The Rise Of Forgery

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 50, 27 August 1932, Page 18

The Rise Of Forgery

Foi|gery is achieving new importance "' in critae circles. This is attested by the ■'.."■ leeertt settlement of the 80-called ; "Waterlow case, in which an old London j corporation was deceived into printing ;£-■ 580,000 unauthorised Portuguese bankA... notes, and by the deception practised by :c: the late Ivar ]Jreuger. Forgeries, how- ..:. eves, are committed not only in financial : circles; they have shaken tho worlds of "j- art and literature, and even the course ' of hiatory has sometimes been altered ;;' by a well-planned forgery, says tho :,' "New York Times." One of the most skilful and daring ■■•■_;- forgeries ever perpetrated was the great ■•-•• Bank of England forgery executed by George and Austin "Bidwell, brothers, in : ■ tho 1870's. Obtaining from a pick- :;; pocket forged letters of credit, they ■■; used them to great advantage in Liver- • pool, Bordeaux, and Lyons, and then - planned an attack on the Old Lady of '/. Threadneedle Street. ~T Their first step was to counterfeit T; the blanks on which Bank of England • - bills of exchange were laid out. Through ■^ their tailor, the forgers obtained an .;" account in Condon banks and in other Z-~ reputable institutions, Austin Bidwell representing himself aa a manufacturer. - They manufactured false bills of ex- - change, using the names of prominent

corporations, and soon these fradulent papers were pouring into the Bank of England at the rate of £10,000 a day. But the plotters slipped up on a trifle; on two bills of lading the date was omitted and the game was soon up. Another sensational forgery was that of the Parnell letters. On 6th May, 1882, Lord Frederick Cavendish, just appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Mi-. Burke, an official, were stabbed to death in Dublin. Five years later a Coercion bill for-Ireland was submitted to tho House of Commons. Tho following morning a London newspaper printed 'in facsimile a number of letters, signed with the name of Charles Stewart Parnell, the Nationalist leader. In one was tho statement, —"though I regret the accident of Lord F. Cavendish's death, I cannot refuse to admit that Burke got no more than his deserts." The producer of the letters, a man called Piggot, was finally convicted of the forgery.

The art forger has produced many suprious masterpieces. Rembrandt painted perhaps seven or eight hundred canvases, of which, it has been remarked, "tea thousand are in America." More Corots have entered the port of New York than ever could have been painted by one man.