There is no doubt that the auction houses can be awash in outright fakes or the bending/breaking the truth over how much of a trilobite is restored or composited. It is always pays to be extra cautious and perform due diligence when buying online. That said, what of intentionally buying the unreal? In this case, I decided to buy two replicas -- both of which were advertised as such, so no hanky-panky. The likelihood of me owning the genuine article of these two in the foreseeable future without breaking the bank is fairly small, so a replica will fill the hole for the time being. This is a replica of the classic Arctinurus boltoni found in 1978. It is fairly well done, and faithful to the original in several ways. Even the tiny pustules are reproduced fairly well. What trilobite collector doesn't want a giant Drotops megalomanicus? Yes, I have an example of a real one, but a nice large prone is still on my bucket list. This one is fairly well done as well. Those lovely, large Drotops are a bit tougher to come by these days, and a lot of them I see for sale are fairly B- or C-grade examples, or otherwise circulating from old collections. On this replica, even the eye lenses are done very well.
In all, pretty good quality replicas. That said, the ability to produce such convincing replicas should give us pause to consider that it may be getting easier to produce actual fakes for the marketplace that pass the purely visual tests buyers may use to purchase specimens online. Caveat emptor is never out of season, and the more coveted (and expensive) the taxon, the more scrutiny buyers should exercise before plunking down a lot of money. I have been prepping a bit as of late, mostly focusing on the long abandoned pieces. At present, I have nothing complete to show and tell. One current prep is going to take an eternity, so it may be a while until that one is ready for public viewing. Let's just say that scribing through hard crystalline chert is about as easy as trying to roll a dump truck up a hill with a twig. Continuing with that lovely labour will have to wait a bit until I can get on top of the mountain of essay grading. Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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