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sl8

(16,245 posts)
Sun Jun 16, 2024, 07:36 AM Jun 2024

Historic writer's desk could be 'knackered' old fake

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8995q12z8eo

Historic writer's desk could be 'knackered' old fake

12 hours ago
By Sean Coughlan, BBC News

The desk of the writer Dr Samuel Johnson is to be returned to his former London home for the first time in more than 260 years.

Except, in a strange twist, its owner is now uncertain whether it really is the desk of the famous 18th Century dictionary author.

It's been suggested that despite many years of being treated as a literary relic, it could have been part of a Victorian hustle to make money.

It will be the star attraction of a new museum exhibition, but visitors will be asked whether they now believe it's authentic.

.webp

The plaque records the desk being given to the Oxford college in 1867

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Historic writer's desk could be 'knackered' old fake (Original Post) sl8 Jun 2024 OP
It just opens up a discussion of what is the real value of "the story" to an antique, anyways? Good story! marble falls Jun 2024 #1
Ford Museum was fed a famouse fake Brewster Chair about 50 years ago bucolic_frolic Jun 2024 #2
That guy is very accomplished ... marble falls Jun 2024 #3

marble falls

(62,041 posts)
1. It just opens up a discussion of what is the real value of "the story" to an antique, anyways? Good story!
Sun Jun 16, 2024, 07:42 AM
Jun 2024

bucolic_frolic

(46,970 posts)
2. Ford Museum was fed a famouse fake Brewster Chair about 50 years ago
Sun Jun 16, 2024, 07:42 AM
Jun 2024
https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/52590/

https://www.woodshopnews.com/columns-blogs/the-great-brewster-chair-and-how-it-was-recreated

Guy created it in his woodshop. Very meticulous about materials and method. Buried evidence of electrically turned dowels in the rungs. So it could be validated that it was a fake.
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