BILLY AND CHARLEY - MEDIEVAL PILGRIM BADGE - SHADWELL FORGERY - LEAD/PEWTER.

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BILLY AND CHARLEY - MEDIEVAL PILGRIM BADGE - SHADWELL FORGERY - LEAD/PEWTER.:
$192.91

For your consideration and for sale I offer a \'BILLY AND CHARLEY\' PILGRIM BADGE.This object, known as a Billy and Charley\', or a \'Shadwell Forgery\' is a fake antiquity made in Victorian London, around 1860 by William Smith and Charles Eaton (Billy and Charley).
Badges such as this were their commonest productions – costing less than tuppence to make, yet selling for half a crown. These items were eagerly acquired in a new market for antiquities among the middle class who had spare cash but not sufficient education to understand what they were buying.
Many eminent figures were duped, including the archaeologist, Charles Roach Smith, who was convinced the artefacts were from the sixteenth century, suggesting that they could not be forgeries if there was no original from which they were copied. Similarly, Rev Thomas Hugo, Vicar of St Botolph’s, Bishopsgate, took an interest, believing them to be medieval pilgrims’ badges.The badge which measures 3.3 x 2.8 inches (8.5 x 7 cm) appears to be made of pewter.
It has an image depicting a bearded face, facing to the front with the date 1320.
The other side depicts a knight standing to the right, holding a sword and mace all topped by a corded triangular loop.The badge certainly has a story behind it:Billy and Charley came from the area of Shadwell, London and began making forgeries in the middle of the 19th century. They started out as mudlarks, scouring the banks of the Thames for anything of value which they could then sell on. This brought them into the contact of William Edwards, a London antiques dealer, who paid them for anything of interest they found. It soon became clear to Billy and Charley that there was money to be made in antiques, and in 1857 they began their counterfeit operation.They cast objects in lead, or lead alloys like pewter. They used carved plaster casts and bathed the finished objects in acid to make the objects look older. Their most popular objects were medallions, however they made coins, statuettes, ampullas and even small shrines. Figures on the forgeries tended to be of Kings, knights and priests, all with naive expressionless faces. As Billy and Charley were illiterate the writing on the forgeries are all completely meaningless. The two men claimed that they found the pieces at Shadwell where a new dock was being built and William Edwards became an unwitting participant in their scam believing the forgeries to be the earliest pilgrim badges ever found.
It is believed that in the 4 or 5 years that they were in production, Billy and Charley produced between 5,000 and 10,000 forgeries. The sheer volume of items aroused suspicions and they were brought to the attention of the British Museum who believed them to be forgeries. However, many archaeologists and local historians believed them to be real, giving them dates ranging from 1300 to 1600. Billy and Charley were arrested and charged but even a court case could not prove that the objects were forged or that the two men were behind it.After the court case Billy and Charlie continued making the forgeries. However Charles Reed, owner of a local printers, did not give up and bribed a sewer scavenger to break into their workshop and collect moulds which finally proved that they were forgeries. Despite this evidence they were never arrested, as it was difficult to prove they had broken the law, but they could no longer sell the pieces and production stopped around 1870. Many of the forgeries would continue to circulate around London, and there are now pieces all over the country, with some fine examples to be seen in museums. To have items of this nature in a museum, because it is a forgery, would indeed seem strange to Victorian historians and archaeologists, particularly to those that dismissed them as no more than children\'s toys!Two photographs of each side of the badge have been taken, with and without flash.
I shall leave the images to complete my description and welcome all questions. All that remains is to thank you for your interest and invite you to take a peek at my other items! Postage to the EU will be £8.99 (Royal Mail International Signed service).
Tags Billie and Charley - Billie and Charlie - Billy and Charlie - River Thames - London.

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