In principal, we offer you a free visual proofing. Please send us very clear photo's or a link at Wegener@aton-gallery.de. It's also possible to send the pieces to our evaluator mr. Th. Wegener (you will only pay the nescesary shipping costs!).
- Faience, ceramic
- Bronze (alloy of copper and tin), silver
- Fabric und Papyrus
- Wood, when painted, plastered or covered with other organic material
- reliefs, when there are no organic traces available (i.e. paint))
- stone pottery
- unpainted wood
- objects made of stone, like granite, sandstone etc.
- gold or gemstones
To get this out of the way immediately, most fakes are rather crude and can therefor be recognized from photo's. The professional's trained eye can replace many chemical analyses this way. For instance, you can recognize a large degradation of the glazing with artificially aged faience, which is very subtl in a naturally aged piece. This process is gradual and cannot be replicated at this moment. Old pieces of wood are also being remodeled and painted, to be sold as authentic artefacts afterwards. Even though radiocarbon analysis would date the wood right, it still remains a fake. Also, old bronze scrapmetal is being molten down and cast into a new figure where a material analysis will find an ancient composition. But good and serious dealers know these methods and recognize a fake immediately. Caution is advised with dealers who offer their objects well under the going marketprice. On Ebay.com for instance it gives dealers with thousands of positive feedbacks who sell incredibly beautiful and large Egyptian objects for $20,- to $30,-. In addition, they always trade in the same or eaqual pieces. Many of these bargains have turned out to be expensive bad buys.
Here are some examples of typical fakes which can be found on Ebay.com by the hundreds..
This ushabti was offered on Ebay.com in 2001, it was put to us for examination by a German collector. It shows some of the typical tell-tale signs of a fake. The piece was sold with a material analysis of which the executing institution in hindsight turned out to be property of the seller. A restitution was denyed by the seller, even though a counterexpertise was produced by the collector in the form of a TL-analysis.
Objekt: Ushabti
Seller: Ebay dealer, USA
Material: Faience
Height: 16.8 cm - 6.6"
Price: 650 US$
About the ushabti statue:
Layed on glazing without glaze damage or just the smallest sign of staining or age-required wear in the glazingsurface. The entire brown surface with yellow glass inclusions is absolutely homogeneous on the material, very hard (contrary to antique faiences which are easily crazed with a probe or sharp scalpel under a microscope) and also without any glaze damages.
False inscriptions with the name (without cartouche) of Seti I., although stylisticaly it concerns an ancient piece (if it would be genuine!).
Generally these falsifications deal with faience that is much to light and it's "sound", as soon as one taps it with a hard object, is high, just like a newly baked ceramicpot.
Object: Ushabti
Seller: Ebay dealer, Canada
Material: Faience
Height: 4.6 cm - 1.8"
Price: 45 US$
Smaller variations with the same false characteristics.
Methods of authentification
1. Authenticity of antique bronze and silver objects
Bronze and silver antique materials represent absolutely no difficulty today in regard to their authenticity recognition! So far, the most common and at the same time most useless methods were:
1.1 the metal analysis
in which the composition of the alloy was analyzed and which didn't have the smallest thing to say about the authenticity of a bronze! Good counterfeiters derive the exact percentage from literature about the appropriate bronze or use fragments which are molten and being cast again.
1.2 the patina analysis
examines the crystal structure of the patina. However it's possible to grow subtle and rough crystals by means of climatic chambers. Thus this analysis is also completely useless.
1.3 the Blei-210 analysis
here the radioactive isotope of Blei-210, which is contained in copper ore and has a radioactive half-life of 22.3 years, is being measured. Unfortunately the Blei-210 is only in traces present in the ore, thus only a relatively short time of origin can be proven, but was already known to be falsified in the 18th century as well.
We now arrive at our method, which was developed and/or found by Mr. Wegener, and which can be used for antique copper alloys as well as antique silver!
It's common knowledge that the patina on fake pieces is artificially made and applied on the bronze with reagens like chloride and amino-acids. With genuine pieces, which lay in the soil for centuries or thousands of years however, a proper process of transformation takes place in the ore, which does not only influences the surface, but penetrates the highest layers of metal or in some cases mineralizes the entire bronze through and through. In such cases for example, the inclusions incapsulated in the bronze can be shown, in which one opens up a very small surface on the blank metal with an ultrasonic chisel, and looks for these inclusions under the microscope. With new castings one also cannot cast these patina inclusions into the cast, because these are separated in the melt and it always developes as a clean homogeneous bronze. Since this effect also cannot be falsified in the future, one can assume that so far it absolutely represents the safest procedure for the authentication of bronze! The same also applies for silver, only here the inclusions concerned are horn silver.
Macro image of a genuine Egyptian bronze with the surface opened up to the metal (darkly coloured bronze with incapsulated inclusions in the metal surface). This picture shows you that effect of mineralization of the upper layers of metal which can't be falsified!
The price of this examination, including documentation and macro photographs, as well as retouching of the opened place is 180.00 euro including taxes.
2. Authenticity of faiences and ceramic(s)
2.1 the thermal luminescence analysis (TL)
the age of a faience or a ceramic(s) can be specified with the tl analysis plusminus 20 per cent through measurements of the radioactive radiation at the focalpoint. Relatively large samples are taken from the object here and is,with the help of the respective radioactive half-life, assigned an age. Disadvantage: Unfortunately the samples are often contaminated with foreign deposits, so several samples should be taken. In addition; it's rather expensive, not recommended with smaller objects of small value.
2.2 the watertest (clay fastness)
Far more reliable with ceramic(s) than the well-known smell test is the watertest. Here ceramic(s) become - provided it's unglazed! - soaked with water and is observed how fast the ceramic(s) takes up water and how long it takes to secrete it again. Antique porous ceramic(s),which has a higher capillary effect, will slowly secrete the humidity again over a very long period, from one to several days, contrary to newly burned ceramic(s), which will be dry after only several hours at the most. The pronounced and partially penetrating smell because of the soaking of the ceramic(s) also comes with this test. However, the musty smell of dry ceramic(s) can be very easily falsified! The most reliable method is and will be however, the tl test, because this method, as described, requires some experience and comparisons to definite genuine pieces!
2.3 the sintering
The sintering, which very often is on ceramic(s), can represent further authenticity proof. Naturally this is also being falsified, but the crystals of the sinter (calcspar) in falsifications are very finely and evenly grown, contrary to genuine sinter structure which has a jumbly structure with differently sized crystals.
2.4. the microscopy
With an artificial aging of faiences for instance, one can recognize a rough degradation of the glaze, while it is very fine in the natural process. These processes are very slow and can also not be artificially reproduced at the moment. Furthermore, one can find signs of age-required wear and ageconditioned damage of the glaze surface. Under a microscope with a probe or sharp scalpel, antique faiences are very easily cut, since the glaze is "soft".
3. Authenticity of organic materials such as wood, material or paper
3.1 the spectroscopy IR
you can authenticate the age of wooden objects fast, simply and inexpensively with only a few milligram of woodpowder.
Laboratory for spectroscopy: Museo d'Arte e Scienza
A Modernly equipped scientific laboratory for authentication or falsification recognition. The speciality of the laboratory is this new method.
Via Q. Sella, 4 - 20121 Mailand (Piazza Castello)
Tel 0039-02-72022488 Fax 0039-02-72023156
Internet: http://www.spectroscopyforart.com/