YS1. The ZS1 is based upon that patch, but with the sky restored to its light blue hue.
What really hacked off folks is that the piece was traded as authentic.
Of course when confronted with all this he denied having the ZS1 made even though the copy of the “all black” (YS1) and ZS1 were identical except sky color AND several folks were able to recall that they traded with him for this piece. It wasn’t until some dude from California who couldn’t identify the flap on OAImages, that the whole thing blew up… like a holy hand grenade.
[...] A couple of months ago, I wrote about a patch from this lodge that I dubbed, with tongue firmly implanted in my cheek, the “One True Fake“. In that post I told the tale of what I have listed on my site as the Tslagi 163 ZS1? and also made reference to a second private issue, believed to be unique I will tentatively label this the ZS2? since, even though this was likely made before the “ZS1?”, it was the second of the fakes to see the light of day. [...]