[Illustration: ABOVE: A forgery of Vermeer by Van Meegeren, purporting to be an early work of the artist, purchased as an original, compared with (BELOW) the earliest known painting signed by Vermeer.] [Illustration: (genuine example)] More common than straight copies of particular objects, however, are imitations of the style of some period or master. This avoids the risk of comparison with a more or less identical original, and helps in passing off the forgery as an unknown example of the style it imitates. It was on this basis that Bastianini, Rouchomovski, and Dossena worked, as did the German painter Roerich in his imitations of Cranach and other early German masters. Usually such imitations of a style do not embody a new conception or an original idea; for the most part they consist of borrowings from original works, pieced together to make a more or less consistent whole. Often, these borrowings are secondhand, being taken from photographs, engravings, or reproductions in books. A specific case was the use of Weisser’s _Bilderatlas zur Weltgeschichte_ (1882) by Rouchomovski for the reliefs on the tiara of Saitapharnes. The use of such models is, however, the Achilles’ heel of the forger. Once their source is tracked down, detection of the imposture is almost certain. [Illustration: A forgery of fourteenth-century Italian wood sculpture by Dossena.] [Illustration: An X-ray revealed modern nails in the interior.] That, perhaps, is why forgers have on occasion virtually abandoned the use of models, either wholly or in part, and produced objects different from anything that is known, but which could fit into some particular historical or cultural background. Here, they are exploiting not only ignorant enthusiasm but the desire among the learned to extend knowledge of little-known epochs of human history, or to find material that will justify theories about them. Comparatively crude examples are the so-called Baphomets, stone figures said to have been worshipped by the Knights Templar; and the “medieval” pilgrim’s badges made in nineteenth-century London by William Smith and Charles Eaton, now widely known as “Billies and Charlies.” The appeal of the unknown was more skillfully utilized by Rouchomovski and Van Meegeren. In the tiara of Saitapharnes, existing models had been used, through reproductions, for the reliefs and inscriptions; but as a whole, the tiara was something of a kind unknown, yet eagerly sought for, and so was more readily accepted when it came into the market. Similarly, unknown early works of Vermeer had long been a matter of speculation among art historians, and in certain quarters a hypothetical character for them had been built up; so that when _The Disciples at Emmaus_ appeared and more or less fitted the bill, it was all the more easy to believe in it.