Review by Choice Review
Designed to serve as the catalog for an exhibition at the British Museum "about deception, or rather the material evidence of the myriad deceptions practiced by men upon their fellows over three millennia," this publication deals primarily with fakery in the museum world. In addition to fairly well known art forgeries such as Etruscan sculpture and "Vermeer" paintings are such fascinating and fanciful fakes as a "furry trout" from Canada and the 19th century "fairy photographs." While the gullibility of experts seems surprising, most readers will find at least something that they themselves formerly admired as "the real thing." This book, in short, makes for compelling browsing, nicely balancing scholarly convention and popular writing. Photographs are of very high quality on glossy paper. This work is by no means essential to art/museum libraries, but it could be very useful nonetheless for the evidence it provides to support inquiry on the related concepts of authenticity and value in the art and museum worlds. D. C. Stam Catholic University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Fake?, the catalog of a British Museum exhibition, poses several interesting questions, among them exactly what is a fake and how it relates to a replica, an imitation, or a copy. The answers, often unclear, depend as much upon country and zeitgeist as upon the intent of the maker. The authors also remind us that faking is an important clue to the social history of an age (i.e., what's popular and why), although it can and often does distort our understanding and appreciation of the past. Several short chapters deal with the history of fakes and faking (not only of art but also of fossils, literature, historical documents, etc.) from the earliest times to the fake Rolex watches of today. An extensively annotated exhibition catalog follows. Concluding chapters deal with methods of faking, means of detecting fakes, and a discussion of items that are still under dispute and for which scientific and artistic or historical evidence do not seem to agree. An excellent choice for all libraries.-- Patricia R. Hausman, Coll. of William & Mary Lib., Williamsburg, Va. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Library Journal Review
