FORGED INSCRIPTIONS AND SPURIOUS MEDALS.
Ancient Memorials of Geographical Discoveries--Mistakes arising
from them--Frauds to which they gave occasion--Imposture
of Evemerus--Annius of Viterbo wrongfully charged with
forging Inscriptions--Spurious works given to the World by
him--Forged Inscriptions put on statues by ignorant modern
Sculptors--Spurious Medals--Instances of them in the Cabinet
of Dr. Hunter--Coins adulterated by Grecian Cities--Evelyn’s
Directions for ascertaining the Genuineness of Medals--Spurious
Gold Medals--Tricks of the Manufacturers of Pseudo-Antique
Medals--Collectors addicted to pilfering Rarities--Medals
swallowed by Vaillant--Mistakes arising from Ignorance of the
Chinese Characters.
It appears to have been the practice of the early Greek navigators to
leave memorials on shores discovered for the first time, and to take
possession of them by a dedication to one of their gods or heroes; as
modern navigators in their discoveries have usually named prominent
headlands, islands, or secure harbours, from some statesman or hero of
the day.
These ancient inscriptions being found among barbarous nations by
succeeding navigators, when the original discoverers were forgotten,
it might be concluded that those heroes, to whom the shores had been
merely dedicated in the first instance, had _actually_ been there.
The probability of such circumstances led the way in after times to a
species of fraud, for conferring a spurious antiquity on certain places
and things by persons, producing, as authentic and ancient, histories
and monuments of their own manufacture.
Evemerus, a Messenian, or, according to some writers, a Sicilian, a
cotemporary of Cassander, king of Macedon, seems to have been the
first who attempted this kind of fraud; for he pretended to have found
on a golden column, in an ancient temple in the island of Panchæa, a
genealogical account of a family that had once reigned there, in which
were comprised the principal deities then worshipped by the Greeks.
Not only were their lives recorded, but also their deaths; and thus a
deadly blow was aimed at their divinity. This fable was translated into
Latin by Ennius.
Annius of Viterbo, who was born at Viterbo, in 1432, and whose real
name was John Nanni, has been charged with framing inscriptions from
his own imagination, and burying them in certain places, that, when
they had acquired an appearance of antiquity, he might pretend to
find, and might vend them. He is also said to have manufactured medals
of an early date. Both these charges are, however, erroneous. It is
nevertheless certain that, accompanied by his own commentaries, he
presented to the world, as genuine, the pretended works of several
exceedingly ancient authors; for this he has incurred much odium, but
it is believed, by many learned men, that, instead of being a forger,
he was himself deceived by forged manuscripts. This fraud gave rise to
a violent controversy, in which many of the most eminent literary men
were engaged.
The great uncertainty relative to the genuineness of inscriptions on
ancient statues originated in the ignorance or fraud of those who
restored them. Even Phædrus, in the application of a fable at the
beginning of his fifth book, alludes to this practice in his time by
mercenary artists. “The name of Apollodorus, on the plinth of the
Venus de Medicis,” says Mr. Dallaway, “has been detected as a modern
forgery. The statues which have been dug up in a mutilated state, and
placed in the hands of venal or ignorant artists, have always had the
name of some eminent character given to them. Doubts of genuineness are
at least allowable, and often justified, of those statues the hands of
which have been evidently engrafted.”
The fabrication of spurious coins for the market was neither a modern
contrivance nor of unfrequent occurrence. The collection of medals
belonging to Dr. Hunter affords some examples. One of a leaden coin,
cased in silver, as remote as the time of Selcucus, king of Syria, may
be seen in that cabinet; and also a similar coin of the city of Naples.
In the Roman series, Neumann makes mention of a remarkable instance
from Schulzius, of a leaden coin of Nero, which had been anciently
circulated for brass, in which metal it was enclosed. In Dr. Hunter’s
cabinet are two examples of leaden coins covered with gold; one of the
Emperor Trajan, the other of his successor.
Demosthenes relates, on the authority of Solon, that several cities
in Greece adulterated their coins; and Dion Cassius states, that the
Emperor Caracalla, instead of gold and silver, issued brass and leaden
coins, which were merely washed or cased with silver or gold, to
conceal the fraud.
Evelyn, in his “Numismata,” exposes many of the tricks of those who, at
the period at which he wrote, supplied the market with spurious coins
and medals. “The most likely means,” says he, “for procuring genuine
coins or medals, are from country people, who plough and dig about
old walls, mounds, &c., where castrametations have formerly been. The
composition or grouping of the figures should also be well considered,
that it be with judgment; for the ancients seldom crowded many figures
together. A perfect medal has its profile and out-strokes sharp, and
by no means rugged; the figures clean and well polished, and an almost
inimitable spirit of antiquity and excellence, in the most ancient.
Yet after much research, travel and diligence, cost and caution, one
is perpetually in danger of being deceived, and imposed upon, by
cheaters and mercenary forgers; and even the country people, in Italy
and Holland, often deceive the less wary medalist. Where a series of
ancient medals is known to be imperfect, suspicion should always attach
to him who pretends to supply the chasm, and complete the series.[14]
“All medals of gold, Greek or Roman, that are not of the best alloy,
are to be considered impostures.
“The manufacturers of pseudo-antiques, will raise and carve the
effigies of one emperor out of another antique head of a less costly
and rare description; for instance, an Otho out of a Nero; and also
the reverses: nay, they have the address to slit and divide two
several medals, and, with a certain tenacious cement, join the reverse
of one to the head of the other, and so repair and trim the edges
that it is impossible to discover the ingenious fraud. A partial
deceit is often practised on the unwary, by taking off a part of a
relievo, and applying it to another medal; by the same artifice and
dexterity, the title of a genuine medal may be entirely altered, where
there are but few letters, by pinching up a letter in one part, or
removing superfluous matter in another, so that in process of time the
metamorphosis is complete.”
Mr. Obadiah Walker accuses the Jews of being most industrious in
putting off spurious medals. Some persons purposely bury medals
near the remains of some Roman works, and then pretend to have
found them by chance; as is also reported of a certain statuary, who
carved the pseudo Hercules, and sold it at a great price, before the
justly-admired original statue was discovered.
Rival collectors have been known to prey on each other’s rarities, by
clandestinely swallowing the most precious gem in a collection; at
least an anecdote to this effect is related on the continent, of Baron
Storch, a celebrated gem collector.
The Abbé Barthelemi, taught by experience, was very careful how he
exposed to visiters the rarities in the French cabinet of medals, of
which he was the keeper; for in his account of the duties of his office
he says, “Such a depository as this cabinet of medals cannot safely
be made public; several persons might put their hands on them at one
time, and it would be easy to carry them off, or substitute such as are
spurious or common. I had no other resource, after I had got rid of the
groups, but to examine the shelves at which they had been looking.”
Vaillant, the celebrated numismatist, when pursued at sea by Algerine
pirates, is said to have swallowed a whole series of Syrian kings. When
he landed at Marseilles, he hastened to his friend, physician, and
brother antiquary, Dufour, groaning horribly, with the treasures in his
belly. Dufour was only anxious to know, whether the medals were of the
higher empire; Vaillant showed him two or three, of which nature had
relieved him: a bargain was immediately struck, and the coins recovered.
The almost universal ignorance in Europe of the Chinese alphabet, and
written character, has been the cause of some curious mistakes in
deciding on the merits of certain coins. So little was a _professor_ of
Chinese, at Rome, versed in the language he professed to know, that he
is said, by Mr. Pauw, to have mistaken some characters found on a bust
of Isis for Chinese; which bust and characters were afterwards proved
to be the work of a modern artist of Turin, made after his own fancy.
In Great Britain, we have, till recently, known still less of the
Chinese language and literature than on the Continent. “It is not many
years since,” says Mr. Barrow, “that one of the small copper coins of
China, stamped in the reign and with the name of the late Tchien-lung,
was picked up in a bog in Ireland, and, being considered as a great
curiosity, was carried to an indefatigable antiquary, whose researches
have been of considerable use in investigating the ancient history and
language of that island. Not knowing the Chinese character, nor their
coin, it was natural enough for him to compare them with some language
with which he was acquainted; and the conclusion he drew was, that the
four characters on the face were ancient Syriac, and that the reverse
appeared to be astronomical or talismanic characters, of which he
could give no explanation. The Mantchoo Tartar characters of another
coin he supposed to signify _p_, _u_, _r_, which he construed into
sors, or lot; and it was concluded, that these coins must either have
been imported into Ireland by the Phœnicians, or manufactured in the
country; in which case the Irish must have had an oriental alphabet. In
either case, these medals,” it was sagely observed, “contribute more to
authenticate the ancient history of Ireland than all the volumes that
have been written on the subject.”