Fake? The Art of Deception [Paperback]

Mark Jones (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 1990

What is a fake and why are fakes made? Did the forgers of the Turin Shroud and Piltdown Man have the same motives? Does a famous Vermeer cease to be beautiful when it turns out to be a Van Meegeren? Is the Piranesi Vase an eighteenth-century masterpiece or a faked-up antique? Fakes, argue the contributors to this volume, have always been unjustly neglected, especially given the unparalleled evidence they provide of the values and perceptions of both those who make them and those who commission them.
Included in this major survey of fakes and forgeries from ancient Babylonia to the present day are more than 600 objects from the British Museum and other outstanding collections. There are spectacular fakes once hailed as masterpieces of ancient and modern art. There are musical instruments and manuscripts, Chinese bronzes and Chelsea porcelain. There are literary and documentary frauds and political forgeries that have changed the course of history.
Both the methods of making fakes and the recent scientific advances in their detection are described, but many puzzles remain. The book concludes with a discussion of intriguing cases like the Vinland Map, the "Aztec" rock-crystal skull, and the mysterious discoveries at Glozel, which continue to perplex curator, historian, and scientist alike.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Fake?, the catalog of a British Museum exhibition, poses several interesting questions, among them exactly what is a fake and how it relates to a replica, an imitation, or a copy. The answers, often unclear, depend as much upon country and zeitgeist as upon the intent of the maker. The authors also remind us that faking is an important clue to the social history of an age (i.e., what's popular and why), although it can and often does distort our understanding and appreciation of the past. Several short chapters deal with the history of fakes and faking (not only of art but also of fossils, literature, historical documents, etc.) from the earliest times to the fake Rolex watches of today. An extensively annotated exhibition catalog follows. Concluding chapters deal with methods of faking, means of detecting fakes, and a discussion of items that are still under dispute and for which scientific and artistic or historical evidence do not seem to agree. An excellent choice for all libraries.
- Patricia R. Hausman, Coll. of William & Mary Lib., Williamsburg, Va.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Mark Jones is Assistant Keeper, Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum. He is the author of The Art of the Medal, Medals of the Sun King, The Dance of Death, and Contemporary British Medals, and editor of The Medal and Médailles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; First Edition edition (May 4, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520070879
• ISBN-13: 978-0520070875
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,009,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Okay...but muddled, October 19, 2007

By 

AJ (Boston) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fake? The Art of Deception (Hardcover)

In the interest of what accounts for a 'fake' this book offers some good insights and essays. It explores the issues of artist copies, deliberate forgeries, wartime counterfeiting, and historic fakes vs. contemporary. The book gets muddled in its handling of layout and captioning: images are often on separate pages than their captions - and the captions often reference objects that aren't in the pictures. This is maddening when you are trying to visualize the description between the fake and the real object, for most often the real object is not shown for comparison.

5.0 out of 5 stars Attractive museworthy well-informed and well-illustrated catalogue, June 26, 2010

By 

Rerevisionist (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fake? The Art of Deception (Paperback)

1990 large-format paperback, published by the British Museum. I bought a copy when it was sold off as a remainder; the prices quoted here seem very high. Lavishly illustrated in b/w and colour. Over 330 numbered entries, some multiple. Most of the things discussed are illustrated in this book. They seem clearly happiest with the 19th century, many of their exhibits being from their own collections; very few 20 century forgers are represented (for example Eric Hebburn wasn't known of, then, though his work is here). About 100 people contributed.

It's written in direct British English and clearly aimed at the public. The contents page doesn't include all the detail; on leafing through, the top right corner has handy running titles on monkish forgeries, political forgeries, science, and the more predictable artworks - faked etchings, paintings, sculptures, ceramics, jewellery, coins, watches, furniture, carpets, antiquities from the remote past.

We soon find Beringer's fossils baked by his students, Dawson and Piltdown, the Zinoviev letter, replicas, passports, stamps, African masks, fairies at the bottom of a garden. John Logie Baird's televisual apparatus was a reconstruction and in any case not important. We have literary forgeries including of course Ossian.

Here's a bare listing; introductory essays -- WHY FAKES? Mark Jones / FORGING THE PAST David Lowenthal / TEXTUAL FORGERY Nicolas Barker
Then the catalogue...
1 WHAT IS A FAKE?
2 REWRITING HISTORY
3 THE LIMITS OF BELIEF: RELIGION, MAGIC, MYTH AND SCIENCE
4 FAKING IN THE EAST
5 FAKING IN EUROPE FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE 18TH CENTURY
6 THE 19TH CENTURY: THE GREAT AGE OF FAKING
7 FAKING IN THE 20TH CENTURY
8 THE ART AND CRAFT OF FAKING: COPYING, EMBELLISHING AND TRANSFORMING
9 THE SCIENTIFIC DETECTION OF FAKES AND FORGERIES
10 THE LIMITS OF EXPERTISE

Much material on the motives of forgers - to make money (often, or perhaps usually, to feed a demand - modern Chinese fossil fakes illustrate this), to gain fame, to push some obsession or aim. The authors estimate 5% of the current art/ artefact sales to be faked. They don't generally consider the deeper issues - forgeries at the basis of Christianity, forgeries in effect of the word of Allah, forgeries of medical notes to avoid legal action, forged TV information, faked information to start wars.