TRICKING COLLECTORS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5369, 28 December 1928, Page 4

TRICKING COLLECTORS.

- • ■ • FORGERIES OF THE ANTIQUE. THE METHODS ADOPTED. We live tn an age of sensation. Today the gratification of this sense is essential to the conditions of modern life. Since the war the; calm of th® art and antique; enthusiast has been ruffled by disquieting reports of counterfeits and forgeries calculated to shatter belief in the honqsty of mankind. Yet such roguery is not new. it has been with us since; Jacob juggled with Laban’s, sheep, and before. Frequently in inspecting collections of coins one comes across specimens of Tetradrachms which were “passed” on thq soldiers of Alexander the Great more than 300 years before Christ, writes Isidore Kozmin-i sky, in the Melbourne “Argus.” For hundreds of years right up to the present day pieces of “True Cross” have been sold to trusting tourists. The counterfeiting of money reaches a respectable antiquity. Coin and medal forgeries can reasonably be Placed foremost in the fields of deceit. ' Some years ago a Victorian public officer travelling in Greece was attracted to a spot .wfrejre some fishermen had jiist dug up a piece of concrete in which a cluster of ancient coins, of the classical period was imn bedded. He bought the hoard for what he considered a remarkably low price. In triumph he bore his prize to the coin-room of the British Museum and placed it op the table of the numismatic expert. Smilingly this gentleman it back to him, remarking that he must console himself by knowing that he was not the first victim who had “fallen in.” The coins were valueless and but mere reproductions of the; pieces they were supposed to be. , Precious stones; have been imitated with more or less success for centuries, from the time of the Egyptians. A favourite; method was tp attach a piece of th® real stone to a common base glass or obsidian. The appearance of these doublets, as they are called, is very satisfying, but <he .trick can epte/ly be detected by the thin line of reddish colour which be-; trays the point of attachment. Irf the making of synthetic stones. by chemical means Nature is followed with critical closeness, and beautifully cut examples are perfect enough to deceive the eye; but in spite of the triumphs achieved in hardness in synthetic rubies and sapphires they

cannot deceivq the jewel expert- nor

the scientific investigator. The same ‘may be said of imitation pearjs. those usually sold are soft when, applied to the teeth, while; real pearls have a hard, shell-like “bite.” The culture pearl is a dangprous rival to the reaj pearl, but in spite of this fact therq is an essential difference which makes Nature’a.pearl supreme. It was once thought that the interior polish in an engraved gem was, proof of its antiquity, but this is no guarantee of its genuineness. According, ‘ to th®; eminent authority on antique gems, Mr C. W. King, M.A-, of Trinity College, Cambridge, the truest- test of antiquity appears to be, a certain degree of dullness like tha* pfoi duced by breathing on a polished surface, a dullness which the modern forger, with a’il his ingenuity, has not imitated. He -has di.povered, however, that c opies of old gems thrust down the t’nroat of a turkey will, by the action, of the gizzard, have an external Lluntness very like that produced by age. Antique pastes from their natural softness are frequently forged, and some of the forged ductio!.is are highly prized by cpllec.tors.

Th e forging of ancient bronzes and stat’aary, should be easily detected by the “oiliness” of the metal, and the defective quality oflhe incrustation kfaown as the patina. (Marble figures /.re usually stained or “grimed,” and ■any attempt to imitate the rough action of Nature by chemical means is easily detected. Oil engravings are frequently imitated' by impressing, on pieces of old paper from old books; and old pictures are often reproduced On ojd canvas and metaL Some alleged “bld masters”, ane absurdly painted on hessian; Some, well-painted copied of old miniatures are still being produced in France, and a good deal of this work;-: is accomplished by the aid of photography. Experts acquainted with the work of oldi masters have little Idifficujty in exposing forgeries, be they ever, so good. Towards the end of ijhe eighteenth century a young Iman named Ireland fabricated some Shakespearean manuscripts. When thiejse were shown to the great Boswell he fell oh his knees and 1 Reverently kissed them. For all that, however, expert’s, showed clumsiness of the forgeries. An'auto-; graph factory at -Weimar turned out letters, said to have been written by Schiller, good enough to deceive the poet’s own daughter. The trick .was strangely detected. All the letters produced, though bearing different dates, were written on the same type of paper, whereas, al 1 though it is not generally known* Schaller changed his paper evary year of hi's life. Faked autographs und letters are generally the work of skilled penmen. Among the methods, usejd for this work ane the glass eas»9l and tracing, paper, together with a process for adding the stains, erearses, and signs of wear, and, tea.r. In 1898 a Holborn dealer was. fined £3OOO for selling counterfeit old sDlver. False marks were discovered oin article's, purporting to be antique The same maker’s mark was foun- di on. specimens bearing the marks of Geo<rge L, George; 11.. Gepnge 111., an d G eorge IV., a stupid attempt at dec sit Usually the forger. c.uts olut the hall-mark from a spoon or, stime inexpensive article of silver, and, insei its It into a modern piece of greater v alue. a few w®eks agp i handled as silver cup thus treated. The wor fc was vqry crudely carried out, I >ut s- ante examples which I recently <exam ined’i in New York were mo'st jskilfu Jly executed. As a ruje the fritud cisbe, discovered by breathing on tb le article, over the hall-mark, she) field pJate was invented after mot Ms iby olid Greek arts

ists by Thomas Bojsover, Whiteley Wood, Sheffield, in the 1 year 1743. It was madle by joining a thin plate of silver to a plate of copper, and was entirely superseded tfy electroplating in the year 1840. Modern Sheffield plate has a waxy appearand its detection should be extremely easy. Even carefully worked modern copies Of this beautiful plate betray the£r recent origin. Particularly fine reproduction’s of old glass and glassware in Bohemian styles fav-t oured in the beginning of the 19th century, also some rare Venetian types, are made at Choisy-le-Roi, France, at Plainej-de-Valch, Lorraine, and Saint Louis, and at the great glass factory of Josephinenhutte in Silesia. The productions of some English firms are ndt a whit inferior. Still, fine old Bristol and Waterford glass is qo distinctive that the reproductions fall a little short of the originals. ‘ Old furniture is frequently made from genuinely old .timber, and I have examined some very clever reproductions by Australian craftsmen. Fre-, quently furniture described as antique is only antique in parts ; added parts may render the piece subject to duty if any attempt is made to introduce it into our country. Samson, of Paris, has very fine examples, of all kinds of china and poh-. celain, Sevres, Chelsea, Dresden, and Chinese. In China reproductions of the antique have been common up to thq present century, old glazes have been attempted, and old marks copied 1 . Even in England Minitons have produced some very fine examples of the famous Sevres ware; to which is added the interlaced “L’s” generally accompanied by the letter “M,” which does not occur in the old. French wares. After long-c.ontinue|d periods of severe study in various, parts bf the world for more than 4.0 years I find little difficulty in detecting forgeries of the antique. New substances cannot successfully be made to look old. ipld metals'show atmospheric effects which art cannot give them. Then there; is judgment from the “feel” and general appearance of the piece, which can only be acquired by long experience, intense study, and intuitive perception.