Fake English Silver

For buyers of antique English silver, if any still exist, the arrest and conviction of Peter Ashley-Russell will surely bring some comfort.
He was sentenced to 3 years in September 2008. Of course he was also sentenced for the same offence in 1986 and that did not stop him.
Who says Sharia Law is too severe.
He is the latest faker to be unmasked. It seems to happen every few years. There must be a school or college somewhere where these guys are receiving their training.
Whatever, the fact is that a lot of fakes are still out there. Goldsmiths Hall has published a catalogue of Ashley-Russell's fakes for interseted parties to download at :www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk/assayoffice
Just follow the Download Links.
Of course Goldsmiths Hall is only concerned with the faking of English Silver. It is against UK law to fake English silver but there is no law against faking silver from anywhere else, eg the USA.
Some of us are in the know about the fake Tiffany servers, mixed metals and recast pieces. But there is no law against it.
Selling the stuff is a bit of a problem, if you want to sleep at night.

Online silver reference resource

THIRTY antiquarian books on the subject of silver are now available in digital form online. The newly-launched virtual library www.antiquesilverlibrary.com comprises a collection of scarce 19th and early 20th century publications on antique silver and the silversmith trade, many of them privately printed works published in very limited quantities. Now scanned and digitised, each book in the collection is now searchable by either keyword or subject. The 8700 pages of The Antique Silver Reference Library are available to view in digital ebook form and Adobe PDF format and can be read on any computer.