Antiques Roadshow Detours

Adam: Do you like a good fake on the show?

Marsha: I love a good fake on the show. Because it gets the blood going, they teach you stuff, and I'm all about truth. So when we can out you, 'cause you are fakes, you are like a liar.

Adam: Yeah.

Marsha: A fake is a liar.

Adam: A fake is liar. The person's not a liar. They probably don't know what they have.

Marsha: Well, the person who made it is a liar, right?

Adam: Yes!

Marsha: They're faking you out. They want you to spend money on something they made that they want you to think it's something else.

Adam: And you wanna be like, don't you at home fall for this. Now, what if I told you we had a fake that turned out to not be a fake?

Adam - Narration: Usually on our show, when a guest gets an appraisal they take it as fact. Even if it's bad news...they graciously smile, accept it and the matter is closed. But, that’s not always the case…

Sebastian Clark: My name is Sebastian Clark, and I am with Heritage Auctions. And on Roadshow, I am an appraiser of decorative art, silver, sculpture, metal work, and furniture.

Adam: In 2011 we were in Atlanta, Georgia, and you discovered an enamel egg. Do you remember this one?

Sebastian Clark: I think of it often. it's like a core memory for me. I remember it really, really well. Yeah.

Antiques Roadshow Guest: I was looking in an auction catalog in Atlanta, and I saw this egg-

Sebastian Clark: So, I remember the guest came up. She was really, really bubbly and vivacious and pulled out this object…

Antiques Roadshow guest: I am hoping it's a faberge egg. I don't know if it is, but I have a lot of books and I've looked at all the hallmarks.

Sebastian Clark: Uh, so she very proudly presented what she believed to be an authentic Russian Faberge egg.

Adam: Okay.

Sebastian Clark: Not all of them are accounted for, so it's entirely possible One was recently discovered by a gold scrapper and it's worth it tens of millions of dollars. So it does happen...

Adam - Narration: Tens of millions of dollars!! Now that would be a true Roadshow discovery, but is that what our guest brought in with her?

Sebastian Clark: If I remember correctly. She and her husband loved to buy at auctions. They wanted to bid on this egg, and then they weren't the winning bidder, but then the winning bidder didn't want it. So did they want it? Which in my line of work is already a red flag. I remember thinking, “this is definitely fake. This is like a hundred percent fake.”

Adam - Narration: But is it?

Adam: So, I reached out to the guest that had the, the egg, and, uh, she politely declined to be interviewed for the episode because she adamantly thinks that we got this wrong.

Marsha: Is there a right answer here, Adam? I just wanna know, is there a true answer here?

Adam - Narration: Well, that’s what we’re here to find out Marsh. Did our brilliant Antiques Roadshow appraiser make a blunder he’ll never live down, or is our guest living in a world of denial? I’m Adam Monahan and this is Antiques Roadshow Detours - today, "The Fake that is or isn’t.” The enameled egg in question is a brilliant royal blue, covered in fine metalwork and jewel-encrusted detailing with a gold band around its middle.  It's about the size of a small ostrich egg and supported by an equally ornamental base. After appraiser Sebastian Clarke's initial examination of it, he headed off to consult some of his Antiques Roadshow colleagues to confirm his suspicions.

Sebastian Clark: So then I went off to the jewelry table because it's set with semi-precious stone and it's supposed to be golden enamel. We just started from the top and worked our way down on why it wasn't authentic.  

Adam - Narration: He revealed the findings to our guest in front of the Roadshow TV cameras.

Appraiser: Well, it's a great item to see on the Roadshow, and I'm here to tell you that unfortunately, it is not Faberge.

Antiques roadshow guest: Okay. (laughing)

Appraiser: It is something that we, we sort of jokingly refer to as "Faux-berge".

Antiques roadshow guest: (laughing) Okay. 

Adam - Narration: Faux-berge, that doesn't sound good.

Appraiser: It is an item that, while the craftsmanship is very, very good, it's an intentional fake.

Antiques roadshow guest: Okay.

Appraiser: There's many reasons and ways we can find out.

Antiques roadshow guest: Mm-hmm.

Adam - Narration: So a fake piece of Faberge with giveaways that Sebastian, for educational purposes, points out to millions of cringing Roadshow fans watching at home

Appraiser: The first of which is the decoration here. You see that it's sort of punched work out. Each one should be individually chased.

Antiques roadshow guest: Okay.

Appraiser: And then also on the wreaths. Each one of those should be individually hand chased, and these ones have come out of a mold.

Antiques roadshow guest: Okay.

Appraiser: And they've been punched out.

Adam - Narration:  So applied brassy-looking golden bits of decoration that are made wrong. What else?

Appraiser: We have all sorts of other very small discrepancies...

Antiques roadshow guest: Okay.

Appraiser: ...with it. One of the things is we like to call it a pastiche or a sort of a hodgepodge of all these elements...

Antiques roadshow guest: yeah.

Appraiser: ...brought together

Adam - Narration: It's decorated with like hollowed out diamond shapes, a monogram, a crown, a laurel wreath centered by a flaming torch, and the egg is topped with a elephant form finial. Also, there's some issues with the consistency of the enamiling which even our guest spotted.

Antiques roadshow guest: I noticed that that was a different color.

Appraiser: Right.

Antiques roadshow guest: But I don't know if that made a difference.

Appraiser: Well, exactly. Uh, it's little small things like that that. 

Adam - Narration: Anything more Sebastian?

Appraiser: We have split pearls on the inside…

Antiques roadshow guest: Uh-huh.

Appraiser: …and they are diamonds, but they're single-cut diamonds...

Antiques roadshow guest: Uhhuh

Appraiser:…not rose cut diamonds.

Antiques roadshow guest: Okay?

Appraiser: So it's all these small discrepancies we have through and through. 

Adam - Narration: Oh, and one more nefarious deed done by this egg's maker.

Appraiser: So if we take a look at the bottom of this piece, we see there are these marks that, unfortunately, while they do appear to be Faberge marks, they're intentional fakes.

Adam - Narration:  Ooof. So not great, but, Sebastian does have some nice things to say about this piece.

Appraiser: I think it was actua lly made in Russia.

Antiques roadshow guest: Oh, okay.

Appraiser: They're incredibly made, and it's such a shame

Antiques roadshow guest: uh-huh

Appraiser: that they put fake marks on it.

Antiques roadshow guest: Yeah.

Appraiser: because they're fantastic.

Antiques roadshow guest: Yeah.

Appraiser: they're really well done. 

Adam - Narration: So not the worst looking egg he's seen, but there is one major problem.

Appraiser: And may I ask how much you paid for it?

Antiques roadshow guest: Yes. Um, $15,000.

Adam - Narration: Eeh... $15,000 seems like an awful lot for a fake Faberge egg.

Appraiser: I would say that a realistic auction estimate or value for this today would be between about $3000 and $4,000.

Antiques roadshow guest: Okay.

Appraiser: If it were real Faberge,

Antiques roadshow guest: it would be ridiculous.

Appraiser: It would be hundreds.

Antiques roadshow guest: Yeah.

Appraiser: And hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Antiques roadshow guest: Mm-hmm. So when do you think it was made?

Appraiser: I think it was made within the last 30 years.

Antiques roadshow guest: Really?

Adam Narration: That’s a lot later than  the 1885 - 1916 imperial Faberge egg heyday.

Appraiser: Yes. It's a great item, but I'm just sorry to tell you it's not right.

Antiques roadshow guest: (laughing) Okay.

Appraiser: Alright. So thank you very much for bringing it

Antiques roadshow guest: So I can't put my husband's ashes in there one day.

Appraiser: You can, but it just won't be Faberge.

Antiques roadshow guest: (laughing) Okay.

Adam - Narration: So she took that rather well, but, this wouldn't be the last we'd hear from our unfortunate egg owner. After the show taped, the guest got back in touch to tell us that she'd gotten another appraisal done. I read it aloud to Sebastian:

Adam: One 20th Century Faberge egg, having blue guilloche detailing, intricate bronze mounts in designs and fine craftsmanship. Crafted for the Parisian Faberge store and circa 1925. The egg bears the initials of Nicholas II and Alexandra. The craftsman who created the egg was Anders...Johan...Nevalainen…

Sebastian Clark: Okay,

Adam: I'm not getting that.

Adam - Narration:  Forgive my pronunciation of Nordic names. It's actually Nevalainen.

Adam: And the piece is marked with the Russian 88 zolotnik mark, pure Silver, the interior features the double-headed eagle surrounded by seed pearls. Now, first off, could I just get your reaction to what I've just told you?

Sebastian Clark: I would love to meet that appraiser. ‘Cause I have so many questions.

Adam Narration: I think we all have a lot of questions... But don’t worry, we’re going to crack open what makes faberge a faberge and not the dreaded faux-berge.

Adam: Is there maybe some concern in what she says that she's not proclaiming this was an, an imperial egg, meaning that period up until the revolution in 1917, this guy's saying this is a 1925 made in the Parisian Faberge store. Is that something that's like, possible and could be of lower quality?

Sebastian Clark: One unlikely, but then it's one of these things where when you say, "I think I have a faberge egg," you are implicitly implying that you have a Faberge egg. Yeah, it's semantics, but like you come to me and you say, I think I have a faberge egg. I don't think, "Oh, maybe you have one from 1925 for the Parisian market?" No, I think "maybe you have one that's worth several million dollars that was made for the Czar."

Adam - Narration: Alright, alright... so Sebastian is doubling down to save his reputation…

Sebastian Clark: Now what I'm really interested in is what value did they put on it.

Adam: I think it was $15,000, basically what she paid for it or something like that.

Sebastian Clark: Well, that seems very much like a document that's serving the client and not the object.

Adam - Narration: So he's not letting up, and still considers this a rather dubious egg. I see that I'm going to have to solicit some other opinions to help me out, including that of one of the world's most renowned Faberge experts, who I'll reveal later on.

Adam: I'm going to go visit him in New York, and I'm going to learn what he has to tell me about this. And it's either gonna be what this lady has said or what you said, and it's an obvious fake.

Sebastian Clark: Am I gonna get kicked off the show when he's like, no, it is actually from 1925. This just isn't my day.

Adam - Narration: (laughs) After the break, we find out the fakeness or realness of the Roadshow egg, and reveal the answer to our very nervous TV appraiser.

Adam: It'll make for a great podcast episode, I'll tell you that.

Sebastian Clark: Thanks. It's just what I need.

Adam - Narration: Now before we figure out if the enameled and jeweled egg seen on Antiques Roadshow was worth the $15,000 the guest paid for it, we should probably learn the legend of the Faberge eggs to begin with...

Toby Faber: The eggs themselves, they just tell the most amazing story.

Adam - Narration: ..and this guy would know a lot about that.

Toby Faber: I'm Toby Faber, and I wrote a book called Faberge's Eggs.

Adam - Narration: Perfect!

Toby Faber: They were commissioned by the last two emperors of Russia as Easter presents for their wives, 50 altogether.

Adam: So Toby, who is Faberge, what's the firm, and what are the eggs?

Toby Faber: Peter Carl Faberge, was from a family of French huguenots, so they eventually arrived in St. Petersburg, then the capital of Russia. It was his father who started the jewelry company, but Carl Faberge took it to new heights.

Adam: Do we know who the artisans were?

Toby Faber: A lot of the work was overseen by work masters, they were often fins actually.

Adam - Narration: Finns? Like the Finnish sounding name from the written appraisal I couldn't pronounce?  Nevalainen.

Adam - Narration: Or they weren’t native Russians, they were Englishmen, Frenchmen.

Adam: So he was like the jeweler to the Emperor of Russia. ,

Toby Faber: But he was much more than that. He was the jeweler to the middle classes as well. People in Russia would talk of “setting the Faberge,” and that meant putting out the silverware on the table before they started to eat.

Adam - Narration: but setting the Faberge silverware aside, the real reason we're talking about this family today are of course the eggs..

Toby Faber: So the first egg, 1885, Easter present from Alexander III, the second last czar to his wife Maria Feodorovna, intended to amuse her.

Adam: The empress is amused, but what exactly was she holding?

Toby Faber: It was a plain, white enameled egg. Little bit bigger than a hen egg, but not much bigger. I mean, it looks very, very boring except you notice you've got a gold band around its middle

Adam - Narration: Inside, a golden yolk. Inside that, a golden hen. We're thinking Russian dolls here. And at it’s heart, a miniature diamond crown and ruby pendant. Blissfully unaware of the gathering storm, Czar Alexander III began the tradition of gifting an egg each Easter, a ritual his son continued and expanded with gifts for his own wife, too.

Toby Faber: Basically, Maria  Feodorovna gets 30 altogether. Her daughter-in-law, Alexandra, gets 20.

Adam: And are there any made like for non-gift to his mom and his wife purposes?

Toby Faber: Yeah, something like 10. That would’ve been bought by richer members of the middle classes.

Adam - Narration: But trouble's brewing, it’s 1917. War, unrest, and then not one, but two revolutions. The first sees Tsar Nicholas abdicate and a provisional government rule, but that same year, revolt. Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik party takes over. And what does that mean for Faberge, jeweler to a now fallen empire?

Toby Faber: They just see Faberge as the ultimate in the bourgeoisie. They feel that jewels are the ultimate playthings of a decadent court. They nationalize the firm. But to be blunt, his business has already collapsed. 

Adam - Narration: With fortunes being seized left right and center, no one’s really in the mood for a fancy egg. Plus, when famine hits Russia - most of their workforce decides it's high time to pack up and head for home.

Toby Faber: A lot of the work masters go back to Finland, for example, uh, where they live.

Adam: What happens with Carl Faberge? Is he in danger, given that he's got a target on his back?

Toby Faber: Well, I think he is in danger. So what's surprising is that he does get away. One story has it that the sort of Bolshevik Commissars arrived at the Faberge offices. He said, let me just get my hat and coat, and he slipped out the back.

Adam - Narration: Eventually his family manage to join him in the West - though it takes one son several years to give the Reds the slip.

Toby Faber: His second son, Agathon, he's been imprisoned twice, forced to work for the Bolsheviks as a gem appraiser. 

Adam - Narration: But what about the precious eggs? Do they get out too?

Toby Faber: So, of the 20 given to Alexandra Feodorovna, she and Nicholas went on to house arrest soon after his abdication. None of her eggs are missing.

Adam - Narration: But her mother-in-law was never arrested. So, she made a bolt for it.

Toby Faber: With one egg, it had escaped with its owner.

Adam - Narration: That’s one out of her collection of 30. With the Germans gaining ground on the Eastern Front, the Russians pack up their treasures and send it all to Moscow. And there it lies forgotten in some dusty boxes in the Kremlin, until…

Toby Faber: In the course of the early 1920s, those boxes were unpacked. And they find something like 40 Faberge eggs.

Adam - Narration: Jackpot!

Toby Faber: Probably among the people discovering them was Agathon Faberge. As I say, he’d been employed as a gemologist by the Bolsheviks. So that must have been a little bit of a poignant moment for him. 

Adam - Narration: Those eggs get sold off to help fund Josef Stalin's 5 year plans and make their way into the hands of collectors around the world. But how many of the imperial eggs remain unaccounted for?

Toby Faber: So of those 50, we know exactly now where 43 of them are. We're still waiting for people to find, which is just an exciting possibility.

Adam - Narration: This is what our appraiser Sebastian thought the guest was getting at. That she had one of the missing imperial eggs. But in fact, our guest never said she had an imperial egg made prior to the Russian Revolution. Sebastian just assumed it's what she meant. The written appraisal she got after the show says it was made in Paris in 1925 by a newly formed iteration of the Faberge firm. I asked Marsha what she thought these special circumstances meant to the fake-ness of our egg.

Marsha: It's not a fake, fake, fake. It's definitely not three fakes. I don't think it's even one fake. I think it is a later Faberge egg.

Adam - Narration: So varying opinions. One from our Antiques Roadshow appraiser who told millions of viewers "this is not a Faberge egg," sorry Sebastian, and one from the woman in charge of the paycheck which deposits to my bank account. Though I feel inclined to go with Marsha on this for some reason, I think one more person needs to weigh in.

Geza von Habsburg: I'm Geza von Habsburg, and my specialty is Russian art, and in particular, Faberge. 

Adam - Narration: According to Wikipedia, Geza von Habsburg coined the term "Fauxberge," the clever nickname given for Faberge fakes, the very term Sebastian used to describe our egg in his appraisal.

Adam: I Googled “who's the leading expert in America on Faberge,” and your name popped up as like number one. So I, I couldn't even believe you, you emailed me back. I was a really-

Geza von Habsburg: I love the Antiques Roadshow, so, glad to be part of it.

Adam - Narration: This really has to be one of the best experts we've had on this show, but enough with the flattery, I have a real problem.

Adam: We had an egg on roadshow that the guest– she was hoping it was going to be a Faberge egg. But our appraiser– He does the appraisal. He goes over all the reasons why this is not a faberge egg. Everything's just off a bit, and he reads this as a fake faberge piece.

Adam - Narration: I tell Geza all about the counter appraisal, and the guest who's determined that we've got it all wrong...

Adam: and I don't really care who's right, I just want to know. Is the egg a fake Faberge or not what can you say about this?

Geza von Habsburg: There are more fakes around today than genuine objects. So, I spend my days answering, questions online about people who request information about Faberge, and 90% of the pieces are forgery.

Adam - Narration:  Uh oh - it's not looking good for our guest -  if anyone's gonna spot a fake, it's this guy -

Geza von Habsburg: I'm lucky and as far as I have been involved with Faberg for over 40 years, I have this gut feeling that allows me, even at a distance to identify what is genuine and uh, what is not.

Adam - Narration: Time to put our egg to the test, with the first clue - the maker's name which is engraved on the bottom?

Geza von Habsburg: This egg, I believe, has the, monogram of Nicholas II, which would mean that it was made for him. And it was made for him by Faberge’s craftsman called Anders Nevalainen, who left the firm in 1917 and returned home to Finland and was never in the West again, to our knowledge.

Adam: So, the odds of him now working in a Parisian shop in 1925 seems farfetched.

Geza von Habsburg: That is correct. To our knowledge, he never left Finland after 1917. 

Adam - Narration: Strike 1 against our egg

Adam: Okay. The firm ended in 1917, but do we know of Parisian Faberge shops?

Geza von Habsburg: Initially, after the death of Faberge in Switzerland, two of his sons opened a shop in Paris called Faberge e'compagnie and started selling, objects that either they had made or others had asked them to repair. 

Adam - Narration: His sons opened the shop! So could it be a later Faberge? Maybe our guest got lucky after all?

Geza von Habsburg: And that existed until– certainly for another 10 years. But none of Faberge's work masters j oined them except for one who we know by name.

Adam: So they did set up a Parisian shop.

Geza von Habsburg: Correct.

Adam: The Finnish guy to our knowledge never worked there. There's only one Faberge former workman who went and worked at that Parisian shop.

Geza von Habsburg: That's right.

Adam: So is it possible that this was sold in that shop in the 1920s, or is this just not even of the quality of what he was making? Have you seen pieces that were sold in that Parisian shop?

Geza von Habsburg: Yes, of course.

Adam: How are they?

Geza von Habsburg: Uh, they are perfectly well-made as is the egg that you offered and was sold.

Adam - Narration: I’m on the edge of my seat.

Geza von Habsburg: But we know for a fact also that Anders Nevalainen never was involved with the production of eggs. So, we know who made the eggs for Faberg and uh, we have their names and there was no Mr.   Nevalainen involved.

Adam: Oh, that is so good to hear.

Adam - Narration:  Strike 2 against our guest's egg

Adam: That Parisian shop that they set up after, did they make eggs at that shop?

Geza von Habsburg: No.

Adam: They didn't make eggs at that shop.

Geza von Habsburg: No.

Adam: Oh my God. What did they sell? What did they make?

Geza von Habsburg: Uh, objects of art in the style of Mr. Faberge, and they were just lookalikes.

Adam: So, in the style of Faberge, they stamp it Faberge, but they're not making eggs.

Geza von Habsburg: That's correct. 

Adam - Narration: Strike 3 and the egg is out! I cannot wait to fill Sebastian in - but I'm going to eek it out - just to make him sweat a bit.

Adam: Now, last we spoke, you seemed a bit nervous that this could be some sort of weird asterisksy egg, like a Beatles song that's released, you know, 15 years after John Lennon died.

Sebastian Clark: That's the perfect way to describe it. Alright, tell me how bad this is gonna be.

Adam: So I met with Geza von Habsburg yesterday in New York City.

Sebastian Clark: You're really stretching this out. You're killing me.

Adam: He confirmed that after the revolution, Faberge's son did in fact open up a store in Paris.

Sebastian Clark: Okay.

Adam: And they made really nice quality stuff. But they didn't make eggs. And furthermore, the Finnish guy, when the revolution happens in Russia, he goes off to Finland, and there's no record of him ever going to Paris.

Sebastian Clark: Thank God. Look, as a team, we were right. So there we go. Oh, thank God.

Adam: So it's Faux-berge, it's not Faberge.

Sebastian Clark: Yes. Okay. That's awesome. Marsha would've never, never let me live it down.

Marsha: So it's an egg that got made in a place where no eggs were made with a man's name on it that he was never in there. You know what? I judge this three fakes. Fake, fake, fake.

Adam: fake, fake, fake.

Marsha: Are we gonna tell her? Because she doesn't wanna know this so much.

Adam: Maybe she'll listen to the podcast so she can hear this.

Marsha: Yeah, we'll have to give her a jingle and see if she wants to hear the podcast.I mean, we've actually had a fake on that. Somebody took it back to the dealer and got their money back. You know, we're there to help you avoid that mistake.

Adam - Narration:  Antiques Roadshow Detours is a production of GBH in Boston and distributed by PRX. This episode was written and produced by Louise Morris; edited and mixed by Tyler Morrisette; our Assistant Producer is Sarah Roach. Our senior producer is Ian Coss and Devin Maverick Robbins is the managing producer of podcasts for GBH. Marsha Bemko is the Executive Producer of Antiques Roadshow Detours, and I’m your host and co-executive producer, Adam Monahan. Our Theme music is “Once In A Century Storm” by Will Dailey from the album National Throat. Thank you all for listening, have a good one.