19th Century Antique ‘Billy & Charley’ Shadwell Forgery Badge, Dated 1326, London, c.1857–70

Few objects in the antique trade have a stranger reputation than the “Billy's and Charley's”.

The fakes themselves were made in Victorian London, but they were meant to look like medieval pilgrim and devotional badges. They were the work of William Smith and Charles Eaton, two Thames mudlarks from Rosemary Lane, Tower Hill. For more than a decade they fooled dealers, collectors and some of the leading antiquaries of the day. This is one of their larger and more ambitious badges. It is hexagonal, with a rectangular suspension loop cast across the top. Smith and Eaton could not read, and every detail of the piece gives them away.

On the obverse an enthroned king, wearing a spiked crown, holds up what appears to be an axe. Around him runs a “legend” of invented letters and stray symbols, and above sits the date 1326 in Arabic numerals. That is the classic Billy and Charley mistake: such numerals were not in common use in England until long after the date they claim. On the reverse stand two armoured knights. They are drawn with the stiff, wide-eyed charm that makes these pieces so easy to recognise today. The same type, with the same date and the same imagery, is recorded in Philip Mernick’s survey of the Billy and Charley series (ref. 78), illustrated by an example in the Museum of London.

The pair cut their designs straight into plaster moulds with nails and knives. They cast them in lead and pewter-type alloys, and later in “cock metal”, a harder lead and copper alloy. Then they dipped the castings in acid and smeared them with river mud to make them look old. They claimed the finds came from the excavations for the new Shadwell Dock. In 1858 Henry Syer Cuming exposed the deception before the British Archaeological Association. The dealer George Eastwood sued the Athenaeum for libel over the report and lost on a technicality, but the trial proved such good publicity that sales actually rose. The game ended in 1861. Charles Reed paid a sewer-hunter to break into the workshop, and the stolen moulds were shown at the Society of Antiquaries. Charley Eaton died in 1870, and Billy fades from the record.

Many thousands were made, and examples are held by the British Museum, the V&A, the Museum of London and the Cuming Museum. Today they are collected as much for their own story as for what they pretended to be: amusing, honest in their dishonesty, and a lesson in the history of connoisseurship. A splendid object for the library shelf, the study desk or a cabinet of curiosities, and a subject that starts a conversation every time.

Provenance: England. 19th century. The same type, with the same date and the same imagery, is recorded in Philip Mernick’s survey of the Billy and Charley series (ref. 78), illustrated by an example in the Museum of London.

Material: Cast lead alloy (lead/pewter type); acid-darkened grey surface

Condition: Good for type. Even dark grey patina with traces of the original artificial ageing. Detail crisp on both faces. Loop intact. Minor surface pitting and casting flaws, as made; no significant losses seen. Please refer to the photographs.

Dimensions: Height 4 in (10.25 cm)