Authenticate KAWS — Companion
The signature figure, released in many editions and colourways.
New Jersey
The Companion is the artist's defining form and the most counterfeited object in the market. Its curves make paint application demanding, which is why overspray and uneven coverage on the rounded surfaces are the fastest reads on a fake.
Mould seams run in known places on genuine production and are crisp and single. A doubled seam, or flash left where the mould halves met, indicates tooling that was copied from a finished figure rather than made from the original masters.
The base carries moulded copyright and year information. Colourways and sizes correspond to documented releases, so establishing which release a figure claims to be from comes before judging it.
What a Companion does on the secondary market
Strong and liquid, with early and small releases commanding large multiples of retail. Boxed, unopened examples trade well above loose ones, which is why counterfeit packaging has improved.
An orientation for honest, unrestored condition — never an appraisal, and never a quotation.
Questions we are asked
- Which Companion releases are counterfeited most?
- The ones with the highest resale multiples, which is generally the earlier and smaller releases. Because releases are documented, a figure in a colourway no release included is a fabrication rather than a variant.
- Should a Companion's base be stamped or stickered?
- Stamped. The copyright and year are moulded into the vinyl on genuine production, and a printed or stickered base is decisive against.
Lovenhall ArtRead the work itself
The checks tell you how it was made. The instrument tells you what it appears to be, and roughly what its kind fetches.