Have you lost your senses? Item Number: 100008 $0.00

Description... I sure hope not because if you collect, buy or sell ancient art, you need to use them all!

I never know where an idea for this column will pop up – or when. I wish I had a stock-pile because every week it seems I start to get into that panic mode just as the deadline is approaching. This week I got lucky – the idea came to me in the mail!

Thursday of last week, I received a shipment from one of the many auction houses with which we do business. In this shipment out came a small, blackware oinochoe – Etruscan to be exact. Visually, a very sweet piece, nothing special, but all-in-all a nice example. But what struck me wasn’t how it looked, but how it felt. The surface on this piece was like butter! It was silky smooth and without the slightest blemish to interrupt this tactile sensation – the second piece in the last year that really excited my fingers almost as much as my eyes. At that moment, it occurred to me, this love of ancient art isn’t about just the sense of sight, it involves almost ALL the senses!

Okay, some of you are probably saying to yourself, Bob has really lost it this time, what the heck is he talking about? Well let’s go down the list.

Sight. Obvious. When we think of ancient art what hits most of us first is its beauty, its power, the size, the shape, the contours. We use our eyes to judge whether the piece is first rate, or just an average (or less than average) example. We also use our eyes to determine whether a piece is authentic, or restored, or repaired. So how about a few “tricks” to better use this wonderful sense of sight? When buying at a gallery, I would NEVER think of buying without seeing the piece in natural sunlight. Why? Natural light shows the true color and is remarkable for exposing areas of repair. Those folks who do restoration do so in hidden dark corners of basements using artificial light. Sunlight is a great equalizer!

Another great visual equalizer? Photography. For some reason I can’t explain photos tend to expose things our eyes normally do not pick up on. I can’t tell you how many times I have looked at a photo of a piece and discovered things my eyes just did not want to see on their own. In the shop we use CFL bulbs (compact fluorescent bulbs - Artemis Gallery is Green!) and this gives us great, natural-looking photos that show off the good, the bad and the ugly. We highly recommend that collector keep a good photographic record of their collection and study the photos to see if any surprises jump out!

Another visual equalizer? Water! Get a spray bottle and fill with clear, distilled water and “spritz” your pieces. Areas of restoration will usually absorb the water differently and look different than the areas of old clay! Enough on the sense of sight, we have too many other senses to go!

Touch. As mentioned earlier, I have probably handled 3 or 4 pieces where the tactile sensation was almost as exciting as the visual. No, I can’t “see” myself going into a dark room and fondling a piece of pottery for hours on end, but I can tell you, when you get a silky, smooth piece of ancient pottery in your hands there is a sense of amazement that is hard to describe (yes, my wife thinks I’m nuts!).

But how about a few other uses for touch? Cold versus warm. This is a quick and easy way to distinguish between stone and pottery – and on many occasions I’ve had collectors not know whether the piece was stone or clay because of the density and construction methods. Stone will feel cool to the touch, pottery will feel warm – or neutral. Touch can also involve areas other than your hands and fingers. Rub ancient glass against your teeth. Smooth – well, like glass. But areas of restoration on glass will feel like chalk against your teeth. And touch is a wonderful weapon in the fight against fakes! Last week we had a client send us a Monte Alban (Pre-Columbian area of Mexico) pottery censor. As soon as I reached in the box and start to pull it out, I KNEW we had a problem – long before I ever actually laid eyes on it. It felt sharp like a coarse steel wool. For the most part, ancient pottery has laid in the soil for thousands of years. And even though you would not think so, it moves ever so slightly each and every day from settling, minor earthquakes, from vegetation - for thousands upon thousands of days. That ever so slight movement acts like fine sandpaper and removes all those sharp edges, and usually gives pieces that soft worn feel. If you ever feel unnaturally sharp edges – ask yourself why! In this case, the eyes confirmed what the fingers already knew. The piece was just plain wrong!

Smell. While I can honestly say I have never encountered a “pleasant” smell in this business, I can tell you that “smell” can tell you a great deal about a piece. Again, if an ancient piece of pottery has laid in the soil for 2000 years, it usually absorbs a very intense, earthy aroma. To “extract” this smell, simply wet the pottery – even with a small amount of water (dealers will often put a small amount of spit on their finger and apply to the pottery – what we call the “spit test”). Dealers call this “the smell of money” because it is a good indicator of authenticity. And this is a smell that you learn very quickly and do not soon forget! If you smell a chemical aroma, not a good sign!

Ancient textiles also can tell you a great deal through their smell. Not sure if the piece is wool or cotton? Take a small thread (please do not destroy the piece in the process) and burn it with a small flame. If it smells like burning hair, it’s wool; if not, the material is probably cotton. And who can ever forget the first time they smell an ancient textile before it has been cleaned? We call this the smell of death…

Hearing. I don’t use this sense for enjoyment, but on occasion, I certainly employ it in determining authenticity or condition. Thump a pottery jar. If it produces a resounding thud, you have a crack – even though you may not see it. If it pings, your piece is intact – maybe restored, but solid. I even ping ancient bronze. This is hardly scientific, but to my ears, ancient bronze produces a distinct high-pitch, almost brittle sound. Bronze does sound different than iron, or pot metal – now used commonly by our friends in Bulgaria to make their fakes.

Taste. I’m going to spend about 2 sentences on this one. I do not taste my ancient art, quite frankly because I know where it has been and the idea of tasting any portion of a rotting corpse just does not do it for me. But I have heard of dealers who do, and can even tell from where a piece comes from just by the taste. Strange!

I look forward to your comments and encourage you to submit ideas for future topics!

Bob Dodge