Fakes, reproductions, replicas, an investigative report, by Harry Ridgeway

Fakes, reproductions, replicas,

Disclaimer:  by clicking onto this page you are expressly accepting the terms of the disclaimer explained fully on the fakes main page.

FP0855     CS tongue & wreath repaired buckle
This buckle was originally purchased in 2002, and sold by me, then returned in 2004 with the discovery that the keeper to the wreath has been repaired.  It is indeed the same buckle originally sold and there is no doubt that that the piece was repaired.  It is now evident that the entire buckle has been coated to obscure this flaw.  Indeed some of the coating has started to flake off, I see several spots of flaking.  This is typical of coatings, versus oxides, coatings eventually dry out and flake off, whether on a buckle or wood siding on a house.  Where it covered the epoxy the flaking is most severe, causing exposure of the now obvious repair.  Also of concern, the flaking has exposed yellow metal in several places, most notably the edges around the tongue.  It is not clear why the metal underneath of the coating is yellow, original dug patina would not be yellow.  This raises the possibility that the tongue, which does not appear to be repaired, may or may not be original.  It is impossible to determine the authenticity of this plate with this coating in place.

Here are pictures originally emailed to me when this plate was sold  :

Here are pictures of the plate when originally presented on my website to be sold:

And here is the plate when it was returned, I  accepted return of this plate, clearly showing a repair to the keeper of the wreath:


The plate was passed back to the gentlemen I purchased it from, and he passed it back to the dealer who originally sold it to him, so everybody was honorable in this transaction.  I doubt that the first dealer was able to return it to anybody.  The repaired wreath was eventually sold to a third party as a repaired wreath, I do not know the whereabouts of the tongue, except to say it is no longer traveling with this wreath.  Anybody can make a mistake in this business, I was fooled by this one along with another  dealer who I respect.  The difference is that the honorable collectors and dealers with reputations, make good on their mistakes, the fakers do not.