Is my Mulberry genuine?

[maldivemoment]

Long story but a few weeks ago I became the very proud owner of a vintage Bayswater! Very excited but I'm now wondering if it's genuine. I already own one and looked it out to compare the 2 and they are identical, with the exception being the padlock that hangs from the handle. On the vintage one the leather strap that holds the padlock is quite long and there is no little pouch surrounding it - it's just the padlock & key hanging down. Other than that they are identical.

I have absolutely no idea how old the bag is. It looks very battered and well loved (but still totally fab!). So I'm just wondering if any of you are way more knowledgeable than me regarding Mulberry. Was there ever a time when they were manufactured with a longer padlock strap and no pouch?
(please say 'yes', please say 'yes', please say 'yes'...)

Thank you

I'm pretty good at spotting fake Mulberries, and as far as I know they were never produced without the cloche, no.

The tell tale details are the Mulberry logo inside the bag (the typeface is frequently a bit off), the "made in..." label on one of the inside seams, and the serial number on the back of the Mulberry tree fob (it's not so much the number that's relevant - although there are a few numbers beloved of fakers that you see a lot - but the typeface and spacing of the numbers).

If you fancy posting a few pics I'd be happy to have a look, and there's always the Purse Forum, where the real authentication experts hang out.

could it be that possibly the real cloche thing got lost and was replaced? Another option is that Mulberry used to do a bespoke service for their bags. I had a bespoke Roxanne once, and the handles were extra long, so it was more comfortable to carry on my shoulder. A third possibility is that it could be a "special" - some bayswaters have been made for sale in the outlets only, and i think they differ slightly from the regular ones - for example they don't have the metal bits on the bottom.

The absolute best way of finding out is, as squalor says, to go to the purse forum, read the instructions for authentication, and get them to have have a look.

The outlets sometimes get Bayswater bags without the cloche at a discount. I've seen them at Bicester and the salesgirl said that I could just ring them up and order a replacement, but it would not necessarily match the colour of the bag. It is possible that it's a replacement that isn't perfect size. My theory is that Mulberry do this deliberately to stop people buying cheaply at outlets and then buying replacement cloches. They can be a strange company as far as their customer service.

Could it be that the pouch was lost and they just used any leather strap to hold the padlock? Or maybe it only looks longer because the pouch is missing? They are easily lost, as I did this myself. If the padlock is not on properly, the pouch does fall off. Found this out the hard way, but luckily it was found!

Does it have a made in England tag inside? Does the hardware all have stamped Mulberry that look clean? I know this is a very faked bag, but if it appears that old I think you might be in luck. The fakes only got really good in the past 5 years or so...IMO anyway.