[ Ref.: Tiffany "Flower Girl" Musical Automaton Is Fake ]


>> You will find packets of tea bags with that logo in every supermarket
>> in Britain.  They may also be common in Commonwealth countries;
>> I don't know. ... That doesn't look like a trading card -- just part
>> of a packet.


Oh, phooey.  I wanted to hear how this came out:  "The police burst
open the secret door at the rear of the world-famous auction gallery
and there discovered dozens of enslaved workers building fake automata
intended to flood the market..."

Fake antiques are fascinating.  George Grotz (The Furniture Doctor)
wrote lively descriptions of the antique-faking business.  A 'worm-hole
drill' was used to simulate ancient chestnut wood in new furniture  (or
you could supposedly do it with a shotgun.)  Tire chains (preferably
rusty) are used to artificially age a new piece.

I know that when antique clocks were a big deal there was a healthy
trade in phony decals, dials, reverse-painted glasses and case papers.
These are still available from S LaRose, but for amusement purposes
only, as we say.

Numismatists have discovered coins from ancient times that were
faked to imitate coins from more ancient times.  Faked paintings are,
of course, legendary.  There was even a musician who wrote music in
the style of Bach and Beethoven and periodically announced the
'newly-discovered' compositions.

Someone has been building bogus antique phonographs in India for some
time now: they're typically identifiable by their big brass amplifying
horns.  And of particular importance to the many glass and pottery
collectors here in Lancaster and nearby Zanesville, Ohio are the
artistic reproductions, often unmarked, of rare 'Depression glass' or
hard-to-find ceramic water jugs.

What I find particularly interesting is the fact that the fakes show up
in esoteric fields and that the perpetrators never seem to make much
money at these enterprises.  It always seemed to me that they pursue
their craft in a desire to ridicule snooty collectors as well as to
practice the crafts involved.  I would really like to hear those faked
Bach compositions.  (It was said that the lady was a mystic and
'channeled' the spirits of the late composers.)

I have read about at least two recent European wine scandals: one issue
of Bordeaux that was highly rated by reviewers turned out to have been
made from industrial ethanol and artificial flavorings.  The
Biblically-prohibited trick of putting new wine in old bottles
apparently remains profitable, and this particular instance really
devastated the wine-connoisseur business (an added benefit for the rest
of us.)

I suspect, however, that there hasn't been all that much fakery in the
mechanical musical instrument field.  There are probably counterfeit
music boxes out there, but I haven't read much on this list about any
other bogus instruments besides the famous dancing automaton.

Mark Kinsler