How To Spot A Fake Antique: Avoiding Forgeries

Have you ever stood at an antiques fair, your heart racing, convinced you’ve just spotted the bargain of a lifetime?

Imagine handing over your cash, walking away with a grin… only to discover later that your so-called treasure is nothing more than a clever fake. It happens every single day.

In this week’s Antiques Central blog, I’ll show you how to make sure it never happens to you... or I should say, at least give you a few tips so you don’t find yourself in this situation!

The truth is this: antiques have been faked for as long as antiques have been collected. In the 18th century, wealthy Europeans were desperate for Renaissance bronzes and Chinese porcelain. Entire workshops sprang up to meet demand, not by discovery, but by deception. Fast forward to today, and the techniques are sharper, the tools more precise, but the motive remains the same as ever— money and greed … and for the unsuspecting buyer, it can be a painful, costly lesson.

Let’s be honest. Fakes and forgeries succeed because they prey on the buyers emotion. The thrill of the chase. The lure of rarity. The irresistible idea that you have spotted what others have missed. Without doubt, it’s as much about psychology as it is about craftsmanship … and forgers know this. They distress wood, tarnish metal, paint on patina, and use every trick in the book to convince you that their carefully crafted fake is an authentic piece.

So, unless you know the warning signs, it’s really easy to be fooled!

Let’s start with furniture.
A Georgian chest of drawers is a prize for many collectors. But you must look closely before you part with your money.
Are the dovetail joints machine-cut and unnaturally uniform? If they are, that would place it post-1860 … not 1760.
Does the patina stop abruptly at the back — where no one usually looks? That’s a sure red flag and I’d be asking myself some serious questions about its authenticity.
And the screws? A true Georgian piece uses handmade, off-centre screws with uneven slots. A 300 year old screw isn’t going to look like it was bought from your local DIY store last week, it will have aged, possibly rusted and gained an authentic darkened patina. Shiny Phillips-head screws holding it together? That’s not Georgian. That’s someone’s workshop last month.

Sterling silver is another hotbed for fakery.
Genuine silver should carry hallmarks — date, maker, assay office. Each symbol making up the hallmark tells part of its history.
But forgers aren’t stupid and they stamp marks to replicate the official hallmarks. So how do you spot the fake? Well, the difference is in the detail.
Real hallmarks are crisp and deeply struck. Fake ones often look shallow, soft, or suspiciously uniform, so bear that in mind. I’d advise checking the hallmark out using a jeweller’s loop to carry out a high magnification inspection before you make the call on its authenticity.
And here’s a classic giveaway: real solid silver tarnishes naturally and most importantly, unevenly. A “too-perfect” gleam can mean contemporary silver plate masquerading as sterling silver!
It looks convincing under the lights of a fair, but at home? It soon reveals its truth, but by then, it’s too late and you’re stuck with a fake.

It has to be said that ceramics are no less susceptible to fakery.
Think rare Staffordshire figures or Chinese export porcelain.
In this case, the glaze tells the story. Old glazes craze and crackle with a natural, organic pattern. Artificially created crazing will appear more uniform and unnatural, but sometimes, I have to be honest, it is difficult to spot the difference if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Run your fingertip gently across the surface of the glaze. Real age feels smooth, with those fine hairlines running beneath the surface of the glaze.
Modern fakes sometimes use acid to mimic this effect. But it feels harsher, almost forced — like an imitation of age, rather than the genuine passage of time.

And don’t disregard the base of a ceramic. If it’s a genuine antique, it should bear the marks and micro-scratches of a hundred years plus of contact with a surface. The scratches should be organic and irregular, not uniform, as if they’ve been artificially created using an abrasive sand paper or turn table. The base of the piece can tell you as much about the item as the glazed finish, so always check out the bottom of a ceramic for signs of the faker.

And then, of course, there’s fine art.
Entire careers have been made — and ruined — on forgeries.
And it has to be said, galleries and museums around the world are full of fakes and forgeries attributed to old masters or contemporary modern artists. It’s got to the stage where these venerable institutions would find it difficult to admit to their mistakes, especially given the amount of money they’ve spent on acquiring these fake works of art! The irony is that some of these fakes by now famous forgers, such as works by John Myatt, are actually worth big money and are collected. But we have to remember that they were initially made for profit and to deceive the unsuspecting buyer!

So, what are we looking out for when buying antique art?

A genuine 19th-century oil on canvas will show shrinkage, cracked paint and varnish will have darkened with age.
Flip the painting over. It should clearly show the wear of a century or more on its wooden stretchers. Does it look too clean? A “Victorian oil on canvas” painted on a modern, factory-stretched canvas? That’s an obvious problem that should be easily identified.
Even the smell of the artwork can give it away. A fresh, oily tang versus the musty depth of genuine age should give you cause for concern. It’s remarkable what your senses will tell you — if you trust them. But be warned. The lengths that forgers will go too to fake an old master, range from the sublime to the ridiculous. It is common practise for forgers to source genuine antique frames, stretchers and canvas at flea markets, only to take them apart, overpaint the worthless piece of original art with a copy or variation of an old master’s work and then reassemble them. The ‘new’ painting is then aged using the dark art of fakery, perfected over hundreds of years to assign age and antiquity to a modern copy. The techniques used by the forgers are fascinating and devious, so forensic examination of highly valuable paintings are now often carried out prior to a purchase, but it’s the exception rather than the rule given the cost of such an examination! If you would like to read a blog about the techniques forgers use to create valuable ‘old’ paintings, let me know in the comments below.

So what can you do to protect yourself against buying a fake?
Here are a few simple tools every collector or dealer should carry with them when out sourcing.
First: a small magnet. It will instantly expose “sterling silver” that’s nothing more than silverplate applied to a steel or alloy base metal. However, be advised that a copper or brass base metal will not show magnetic properties, so further investigation would be required!
Second: a jeweller’s loupe. Under magnification, a fake hallmark, a modern glaze or a machine-cut joint often betrays itself for the reasons we have discussed earlier in this blog.
And third: your own hands and sense of touch. The weight of an object claiming to be antique can be a good test of authenticity. For example, a genuine Georgian glass feels solid, heavy and balanced. A fake can be lighter in weight, can feel moulded in manufacture and dull to the touch.

And here’s a golden rule.
If the price feels too good to be true — it almost always is. Remember, 9.9 times out of then, you get what you pay for! Beware of bargains, or at the very least, be suspicious before you part with your cash! The antique trade has survived for centuries because quality will always hold its value. Bargains exist, yes. But miracles? They rarely do!

So, here’s the truth: spotting fakes isn’t about paranoia. It’s about knowledge.
Every mistake you make and trust me, you will make mistakes, sharpens your eye. Every object you handle deepens your understanding - and remember, even the greatest collectors, even the most seasoned dealers and museum experts, have been fooled by the faker and forger at some point in their career.
What matters is learning, sharing and passing on the wisdom to those around you. They say that knowledge is power and in this case, it definitely is, in the war against the forgers and the fakers! It’s in all our interest to root out fakes and forgeries, so never has a saying been truer … Buyer beware!
And why is this? Because antiques aren’t just objects. They’re pieces of human history.
And protecting that history is worth the time and effort.

So next time you find yourself tempted by that “perfect antique,” take a breath. Look closer. Ask the questions others don’t.
Because the real treasure in collecting or dealing isn’t the object alone… it’s the wisdom, knowledge and confidence you gain along the way.

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Until next time — happy and safe collecting!

My name’s Mark. Thank you for taking the time to read the Antiques Central blog.

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