By John Devlin There's been a lot of hocus focus concerning the value of old things lately. People wanna know if that little statue uncle Bob gave them for a wedding present is truly a 4th Century Tibetan temple piece. In fact, the family beagle actually buried it next to his dog house at least three times, endangering his well-being almost to the point of being made into a temple piece himself. The Antiques Road Show on PBS delivers a startling blow to the world of the antiques deceiver by enlightening viewers regarding possible fraud and provides a better understanding of value and history.
Trouble is, even the fake copies, if old or good enough, also have value in the collectors world.
Still, that value is only a fraction of the worth of the original. If you bought high, you lost your shirt by buying a fake. Becoming an old thing yourself is in itself very helpful in the art of properly identifying true antiques. Mom mixed all her apple pies in those bowls. Although I never personally cared for the pattern, when I see it on a shop shelf today, it magically produces that same warm glow that it has for so many years now.