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Beware fuzzy photographs ......

This "silver" bugle was listed on eBay in 2013 with the small out-of-focus photographs shown below. As soon as it arrived, it became painfully obvious that the laser / machine-engraving had been added last week. It didn't take long for me to discover that these bugles, identical in every way, right down to the unusual design of the mouthpiece, were presently being made by a well-known London instrument-maker. During an exchange of emails, during which I confronted the seller with this evidence, he eventually came up with the ridiculous story that the original bugle had been stollen and that this was a recent replacement, commissioned by the family. The item was duly returned and I was fully refunded.

Note also the schoolboy misspelling of Albemarle.







Since this unhappy incident, I have purchased a number of presentation bugles, and would now immediately recognise the "CIV" instrument for what it was. Nothing beats the experience gained by handling genuine pieces.




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Back in 2014, I purchased a horn snuffbox decorated with the Royal Navy‘s fouled anchor with the monogram "VR", and inscribed: "NAVAL BRIGADE / LADYSMITH / 118 DAYS / 1899-1900 / LADY ANNE / HMS POWERFUL".

At the time I was delighted with my new acquisition, and did not for a second doubt its authenticity. The intricate scrimshaw work along with the reference to Lady Anne Battery (one of the Naval Brigade’s 4.7-inch positions in Ladysmith) made it a highly desirable piece for an ABW collector.





The box took pride of place in one of my display cabinets, and there it remained until 2018. That year two more similar pieces appeared on eBay, both attracting considerable interest. The first was a pocketknife engraved with the badges of the Honourable Artillery Company and C.I.V., and the second a horn beaker, made and inscribed by a P.O.W. at Bellevue Camp, Simonstown. Again, taken individually, these two new acquisitions raised no serious concerns.







However, due solely to the fact that the latter two purchases had been listed within a few weeks of one another, I noticed that they had come from the same source. Alarm bells rang when I then compared the workmanship on the knife and beaker. There were enough similarities for me to contemplate that they were the work of the same hand. Yet one piece had apparently been decorated by a member of the C.I.V. and the other by a Boer P.O.W. ….!

It was now time to compare the knife and beaker with other similar items in my collection and also to check their provenance. My heart sank when I realised that both the Ladysmith snuffbox and a richly decorated ostrich egg had been purchased from the same Swansea-based seller. Turning to eBay, I checked this man’s current listings and was staggered to find dozens of items, mostly purporting to be from the Napoleonic era, with uncannily similar designs.







I was then reminded of a couple of horn beakers that I had missed out on in 2012, one with C.I.V./H.A.C. and the other N.S.W. Contingent related decoration. I had saved copies of the photographs from these listings, and, sure enough, these too had come from the same Swansea workshop.

On contacting the seller, he very quickly offered to refund me for all of the items I had purchased over the previous four years. No argument …. So much time had passed since the sale of the snuffbox that he no longer had a record of the price paid, and had to ask me how much he owed me!

I sometimes regret returning these pieces, as I fear they may have now found their way into other collections. However, keeping them would have entailed a hit of £1.5k. I am glad to say the seller is no longer active on eBay.














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I'm pleased to say that, after more photos and careful study, Neville's Spion Kop souvenir has been revealed as a pukka Mk II ball .303 bullet fired from a Lee Metford. So out of the Shame Drawer it comes, and back into the Cabinet of Pride!

This beaker was not really in my shame drawer as I paid a small amount for it, more or less convinced it was some recent handiwork but with the faint hope that forgers would have written the text in English rather than Afrikaans and that. in any case. it could be used one day to serve a suspect latte-macchiato to the cousin who thinks my spare bedroom is a free vacation address.

What do my colleague forum members make of it?

Gents,
I am beginning to think that such fakery turns up some very painstaking effort by the folk creating them. Works of art?
Oh dear! Does this mean yet another subsection to collect for!lol!

EFV, I think your beaker is genuine. Including 23 January in the date is reassuringly incorrect and the naive style of Kruger’s profile suits a POW object. Neville’s examples of fakes all have an artistry, a cuteness/neatness about them that yours shows no sign of. But I’ve been wrong before…