Fakes On Ebay

"ancient" seals on Ebay: fakes, forgeries and falsifications - gefälschte Siegel/Fälschungen auf Ebay - sceaux-cylindres falsifie sur Ebay - sigilli falsi a Ebay

This is my black list with sellers of faked and dubious seals on Ebay - gefälschte Siegel/Fälschungen auf Ebay -sceaux falsifie sur Ebay - sigilli falsi a Ebay

roman.coins (UK), faked seals, jewellery, rings, intaglios, gems, "Phoenician" scarabs etc.

domitia.domitia (UK), faked seals, jewellery, rings, intaglios, gems etc.

for some of their sales see: http://www.seal-collector.de/pageID_5325611.html

both dealers are connected and ship from the same address.

At present (06/2011) they try to sell faked seals and Phoenician" scarabs accompanied

by faked notes of Prof. Lambert, University of Birmingham.

For examples see: http://www.seal-collector.de/pageID_5325611.html

and have a look at Brons website: http://www.collector-antiquities.com/real-or-fake/fake-cylinder-seals-section-3.html

both dealers are listed here as fakesellers: h ttp://augustusmath.hypermart.net/fakesellers.html

and here:

http://howtobuyantiquesandcollectibles.blogspot.com/2008/03/re-ancientartifacts-re-trocadero-ramons.html

For a short but expressive comment made by Dr. Winkelmann see:

http://www.seal-collector.de/

sumeriana (France), faked "Hittite" cylinder seals, fake cuneiform tablets, fake figurines

This guy is one of the worst fake sellers on Ebay offering really ridiculous fakes.

For examples see: http://www.seal-collector.de/fake-gallery_2.html

Some of his faked seals are damaged in order to make them look authentic.

*masterpiece (France), faked cylinder seals, very poor workmanship, very similar to sumeriana

most probably from the same workshop.

genuine-ancient-jewellery (UK), faked "Etruscan" seals, jewellery, rings, intaglios, gems etc.

for some of his weird fakes see Brons website: http://www.collector-antiquities.com/real-or-fake/fake-cylinder-seals-section-3.html

genuine-ancient-jewellery is no longer a member of AIAD !

ko240345 (Pakistan), faked Indus Valley seals

1666london (UK), faked Sasanian seals

london-ok (UK), faked "Near Eastern" seals

artefact007 (UK), faked Sasanian seals

oroboros_20000xuy (USA)

leesleep (UK)

taharka33 (Czech Republic)

ancient-antiques4u (USA), faked "Indus valley" seals

adamantiquities1 (USA), many faked cylinder seals, some damaged. The majority of his other items is apparently authentic

auction_adbc (Singapore), faked cylinder and stamp seals, faked pottery

calhouned1981 (Singapore)

treasures_global (Singapore)

relicsman200909 (UK), faked cylinder seals

collection1955 (UK), faked "Sasanian" seals

alex1848311 (Germany), faked Near Eastern seals

cool-callum (UK), fantasy seals described as "Near Eastern"

collectible_Ia (USA), fantasy seals with fantasy descriptions

hi*dealer (UK), faked "Roman" seal rings

thesumerian (USA), offers a faked Indus valley seal for USD 2800, his other seals are dubious

somethingspecial1066 (UK), faked cylinder seals

coinauction12 (Cyprus) faked cylinder seals and Egyptian antiquities

silverdenar (Cyprus) same seller as coinauction12

riamira (USA), faked cylinder seals

ancientground (Cyprus), faked cylinder seals

long-ago-far-away (Australia), faked seals, the Ebay shop of BC Galleries (see below)

ancient_art4wuz (UK), faked scarabs

shoukhann (USA), faked scarabs

riamira (Austria), faked seals

mikes-artefacts (UK), faked scarabs and seals

egdirdlewendy (UK), faked scarabs, seals and other antiquities, bad quality

antiquiti (UK), all kind of fakes

Non Ebay sellers:

Trocadero (you should avoid this online gallery, many fakes there)

Sadigh Gallery

worldwidestore

International Reliquary

Xanthos Antiquities (a dealer on Trocadero)

BC Galleries

Most fakers don't take much time to study iconography, styles, materials and scripture carefully. They just copy what they see, sometimes mixing styles from different periods and misinterpreting parts of the scene. Most of them don't have the skills to create a real good forgery. That's why in most cases it's easy to decide whether an object is real or faked. Nevertheless there can be no doubt that excellent fakes are existing, sometimes even dating back to the 19 th century. These fakes only can be identified by a close and careful examination. It's always the combination of size, style, iconography, shape, material and sometimes scripture that makes the difference.

Buying seals and scarabs over the Internet is extremely risky, especially for new collectors. There are only a few Internet dealers that sell authentic artefacts. In most cases these "ancient treasures" with certificates of authenticity offered for hundreds or thousands of US Dollars in online shopping malls are not more than tourist souvenirs. You can easily buy this junk for a few US Dollars at every corner in Cairo or Damascus.

Ebay is the world biggest market for fakes - Crowds of wealthy customers and unexperienced collectors - a paradise to every seller of fakes.The loads of fakes offered on Ebay make it necessary to identify fraudulent sellers of forgeries. A high percentage of all "ancient" seals and scarabs, offered on Ebay is obviously faked. For example 2 well known dealers from the UK offer weird fantasy seals, faked intaglios and gems. See black list above. No problem for the experienced collector, but new collectors can lose a lot of money. If you see a dubious seal feel free to contact me. (See Contact / Links)

In fact many archeologists believe, that the huge amount of cheap fakes available on Ebay helped to confine looting because nowadays it's more profitable to produce a fake than to dig out an original and to sell it to a middleman. See:

http://www.archaeology.org/0905/etc/insider.html

There are some features, that can help you to identify fake sellers on Ebay:

1. Very often they offer a mixture of apparently genuine items and fakes. The genuine items are always cheap, arrowheads, rings or uncleaned coins. That makes it difficult for unexperienced collectors to decide wether a specific seller is reliable or not.

2. The ID of the bidders is kept private.

3. Fraudulent sellers often tell weird stories to sell their faked items. Here is my favourite one:..".was brought from Egypt to the US in the 1920's by my elderly neighbor's father-in-law. He worked on oil exploration there at the time and had an interest in antiquities and a good eye. And bought directly from those who were excavating these pieces at the time." This seller successfully sold his two faked scarabs for hundreds of US-Dollars. This one is nice too: "For sale is a very rare Cylinder seal from the Indus Valley (Afghanistan), this item belonged to the personal collection of Near Eastern artifacts of my Grandfather which I inherited some of them." Of course he successfully sold his fakes. This one is nice too, an Ebay seller offering "Near Eastern" seals: "I have listed them as Near Eastern, they are from a collection of seals left to me by my grandfather, who served in the RAF during the second World War in the Far East/Asia, and he puchased them during his travels. These are part of a number of seals from the collection that I am selling.

4. The seller guarantee"s authenticity by claiming he has shown the item to a museum.

5. Be aware that a good rating does not indicate a good dealer on Ebay ! Most buyers do not know that they have been cheated - well and some don't want to know. In fact the two worst fake sellers on Ebay have thousands of good feedbacks and a nearly 100% positive feedback score.

6. Very often the description of the item is wrong. For example one seller from France uses the term "Hittite" for his faked seals. Another seller offers "Etruscan" seals.

7. At present (June 2011) faked seals with faked notes of Prof. Lambert, University of Birmingham appear on Ebay. His notes and his signature are quite easy to imitate because he frequently used a type writer.

8. Never buy Indus Valley seals on Ebay, these are all fakes. Many of them are offered by a certain dealer from Singapore. Others come from workshops in Pakistan. Sometimes these fakes even are restored and repaired. Even heavily damaged seals are offered on Ebay, see: http://www.seal-collector.de/fake-gallery_9.html Be aware that Indus Valley seals are extremely rare, you won't be able to buy an original for USD 100,- on Ebay !For an authentic example see menu: "My Seal Collection". For examples on Ebay see menu: "Fake Gallery"

9. "Ancient" artefacts sold directly from Egypt are always faked. Smuggling antiquities is threatened with serious penalties in Egypt , no Egyptian will take such a risk. There is one U.S. Seller who sells nothing but fakes and warns his bidders of fakes sold from Egypt - a bad joke !

Conclusion: Will you be able to buy a 4000 years old cylinder seal on Ebay for USD 100,- ? The answer is no, so don't waste your money !

Short summary in German:

Oben finden Sie eine Liste mit Anbietern gefälschter Siegel auf Ebay. Nahezu alle derzeit auf Ebay als alt angebotenen Siegel/Rollsiegel sind Fälschungen. Ebenso Intaglios, Gemmen und antiker Schmuck. Bevor Sie kaufen, fragen Sie bitte einen Fachmann oder Sie laufen Gefahr, viel Geld für ein wertloses Stück auszugeben. Sie finden auf dieser Website unter Contact/Links einige seriöse Anbieter, die Ihnen Auskunft geben werden. Sie können mich auch gerne direkt kontaktieren.

Keywords: Fälschungen, fakes, falsificazione, Siegel, sigillo, sigilli, sceau, sceaux, sigillaire, falsification, contrefacon, faux, bidonnage, bamba, falseamiento, sello