New Fake Just Dropped

 

This is a rather crude modern "replica" or novelty cuff. They were on eBay with a price of $250. For that price, you could pretty much take your pick between a fair number of real vintage handcuffs. Bean Cobb, Towers Double Lock, Hiatt Darby, Bean Prison, Detective, Patrolman... H&R Super Cuff, Mattatuck, (one example with key right now for $200 and includes a nipper too) there is almost always a decent assortment of these cuffs on eBay under this price. 

 

I saw these a few weeks ago and while I was not 100% certain, I was almost certain that these were fake. I have not seen every vintage or antique handcuff, of course, and these are a bit different from most other fakes. The chain looks pretty good, the clevises seem legit. The weird big key is a red flag, as is the overall crappy surface finish. There's a HUGE difference between a high quality vintage finish with 60 years of wear and environmental tarnishing, and a surface finish that was awful to begin with. 

A collector on a Facebook group posted about these earlier today, and that validated my theory. I decided to post that these are in fact a fraudulent item if sold as vintage or antique after I read the other collectors post on FB. 

Ironically, these seem to be imitating several real designs. It looks to be some sort of amalgamation of Towers Double Lock bows, Clejuso clevises, and an almost Luna-like cuff body. 

I suppose however it's nothing more than another version of this other crappy cuff: 

It is clearly quite similar to this fake vintage design which is seen regularly.  A basic tenant to go by may be that real old cuffs are better made than modern replicas.