Fake or Fabulous

Most all Silver and other METAL CROSSES-- are REPLICAS cast from antique originals. The photo at right is a sterling replica cross--one example of hundreds I have seen. It was sold by an importer and retailed for about $45.00. On any street corner in Cuzco, Peru you can buy at least 10 different styles of replica crosses--starting at about $2.00 for a small one of about 1" to $10.00 for the largest ones of about 4".

COPIES of metal items are easily made by casting from an old piece using a lost wax technique. They can be made in multiples this way. New cast crosses generally have poorly finished or rough edges and a pebbly surface, have no patina or tarnish and are obviously amateur castings where the engraving and other details have been lost in the copy. Silverworkers will notice obvious mold marks on the edges.

Recently, however, I have seen a new wrinkle in the copies for sale: New crosses where the corpus (christ) is cast but soldered onto a handmade cross with hand engraving. Handsome no doubt but brand new and I bet made to order. I expect that we will see variations of the cross with the same corpus stuck on there in the future so as to create the illusion that they are unique and thus old.

This cross is six years old.  
courtesy Nomad Designs, Boulder, CO

Though some metal items were made last week, there are some which are OLD COPIES--I have seen postcards from the 1930s showing women wearing crosses in the colonial style which were probably contemporary copies.

New pieces are made from alloys of tin, nickel, sterling silver which is marked as such or brass usually. Old pieces generally have the cristo attached by rivets. Some features that are a dead give-away may be difficult to appreciate from a poor digital photo.

Old pieces are naturally worn smooth on the surfaces and edges. Look with magnification --you shouldn't see file marks or artificial aging such as chemical blacking. Old silver crosses are usually not 925 parts silver but rather a lower alloy of silver. Conversely, old crosses are generally NOT made of nickel, white metal or lead.--again all of this is hard to distinguish from an internet photo.

Authentically old crosses show appropriate wear especially at the loop where they are hung, on the body   of christ and at the finials and have evidence of hand engraving which was done after the piece was made which will be deeper in the center and shallower at the edges where the piece shows wear.

A new copy is usually easy to detect but it can be harder to distinguish old copies from the ancient pieces. Chemical tests of the patina can be done but not everyone agrees with the accuracy of these tests.

SILVER HANDCRAFTS from South America that are marked 925, Plata, Esterlina or Sterling are all MODERN--usually not older than about 1900. Having these marks is a dead give-away to their age. Most old Andean silver will not be maker- marked, either. Old Mexican silver, however, may have a maker's mark and a silver content mark.

TIP:

Most old Andean silver tests at only 800-900 parts silver.

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