To the Ancient Chinese, jade was more valuable than gold and called the stone of heaven. They considered jade to have special powers and symbolic meaning. Though commonly thought of as green, jade can be found in different colors including white and red, and can be transparent to opaque. Jade is be one of two … Continue reading Identifying jade

Jet is a black fossilized material prized for its gem-like use in jewelry, including necklaces, brooches, pins and earrings. The term jet black, meaning as black as black can get, comes from jet. When Prince Albert died in 1861, his wife Queen Victoria famously wore jet mourning jewelry and jet was popularly used in general … Continue reading Jet black jet

A microscope is often used by an authentication expert to date the kind of printing used to make both photographs and ink-and-printing-press prints. Modern reprints and counterfeits are often identified because the microscope shows the printing is too modern. An 1870 print couldn't have been made with a printing technology invented in 1985. For an … Continue reading Miscroscopy in prints authentication

Some prints, photographs and other types of art and collectibles are limited edition numbered: say, 1/50 (1 of 50 made), 2/50, 3/50 .... 50/50. Some collectors feel that the first print or photograph or figurine 'off the presses,' is the most valuable, and, as one might expect, pick one that is numbered 1/50. The thing … Continue reading A common misperception about limited edition prints

A forgery is an item that was made to fool others into believing it is something it is not. This includes counterfeits, but also made up items like a ‘newly discovered’ Rembrandt painting.On the other hand, a fake is an item that is seriously misidentified or who's identity is seriously misrepresented. This includes forgeries and … Continue reading The difference between a fake and a forgery

An inexpensive and easy to use longwave black light is a great tool for quickly identifying reprints and fakes of Pre World War II paper material. This includes trading cards, photographs, programs, posters, postcards, tickets and anything made of paper. A black light is effective in identifying of many, though not all, modern paper stocks. … Continue reading Using a black light to identify many fakes

Art, artifacts, collectibles and other valuables are often security marked in case of theft, loss, dipsute or other later need to identify the item and/or owners. The markers range from overt holograms and serial numbered stickers to invisible tags, and allow the marked items, and often the rightful owners, to be identified. An interesting covert … Continue reading Tagging art microscopically

“Any path is right, if— as according to Bach-- it leads to the divine”— music historian Paul Epstein on J.S. Bach’s fugues, to which Bach never gave a playing order. Aleatory art is art where the finished result is substantially out of the artist’s hands. It can involve chance or the musicians’ or audience’s choice. … Continue reading Aleatory art

Massachusetts Institute of Technology electrical engineering professor Harold Edgerton became world famous for his invention of the strobe light and stroboscopic photography, the latter a form of ultra high speed photography using strobe lights. Edgerton was studying turbine engines in his 1930s Cambridge Massachusetts lab and wanted stop-action images of the engine in motion. However, camera … Continue reading Lab experiment becomes art

Money has taken unusual material forms over the years. Cows, sheep and goats were first used as currency thousands of years before Christ. Cowries, the shells of a mulluscs, were a popular form of currency for many years. Bronze and copper cowrie imitations were manufactured by China at the end of the Stone Age and … Continue reading Curious physical forms of ancient money