The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-12-01
FORGING ANTIQUE GEMS.


In the Volkerkunde Museum at Berlin,
says George F. Kunz in the Mineral Col
~lector," is a remarkable specimen of lap
diary work. It is an obsidian ear orna-
ment two and o~ne-fourth inches in diam
eter and one and one-fourth inches in
height, a perfect circle of smoky-gray CDR
sidian, the thickness Of the stone in the
centre ring being not more than one
twenty-fifth OF an inch. Few of our pres
emit lapidaries, with all the modern appli-
ances. could produce better work. In the
same collection Is a unique and interesting
object; a corn husk of ladeite, clinging to
which is an animal resembling a monkey
or a rabbit, the ornamentation Of which Is
scratched in.
Certain rules have been laid down for
detecting forgeries OF ancient gems. yet
all are quite useless when the work in
question is that Of a clever forger who
has carefully studied ard copied the char
acteristics Of the genuine antique
The fact is. IN no other class Of art IS
it so difficult to distinguish the genuine
from the false, because age makes no al
teration on materials that resist such
acids as the tomb or burial brings them In
contact with, giving no patina or color to
a ~hard-poIished gem; and because, owing
to the hardness of the material and the
laborious methods OF working 1t, there is
necessarily something mechanical in the
process of engraving a gem which makes
less prominent the artists personal pecu-
l~iarities and touch. A highly polished,
fresh-looking surface is not always a
proof that the gem Is modern. Copies
mad by the most skiiful engraver5 OF
the last century, such as Natter. Piehler
and Burch, are often quite i-ndistinguish-
able from antiques.
The skflful fcrger Is careful to use only
such tools as were in use among the an
clients. and there are often no means OF
deciding whether a wheelcut or a drill
cavity in a hard gem was made yesterday
or 2,000 years ago. The more obvious
things of age, UGH as q worn surface COW
| modern gems in many different The
deceptive appearance of long wear can be
| produced by forcing the newly cut gem
down a turkeys throat and leaving It for
a few days to be shaken up with bits Of
stone and gravel contained in the turkey
craw, or by putting it in q box of gravel
| at the end of a pulley shaft. Freshly cut
canoes readily take on the marks of age
from ordinary rubbing and scratching, or
when mixed with iron filings In acid:
which rapidly give TO tine While layer OF
an onyx the dead, glossless look frequent
3y resulting from great age.
In most cases, however, limitations of
antique gems are not the work of forgers
| VINO combine sufficient knowledge with
the requisite skill, and a careful study OF
ancient gems viii save the d or col
| lector from being deceived in the major
| fty of cases.
Among the difficult cases to distinguish
are those gems which, though originally
antique, have been partially or wholly re-
cut BY modern hands. In the last century
| and even more recently. this was a very
| common trick of the italian dealers. es-
| peciaily the recruiting of antique canoes
and intaglios as the adding of a fine piece
of chasing on a plain piece Of old armoE
enhancing its beautys many fold and de-
ceiving the buyer.-Newark Sunday Call