Featured What is the oldest known written "whinge" about fake antiquities???

I'm told that Napoleon "whinged" about those bloody fake Egyptian antiques when he conquered Egypt and I suspect the Romans has a few good whinges but what's the earliest known one???
Cheers
Stephen

 

If anyone has written about it, maybe Pliny the Elder, somewhere in his...how many volumes?

The bottom fell out of the market for engraved gems in the 19th century because there got to be so many fake Greek ones in circulation, no one was sure what they might be buying. I don't know how anyone could have mistaken them for antiquities, but the 'Poniatowski gems' were the last straw.

 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/73837/7-antique-forgeries-made-antiquity
here are some examples...

 

Interesting read. Loved the phrase "Egyptomaniacal forgeries".
Bunch of maniacs!!

 

WHO KNEW!!!!!!!

 

The Romans made fake Greek antiques, so odds are the complaints go back at least that far.

 

There is a cuneiform tablet, found in the temple ruins at Py-balam in Sumer, and dating to the 3rd millenium BC, that lists criminals, their crimes and punishments. Included is one Gazualum who sold an ancient relic of their goddess to the priests of Nisaba. It was a procession cup that turned out to be in a new style that simply hadn’t been seen before in that district. He was sentenced to death “at the hands of the Goddess”, though no one is quite sure what that meant.

 

Actually, I just made all that up.

 

I wonder how many of these things were seen as, & known perfectly well to be, by those who bought them, reproductions of admired works from classical Greece. Have seen it speculated that there were itinerant Greek artisans who would make sculptures or paint frescoes for the Roman well-to-do. Our take on some things might be akin to someone 2 millennia from now 'exposing' a museum gift shop reproduction of a Rodin as a 'fake'.

I got really confused for a few moments while reading the Mentalfloss article when it talked about Hephaestus having forged something.

 

I wouldn't mind a forged item.....from 403 AD......

 

forged in gold , that is !

 

There are reports of the Chinese producing fake silver items in the 18th C. The material they used was platinum, which at the time was considered of no value.

That story comes from Kenneth Snowman's "18th Century Gold Boxes of Europe".

(From the same source there are reports of 18th C European silver thimbles lined with platinum for the same reason.)

 

I wouldn't have a problem finding some of those fakes! Today all I found was a piece of Mexican "beach jewelry", i.e. nickel-plated brass with silver hallmarks. Found fake designer bags the other day.