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Don't be fooled by modern fakes sold as antiques, 'vintage' or 'salvaged'
A few rules of the road;
1) Antiques do not come by the dozen, if you see an item offered as 'vintage' or 'antique' etc check the seller's previous sales for the same item being sold multiple times over the past weeks/months- the same 'vintage one-of-a-kind European 18th century do-dads having sold 6 of in the last year are a big red flag!
2) Certain items can be easily reproduced and faked as old, most noted include cast-iron, brass, plaster, plaster disguised as 'carved wood' with stains and paints, items made of a wood dust and glue mixture which LOOK like carved wood but are not. So called 'bronze' is often brass, a much cheaper metal, or simply plated steel and yes- even gold spray PAINTED metal which is cheaper yet.
3) Most 'hand carved' old wood items were actually machine made, the victorians were not stupid, labor costs were cheaper then but so what everything- there were hundreds of fascinating machines invented that duplicated a vast array of items quickly and cheaply by the dozen.
Statues and 'carvings' were duplicated by the dozen on a large machine (shown below) that held one original pattern and a pantograph rod which was run over the surfaces of the original pattern while a dozen 'blanks' clamped onto the machine were being simultaneously carved. These machines were called duplicating pantographs or mechanical carving machines, and these were also used to mass produce copies of marble statues often thought of as being 'hand carved'
These machines are mostly obsolete now with the new CAD, laser, 3D technology and plastic materials, but machines like this one were used in the 1800's to replicate all sorts of wood, plaster, and stone statues, plaques, corbels, columns and other elements used on buildings and for decoration.
(below) A used duplicating carving machine as an example, a close look shows approximately 16 arms, this machine was probably used to duplicate-carve 16 copies of one master carving at a time;
Sculptors developed the pantograph to duplicate low-relief carvings and by the 19th century, the so-called swing-arm pantograph was capable of duplicating complex pieces much faster and more accurately than by hand.
Michelangelo's David was one of the most popular statues copied by this method as the Victorian era experienced an explosion of interest in reproductions of statuary from antiquity.
Portrait busts of famous figures in literature, politics and music of the day also became popular and the duplicating pantograph made actual marble busts affordable.
The inventor and steam pioneer James Watt (1736-1819) developed a machine to produce scaled-down copies of original works, while Cheverton perfected the machine for commercial use.
Mr Cheverton was a sculptor and an engineer. His machine, not unlike an old treadle dentist's drill, used parallel arms, one having a probe and the other- a rotating cutting bit.
As the probe was moved over the full sized version of the sculpture, its shape was duplicated by the cutting arm. The particular machine Cheverton invented could also enlarge and reduce works and was patented in 1844 which goes to show that even antiques produced in the 1850's may have simply been replicated on one of these machines and NOT 'hand carved' at all.
4) Many 'ceramic' items can be painted plaster- ceramic is always HOLLOW, small plaster pieces are usually SOLID. Ceramics cannot have steel or metal embedded in them, so any item that has a wire 'hook' embedded in the back to hang it on the wall is more than likely plaster.
5) If you receive an item sold as antique, when you open the box it should NEVER smell like new paint!
6) Watch for those who claim they know absolutely nothing about the item and claim they got it an 'estate sale', this is a clever way to get out of liability for their description of 'antique, vintage, BRONZE' etc
7) Do a search around for similarly worded items, very often you will discover the 'antique iron' is being sold as new on several other sites, imported from Mexico or China- A LOT of fake antique reproduction iron and metal is coming from Mexico and China now, and lot of it LOOKS old- rust does not indicate old!!! I can get rust on iron in a few days that looks 100 years old- layers and layers of peeling chipped paint is a better indication of age.
8) Most importantly READ the page, read every word on it, most sellers insert all the details, but nothing is more annoying to sellers than answering questions that were so clearly and several times outlined on the Ebay page! An example is a page that says 'New Reproduction' and having people ask: 'Is this an antique?' or including the shipping charge of $12 clearly and having people ask 'what is the shipping cost?'
A few rules of the road;
1) Antiques do not come by the dozen, if you see an item offered as 'vintage' or 'antique' etc check the seller's previous sales for the same item being sold multiple times over the past weeks/months- the same 'vintage one-of-a-kind European 18th century do-dads having sold 6 of in the last year are a big red flag!
2) Certain items can be easily reproduced and faked as old, most noted include cast-iron, brass, plaster, plaster disguised as 'carved wood' with stains and paints, items made of a wood dust and glue mixture which LOOK like carved wood but are not. So called 'bronze' is often brass, a much cheaper metal, or simply plated steel and yes- even gold spray PAINTED metal which is cheaper yet.
3) Most 'hand carved' old wood items were actually machine made, the victorians were not stupid, labor costs were cheaper then but so what everything- there were hundreds of fascinating machines invented that duplicated a vast array of items quickly and cheaply by the dozen.
Statues and 'carvings' were duplicated by the dozen on a large machine (shown below) that held one original pattern and a pantograph rod which was run over the surfaces of the original pattern while a dozen 'blanks' clamped onto the machine were being simultaneously carved. These machines were called duplicating pantographs or mechanical carving machines, and these were also used to mass produce copies of marble statues often thought of as being 'hand carved'
These machines are mostly obsolete now with the new CAD, laser, 3D technology and plastic materials, but machines like this one were used in the 1800's to replicate all sorts of wood, plaster, and stone statues, plaques, corbels, columns and other elements used on buildings and for decoration.
(below) A used duplicating carving machine as an example, a close look shows approximately 16 arms, this machine was probably used to duplicate-carve 16 copies of one master carving at a time;
Sculptors developed the pantograph to duplicate low-relief carvings and by the 19th century, the so-called swing-arm pantograph was capable of duplicating complex pieces much faster and more accurately than by hand.
Michelangelo's David was one of the most popular statues copied by this method as the Victorian era experienced an explosion of interest in reproductions of statuary from antiquity.
Portrait busts of famous figures in literature, politics and music of the day also became popular and the duplicating pantograph made actual marble busts affordable.
The inventor and steam pioneer James Watt (1736-1819) developed a machine to produce scaled-down copies of original works, while Cheverton perfected the machine for commercial use.
Mr Cheverton was a sculptor and an engineer. His machine, not unlike an old treadle dentist's drill, used parallel arms, one having a probe and the other- a rotating cutting bit.
As the probe was moved over the full sized version of the sculpture, its shape was duplicated by the cutting arm. The particular machine Cheverton invented could also enlarge and reduce works and was patented in 1844 which goes to show that even antiques produced in the 1850's may have simply been replicated on one of these machines and NOT 'hand carved' at all.
4) Many 'ceramic' items can be painted plaster- ceramic is always HOLLOW, small plaster pieces are usually SOLID. Ceramics cannot have steel or metal embedded in them, so any item that has a wire 'hook' embedded in the back to hang it on the wall is more than likely plaster.
5) If you receive an item sold as antique, when you open the box it should NEVER smell like new paint!
6) Watch for those who claim they know absolutely nothing about the item and claim they got it an 'estate sale', this is a clever way to get out of liability for their description of 'antique, vintage, BRONZE' etc
7) Do a search around for similarly worded items, very often you will discover the 'antique iron' is being sold as new on several other sites, imported from Mexico or China- A LOT of fake antique reproduction iron and metal is coming from Mexico and China now, and lot of it LOOKS old- rust does not indicate old!!! I can get rust on iron in a few days that looks 100 years old- layers and layers of peeling chipped paint is a better indication of age.
8) Most importantly READ the page, read every word on it, most sellers insert all the details, but nothing is more annoying to sellers than answering questions that were so clearly and several times outlined on the Ebay page! An example is a page that says 'New Reproduction' and having people ask: 'Is this an antique?' or including the shipping charge of $12 clearly and having people ask 'what is the shipping cost?'
Guide created: 10/16/06 (updated 09/08/09)
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