Featured One of the best Folk Art Fakes of All Time

It’s one of the best folk art fakes of all time. It fooled them all: dealers, curators, vetters, journalists, and more. Story at the link

https://www.maineantiquedigest.com/stories/fake-civil-war-masterpiece-a-tale-of-two-photographs/6819

 

OOPS, ART not ARK but it won't let me edit

Figured it out, all better now

 

Amazing story. It's so visually striking, seems that examiners may have been distracted from picking up possible details that might have been a red flag, although this situation is difficult because we're talking about a art creation. . with no direct comparisons. Made me think of the Brewster chair sold to the Henry Ford museum that was a modern fake.

 

Yeah, sometimes people want something to be true so much they don't examine the construction details as they should.
I was involved with a fake pilgrim century Chamber Table several years ago and it caused a lot of grief. In the end i had to send flowers & candy to smooth over the hard feelings by the dealer who purchased it and had asked me to research the piece.

 

Yes, one needs to put emotion aside when looking at a lovely "antique". If I remember the Brewster chair story correctly - the forger set out to fool the museum because he had been kicked out for telling the museum they had more then a few fakes on display. . he painstakingly made the chair, had a friend sell it to them. I guess this was his way of proving he was smarter then curators. In the end, the chair seemed so correct, the only way to prove it fake was highly detailed x-rays picked up the wrong shape of drilled mortises - he had used 19th century drill bits, not 17th century bits ! The museum kept the chair - using it as a lesson example for the public..

 

An incredible bit of work. Too bad it was discovered. History is what people want to believe. This would have fit in, no problem.

 

I remember that incident, I think John T Kirk (inadvertent father of the grunge movement) had examined that chair and said it was good. The best way and the only way to be sure is, forensic exam, take the piece apart, piece by piece and examine the construction details.

 

Amazing story. Thanks for posting this!

 

MOS, Yeah, i hear you, ignorance can be bliss however, when there are hundreds of thousands of dollars involved or more...........it can get complicated.
It's ALWAYS about the dollars

 

Or X-ray, which is what I recall they did in the case of that chair.

 

The whole thing fell apart because someone provided a photo of the piece "in situ" when there was a photo of the unadorned piece also "in situ".

Neither photo would have been enough in itself to invalidate the piece, and it rang all the right bells and whistles.

Without that photo of the unadorned piece, questions would never have been raised.

Sure, the money's the thing, but only because of that photo of the unadorned object.

 

Yep, that's true, at least for the present.

 

Great Story on the Civil War secretary!!! Thanks for posting!! I missed reading that somehow!!!

 

Both stories are great! Thank-you for sharing them James and Jeff Do you have anymore to share?

 

I don't, not real sure i'd want to do that again. Trying to tell someone who just bought their treasure that it's a fake isn't real easy to do.

 

Very interesting. I’m surprised no one seems to have mentioned the face sticking its tongue out defiantly, perhaps a reflection of the faker’s attitude.

 

Wild Imagination, there, Spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

No, I imagine that would be a hard thing to do.

 

Pilgrim Chamber Table Fiasco

This table had fooled A LOT of furniture historians, collectors, dealers, museums and high end auction houses (christies) over the years. I got a call from the dealer while she was driving home with her prize early Sat afternoon, i could hear the elation in her voice. The dealer sent me to the auction house web site to look at pic's and promised to send additional pic's when she got it home. As soon as i looked at the piece, i had reservations from the start, it looked good, TO DAMN GOOD! i thought to be a 350 year old example. By early Sunday morning after looking at more detailed pic's she sent sat evening and some very lucky research, i was convinced it was a copy & not a period piece. I told the dealer my findings, she became angry with me as i was killing her BUZZ at her life long dream to own this form ( there are about 2 dozen of these known to exist). By early monday morning after getting documentation on this table from MESDA which was OVERWHELMING in my view (pdf link below), i convinced her to cancel the CC transaction & call the auction house to make arrangements to return it. It was returned, i sent some flowers & box of chocolates to soften the 2 days of trauma.
Bottom line? yesterdays fake is still a fake tomorrow

HMMMMM, it won't let me down load MESDA file, to big, i'll try another way

 

Nightmare! Not working at all or i don't know how to do it more likely! Sent the MAD article only to Google Drive which gave me a shareable link, the whole file just ain't gonna happen with me at the keyboard!! Here goesssssssssssss

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cNUF03kfxYJ88tzI_XFf5lnPkFq-DDuY/view?usp=sharing

It's sideways, ugh