The Billy and Charley Story - Page 5

 

Fig. 6: forgery made by Billy Smith in 1870 with mould. It turned out to have been copied from a butter print. (Courtesy Cuming Museum)

by the Reformation23.

As this went to press the fraud was exposed. Charles Reed had been making his own investigations. He visited Shadwell Dock, but he could not find anybody who had uncovered any of the objects. When a sewer hunter (a scavenger who roamed the city sewers) offered to sell him some of the finds he won his confidence and persuaded him to divulge that they were forgeries. Through him he gained an introduction to Billy and Charley. Discovering that they felt that antique dealers had defaulted on payments he offered to buy from them. Having gained their trust he bribed the sewer hunter to break into their workshop and steal their moulds. That March he exhibited the moulds to the Society of Antiquaries. Augustus Franks praised his detective work24.

The reactions of those who had accepted the objects as genuine arc not known. Charles Roach Smith made no mention of the affair in his memoirs25. George Eastwood, however, continued in business in the Haymarket until 186626.


23.C. R. Smith 'The leaden images found at Shadwell' Collectianea Antiqua 5 (1861) 252-60.
24. Proc Soc Ant Lond 2 ser 1 (1861) 361-5.

It may be wondered how people were duped by these objects, but scientific archaeology was m its infancy. Charles Roach Smith and Thomas Hugo were the first people to make a systematic study of medieval small finds. Beside this. the debate turned into a moral issue, making impartial discussion difficult.

Billy and Charley escaped prosecution (it may have been difficult to prove that they had broken the law). They continued their activities and swindled several members of the British Archaeological Association. This may have caused Henry Syer Cuming to break his silence, for he lectured on their forgeries to the Association in 1864. He observed that they had started to use "Cock metal", an alloy of two parts copper and one part lead27. Billy and Charley's technique evidently improved with experience, as their cock metal forgeries show more delicate workmanship than the leaden ones (Fig. 5).

Increasing awareness of Billy and Charley 's activities may have caused them to seek new

25. Retrospections (1883-91).
26. The Post Office London Directory (1866) 422.