Mediæval ornaments of all sorts are forged at the present day upon the
Continent to a considerable extent, though less than are those of later
times. One important centre of their production is Paris. Another,
in earlier years in particular, was Frankfort, where visitors to
watering-places on the Rhine have long been the victims of fraudulent
vendors. Such mediæval objects, however well supported by a dealer's
warranty of place and time of discovery, require, says Mr. King, to be
examined by the amateur with a very suspicious and critical eye. Among
other personal ornaments of this period that have received attention at
the hands of the forger are the leaden badges known as pilgrims' signs.
Many ingenious forgeries of the kind were produced about forty-five
years ago, and purported to be brought to light by workmen engaged in
excavations near the Thames in the City of London. These were in large
part the work of two illiterate mud-rakers on the banks of the river;
while articles of like kind were shortly afterwards made by two men
known as "Billy and Charley," who manufactured a number of curious
pendent medals of lead and "cock-metal."[192] The discovery in the
Seine, about the same time, of many genuine pilgrims' signs led to the
circulation also in France of a quantity of spurious objects of a
similar nature.
[192] _Archæological Journal_, XXI, p. 167. A collection of
pseudo-antiques of the kind made at the ateliers of Messrs. Billy and
Charley, Rosemary Lane, Tower Hill, is shown in the Cuming Museum,
Walworth Road, London.
Renaissance pendants, the prizes of the connoisseur, are favourite
subjects for reproduction at the present day, for, unlike the earlier
objects, they are not ill-adapted for personal use. Jewellery in the
Cinquecento style has for several years past been made in large
quantities at Vienna. These jewels are generally not in gold, like the
works they profess to imitate, but in silver-gilt, and as a result their
enamel is never of fine quality, their general appearance is not up
to the standard of the old, and their workmanship is mostly very
mechanical. Apart from these and similar works, made also in France and
generally sold in jewellers' shops as modern productions, there are
others which pretend to age. Though one seldom meets with examples that
approach the best productions of the Renaissance, objects of the kind
are occasionally imitated with such proficiency, that in collecting
specimens of early jewellery in no instances is it necessary to exercise
greater caution than in those of the Cinquecento.
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