“FAKE” ANTIQUES

Taranaki Daily News, 16 July 1929, Page 9

“FAKE” ANTIQUES

SOME CLEVER DECEPTIONS. BLOTTING PAPER REVEALS FRAUD In a collection so vast as that of the British Museum it would, indeed, be strange if “fakes” did not occasionally come to hand. One which not long ago came to the notice of the authorities was a Mexican funerary vase. In the lower part the surface of what was supposed to be stone began to flake off very peculiarly and not parallel to any lines due to natural stratification. Examination revealed that sand and glue had been skilfully applied to simulate a’sandstone surface. Further examination disclosed how extensive and clever the additions to the original had been. It had completely deceived the donor of several other genuine antiques of a similar character, who was himself an expert, Portland cement- had been added, and the whole was given a final coating, of a uniform grey colour of sand and glue to represent a fine-grained sandstone.

The .Museum authorities are continually being consulted by visitors from abroad, especially from the United States, in connection with purchases they have made of antique furniture and objects of archaeological interest. On many occasions they have gone away, according to one of the Museum experts, wiser but sadder men and women. He said:—

“Recently an American millionaire asked my opinion as to the genuineness of a document he had purchased in a West End auction room for several hundred pounds. Placed under the microscope, tiny pieces of blotting paper were discovered in the ink marks. As the writing on the document was alleged to have been executed some centuries before blotting paper was invented, the fraud was immediately exposed.”