Reproductions

[Lee]

Originally Posted by ulfberth

I have no doubt that this is with the best intentions but that information can be used for other purposes and isn't that exactly what we want to avoid?

That has always been the conundrum with projects like this website and forum. As a student/collector gains experience, he/she will likely come to recognize little clues that something isn't right. Unfortunately, when one publicly shares these insights, forgers will take notice and soon those criteria cease to be reliable and separating the wheat from the chaff will only become more difficult.

Hopefully, the potential harm of presentation of authentic examples is more than offset by positive educational benefits. Similarly, presentation and identification of forgeries, labeled as such, hopefully carries more benefits than harms. But, detailed publication of easy to recognize and easily corrected features of forgeries likely carries much greater potential for harm than good to future collectors.

So, for this reason I have held many of my own observations in this regard close over the years despite the urge to share them. An aspiring collector needs to directly experience as many authentic examples as possible, as well as known fakes, and will, by this process, develop his/her own conscious and unconscious sense about items encountered.