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Title
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‘Billy and Charley’ fakes
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Description
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The three medallions and the bronze figure here were purchased by collector and ethnologist Alfred Fuller as examples of ‘Billy and Charley’ forgeries. William Smith and Charles Eaton were unemployed and uneducated Victorian Londoners who identified a hunger amongst the middle classes for collecting antiquities, and set about creating them on a considerable scale. While they were widely recognised as forgers in their lifetime, they were not successfully prosecuted. A pleasing irony is that their creations are typically now worth more than equivalent genuine artefacts.
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Identifier
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Fuller/I/6/1
Objects Exhibit
