Guides to identifying porcelain stamps, silver hallmarks, and furniture labels.
A collector's field guide to the crossed swords, interlaced Ls, and crescent moons that separate museum-grade porcelain from clever pastiche.
Britain's hallmarking system is the most rigorous consumer-protection scheme in the antiques trade — here's how to actually read it on the object in your hand.
Paper labels peel off, stamps wear smooth, and both get faked — here's how to weigh maker's marks against the construction evidence that can't easily lie.
Long before sterling became the national standard, American silversmiths stamped their wares with a patchwork of local marks that still trips up collectors today.
French porcelain marking spans royal cipher, provincial factory codes, and decorator overglaze stamps — untangling them is the difference between a museum piece and a decorative reproduction.
From acid-etched script to hidden engraved block letters, glass signatures vary as much as the studios that struck them — and forgers know exactly which ones sell.
The dial rarely tells the whole story — the real evidence of who built a clock or watch, and when, is usually hidden inside the movement itself.