![]() ![]() After shaping, the product is judiciously pecked in a few spots and hand polished to provide a subtle "old time" finish. Attractively patterned granites, quartzites, etc. Discoidals 6 are a current modern favorite of the fakers. The non-design area is protected from etching by a wax covering, Then an application of decaying animal flesh will add the final touch to suggest burial association. Highly desirable shell masks and gorgets are acid etched from patterns by using the photo resist method. And don't overlook reworked and repaired original but damaged items. Today, authentic examples may bring $500 or more which gives fakers plenty of good reasons for making these forms. Until recent times, pendants and gorgets 8 were never reproduced in quantity. Almost any artifact meeting of today will feature a few of these monstrosities. Many were covered with faked patinas and artificially weathered to look old. ![]() Thirty years ago faked bannerstones 1 begin to appear. Others were good enough to pass and still grace cabinets of major collections. Fifty years ago, the market was flooded with fake birdstones 2. Pipes are not alone in the new wave of reproductions. Broken fakes are sold as "ceremonially killed" artifacts at slightly reduced prices. The fact that some of the modern replicas may crack or explode when subjected to such intense heat poses no problem. Newly made pipes are taken to a crematorium and calcined with human remains. ![]() Most genuine Hopewell pipes come from a burial site and often feature encrustations and calcium deposits on the surface. The new fakes, however, are exact duplicates and are made of the proper raw material. Until about ten years ago, these reproductions were easy to spot because the fakers made too many mistakes. Yet there are so many fakes in the market, your chances of finding the real thing must be one in five hundred. Only several hundred genuine Hopewell effigy types have ever been discovered. Perhaps the most famous reproduction is the Hopewell Effigy pipe. The final step is dipping the new piece in a chemical bath to add a false patina.Īdvancing collectors have always been attracted to pipes and consider them very desirable. Clever forgers sometimes deliberately include damage and wear marks to suggest age. The new steatite carves easily and takes a nice polish. This same material is being quarried today to make modern copies. Authentic "Great" pipes of the ancient Southern cultures were made with brownish green Meigs county steatite 12 from Tennessee or blackish green steatite from Virginia and North Carolina. Some are known to have visited leading museums, producing three dimensional drawings and blueprints of choice specimens. The clever fraud makers invest in genuine artifacts to copy and duplicate. These valuable resources have provided the inspiration for many modern artifakes. Since the 1940s, a tremendous amount of information and documentation has been published on American Indian artifacts. Today's reproductions are a different breed. Old time fakes often were absurdities because the fakers relied on pictures in books or pen and ink drawings that sometimes were merely figments of the artist's imagination. Compared to most old fraudulent reproductions made during the past 150 years, today's artifakes are difficult to detect. This is my term for the current wave of incredible reproductions. This has lead me to coin a new word, "artifake". I also examined thousands of reproductions. My past experiences as Editor-in-chief of both the Redskin and Artifacts magazines provided an excellent opportunity to personally examine thousands of genuine, ancient artifacts in private and museum collections. Problems with American Indian Artifacts - Genuine or fake? ![]()
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