Counterfeiters usually focus on the APPEARANCE rather than technical parts or details. Counterfeiting has always existed, now it has become a dominate feature of our day and age. In the past, the value of products depends on their intellectual content (brand image, design, technical innovation etc).
Consumers who knowingly purchase a counterfeit product are often motivated by curiosity, snobbishness, or simply the belief that they have made a good bargain. They are exposing themselves to disappointments - inconveniences - waste of money worthless product.
FOR EVALUATING THE AUTHENTICITY OF AN ANTIQUE
- DESIGN AND STYLE - ORIGINALITY does a piece have the style characteristics of the 17th, 18th or 19th centuries? Has the style period had a later revival that could be confused with the original period? If the piece is a later reproduction, does any part of it appear to be uncharacteristic? Craftsmen will often include almost unconsciously, stylistic elements of the period they are working in when copying a piece. Ensure that the item is not constructed from various pieces, or just an outright fake. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon as some items are described and priced as "period" when this is not the case.
- CONSTRUCTION - QUALITY Methods of construction are associated with specific historical periods. These methods can be found in modern hand-made furniture, but almost never in mass produced furniture and not even in expensive furniture. Take into the account the size, the style, the workmanship and the materials used. These factors and the object's rarity will determine the price.
- AGE - WEAR AND TYPE OF HARDWARE - properly associated with the period of construction. Museums have been fooled and experts have been fooled but there are few expert fakers of this quality. THE CONSTANT AND PRACTICED USE OF AUTHENTICATION will result in the detection of most forgeries.
- COLOUR AND PATINATION - Patination many people think this is "dirt" but this is not necessarily so. It is the accumulation of dust, wax and age accrued during the item's lifetime. "Glassy", re-polished and over-restored items should be avoided unless a person knows what he or she is doing. There are exceptions when cleaning an item which can bring out the natural luster and colouring.
- SIXTH SENSE - years of experience in dealing with antiques. SENSE tells you when a piece meets the style, construction and wear tests, but still leaves you with the uneasy feeling that something is wrong, and then it is perhaps best to decide against it.
PRICE - This is determined by several factors. One object may be very similar to another but valued differently. Try to buy a quality item rather than three or four lesser ones. Most importantly, one should always buy an item because it is liked.
THE APPLICATION OF ALL OR ANY OF THESE CRITERIA MUST BE DIRECTED BY LOGIC AND COMMON SENSE
COMMON SENSE - is the best tool, when it comes to age and wear. If you were looking at an armchair the most likely part to wear-out first is the forward part of the arm and where people rest their hand. People generally unconsciously fidget in that area which causes natural wear.
If the chair is wooden and has arms and is over 100 years old, the arms will be worn satin smooth by friction and hand oils. If you take out drawers in a piece of furniture, you will also see wear grooves from constant use.
THERMOLUMINESCENCE testing can help tell a fake Ming vase from the genuine article? But clever forgers are also learning a thing or two about physics.
Estimating the age of pottery and porcelain using a tiny sample drilled from the object. This form of "luminescence testing" is used in archaeology to date burnt flint and materials that have been "fired" in a kiln, such as pottery. The new "fine grain" method only needed a sample weighing about 100 mg and was sufficiently accurate, within 20%, to tell if an antique came from a particular period or if it was a recent fake.
Although thermoluminescence testing is unsuitable for metals, many bronze sculptures are made by moulding the metal around a pottery figure. This "casting core" often remains jammed inside the bronze and can be used to authenticate the figure. Several samples from the antique are taken, and then the powders are brought back to the lab where they are sorted into grains 4-12 microns across and then reheated. The more light that is produced when the sample is re-heated, then the older the ceramic is.
Young European pottery from the Renaissance period, in particular, usually requires more sophisticated tests, because so many copies were made in the 19th century. FORGERS have cottoned on to thermoluminescence dating too. Counterfeiters incorporate pieces of genuine porcelain into areas where they think the test holes will be drilled. How this problem is dealt with - to identify pastiches made from an assortment of genuine and fake fragments, sometimes several samples are taken from different parts of a piece.
Counterfeiters in China are even trying to pass the thermoluminescence test by making copies from ground-up bits of ancient clay found near the factory in Ching-te-chen where Ming pottery was produced in the 14th-17th centuries. Other forgers are irradiating porcelain in an attempt to artificially age it, while others just try to fake the certificates of authenticity although "they are not doing it very successfully"
