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Although Elizabeth David was the very opposite of a recluse, she was famously reluctant to divulge information about herself to her readers, claiming that everything that needed to be said could be found in her books. In light of Artemis Cooper's Writing at the Kitchen Table, this assertion looks more doubtful than ever: the more that is revealed about David, the more interesting she becomes. Cooper is the "authorized" biographer, writing with access to a mass of personal papers, but this is no hagiography. Mrs. David, crisply but sympathetically drawn in these pages, was a fascinating egotist, beautiful with a hard sensuality, generous but capable of furious rages and lasting grudges. She learned a valuable lesson in self-centeredness from the quintessentially louche Norman Douglas, who in many ways seems to have been a key influence. Clearly she was not exactly a nice person, although it is encouraging (and not entirely surprising) to discover she had a really dirty laugh--more of a cackle, it appears.
The story is well told: the patrician background she flouted (but not too much); the flight from England, grayness, and failure; the rackety wartime years spent knocking around the Mediterranean in the company of high bohemians such as Lawrence Durrell; the marriage of convenience in Cairo that gave her the status of a married woman but was soon abandoned; the lovers; the return to London and the start of a dazzling writing career; the fame and the status; the shop; the stroke that affected both palate and libido; the troubled later years. On none of this need she be judged, and Cooper does not. In a sense, David was right. The best of her is in the writing--namely, in her precise, attentive, sensual appreciation of food and cooking. She was above all an exquisitely skillful cook, whose influence, though mostly indirect, has been incalculable. It's all the more moving, then, to learn at her funeral, "among the wreaths and baskets of flowers, and the violets she loved, someone had left a loaf of bread and a bunch of herbs tied up in brown paper." --Robin Davidson
Book Description
Elizabeth David's reputation as one of the most influential food writers of the twentieth century rests primarily on her first five books. Mediterranean Food appeared in 1949 when England was still on wartime rations. Before long every self-respecting cook had a copy of it in the kitchen; between 1955 and 1985, more than a million copies of her book were sold. Elizabeth's aim was to bring flavor of these blessed lands of sun and sea and olive trees" into English homes, and her books transformed a generation of cooks by demystifying unfamiliar ingredients like garlic, red peppers and olive oil that have since become everyday cooking staples.
Born in 1913 to a wealthy, well-connected family, Elizabeth Gwynne was privately educated until the age of sixteen, when she was sent to France to learn the language and study at the Sorbonne. After being "finished" in Paris and Munich, she returned to London and worked briefly as an actress, but left again to explore Europe. At the age of twenty-six, she and her married lover, Charles Gibson-Cowan, set-off on a boat bound for Greece. Trapped in Antibes by the war, Elizabeth came under the spell of Norman Douglas, one of the most important influences in her life. She and Charles set sail again just as Italy entered the war, only to find themselves interned in Messina, accused of espionage. Eventually they reached Athens. They spent the winter in 1940-41 on a Greek Island, where Elizabeth first started to cook Mediterranean food.
The German invasion of the Balkans forced them to join refugees fleeing to Egypt. In the raffish Fortunes of War of Alexandria and Cairo, Elizabeth flourished and came to know writers such as Lawrence Durrell and Patrick Leigh Fermor. She also met Tony David, an officer in the Indian army. He proposed to her by letter from Italy and, to the astonishment of her friends, she accepted. After the war and a few months in India, Elizabeth returned to gray rationed England.
Exasperated by the bleakness of English food, she put pen to paper and wrote Mediterranean Food, a book that caught the imagination of a generation was soon followed by French Country Cooking, Italian Food, French Provincial Cooking, and many other titles. In the course of the next decade, the happiest of her life, Elizabeth's books and articles inspired a cookery revolution.
Working from an extensive archive of personal papers, Artemis Cooper reveals the powerful tensions between Elizabeth David's private world and the image of the successful woman she presented to her public. It is a story that even some of her closest friends never knew.
Customer Reviews:
Defending Stella .......2007-03-16
It was with great curiosity and interest that I read Artemis Cooper's biography of Elizabeth David, "Writing at the Kitchen Table". I had the good fortune (through my mentor) of meeting Elizabeth's mother Stella (Gwynne) Hamilton, becoming her friend and maintaining a correspondence with her for nearly four years. She was in her seventies and I was in my twenties which was very similar to the age arrangement of Elizabeth David and Norman Douglas. During those years I was with Stella for the three visits she made to Washington DC and Virginia and on two visits that I made to UK so in addition to the correspondence I was on the receiving end of a lot observations she made about her own life and about her family. It is was a somewhat preposterous friendship but we shared a love of history, art, furniture and gardens and of course her dear friend Cecil Wildes(who was my mentor and my lover so our love of him was another bond). I was an eager student and she had a lot to teach.
As to Artemis Cooper's assertion(from dependable sources no doubt) that Stella was cold, aloof and distant from her children was probably true. What Ms Cooper does not say or give adequate attention to is that many women of Stella's social status were cool and removed from the rearing of their children. If a woman at child bearing age were naturally unmaternal, as one of Stella's cousins asserts, and the house was filled with servants, nannies and a nursery what do expect she would do. That is a fashion of child rearing that was (and probably still is) commonplace in the aristocratic class in Great Britain to which Stella (and Elizabeth) clearly belonged. Ms Cooper, since she seemed determined to cast a shadow, might at least have given some context. Additionally she gives very short shrift to the relationship between Stella and her brother-in-law Roland and the issue of the settlement of Rupert's estate and the manor house in Sussex which was Stella's home and which she dearly loved. A few more paragraphs or another page could have given or might have given a more balanced perception of her predicament. It was primarily the nature of that relationship that left Stella really unable to cope during that period in her life. Did she have a breakdown at that time or what happened that other people had to rise to care for her family? Stella told me more than once that she knew people were very critical of her at that time but that she couldn't have handled it any other way. There was always a note of self presevation in that telling. It was however my feeling as I read the biography that it was Ms Cooper's intention to cast Stella in the cold -unloving mother role which indeed she may have been but there is another side to it.
Regarding Elizabeth, Stella was extraordinarily proud of her. Please remember that Elizabeth David dedicated her first book "To My Mother" so their relationship at that time must have been satisfactory since Elizabeth David was hardly one for empty gestures. Equally Stella was proud of all of her daughters marvelling at Pricilla's broad range of talent and of coping and managing a complicated life and of Miss "F", Felicite, she always spoke of with great affection and marvelled at her knowledge of books and authors (since she herself was very well read and proud of it but she felt Miss "F" put her to shame). The only time I saw Stella cry was when she spoke of Diana's death & I'm sure suffered from that tragedy for the rest of her life. Stella spoke frequently of and with great affection about her grandchildern although I know some of them frustrated her but it was the 1960s and times were changing rapidly and Stella was a conservative from the 19th Century. Her correspondence ( as was her conversation) to me is filled with affection for her family and I feel Ms. Cooper did not in anyway capture that spirit and on the contrary chose to flesh out, in her portrayal of Stella, an uncaring and unfeeling woman which was contrary to my experience with her vis a vis her family.
As to Elizabeth I only met her twice. Both times at her kitchen table (the very table) at Halsey street. One time with Stella at mid-day (we ate fresh baked bread) all very relaxed and cordial and another time with her niece Sabrina in the evening. We drank red wine at the famous table, her cat sat on my lap (which pleased ED) then she took us to dinner at a little restaurant called the Iron Horse. She ate bread and drank red wine while the host plied us with dishes from the kitchen ( a boon for the hungry twenty somethings) but she only picked at them. I remember she said "this happens to me everywhere I go, how much do they think I can eat?". She was very charming to me but I do know the family stood in some terror of her moods and I think that suited Elizabeth perfectly. As to all of the unkind observations that people make about ED upon reading this authorized biography by Ms Artemis Cooper I would say they are all more or less meaningless because in the end Elizabeth David will be judged by her body of work which is powerful and beautiful. If she stuggled in her human realtionships it is a price that is often extracted from artists who are devoted to the creation of their work (if not consummed by it). As to Stella Hamilton I had never met anyone like her and have never since and will not ever again. I write this in her memory with great respect and love. As to the book it was filled with great anecdotes and information but it was not a masterful telling which was what Elizabeth David deserved.
Very Good Biography, Very Important Culinary Writer.......2005-07-21
`Writing at the Kitchen Table' is the `Authorized Biography of Elizabeth David' by Artemis Cooper. Biographer Cooper, by great sympathy with his subject, with access to great sources, and by superior narrative has given us a superior biography of one of the three great female English language culinary writers of the twentieth century.
It is revealing to compare the lives and careers of Ms. David with the other two greats, Julia Child and M.F.K. Fisher. She stands roughly between Child, the great teacher and Fisher, the great gourmand and explorer of appetites. Her recipe writing was less pedagogical and more analytical than Child, and less subjective but more attentive to details of other peoples works than Fisher.
In their personal lives, it is interesting to see that while David and Fisher were certifiably beautiful women through much of their lives, their success with husbands was poor to dismal by the standards of their day and ours. In contrast, the very tall and warbly voiced Julia Child was attractive by the same standards one may have used with Eleanor Roosevelt, yet her family life with husband, Paul Child was one of the world's great enduring love stories.
A fascinating parallel with Child and David is that they both served in their country's intelligence organizations overseas during World War II. While Child was with the OSS in India and Burma, David was with British Intelligence in Cairo, where she landed at the beginning of the war after a literally hair raising flight from the Italians and Germans in 1940, across the Mediterranean just as the Germans were invading Greece. Also, Ms. Child and Ms. David both met their future husbands during the war.
One small problem I have with the biographies of both Ms. David and Ms. Fisher is that neither does a really good job of identify the spark that ignited their interest in food. Unlike these two, Julia Child's epiphany is obvious when she found herself with a husband who liked to eat well, and she did not really know how to cook. Necessity took over and Julia dove into the subject with what became a lifelong passion.
With Elizabeth David, the interest seems to creep up on her as a result of really dismal food in her nursery as a child, followed by the revelation of very good food while living and studying in Paris and Munich. While Ms. Fisher started writing before World War II, Ms. Child and Ms. David both started their careers around 1950, although Ms. David was first published `Mediterranean Food' seven years before Julia Child et al's `Mastering the Art of French Cooking'. In fact, by 1962, after publishing `French Provincial Food' and `Italian Food', Ms. David was quite the authority compared to newcomer Child.
This is another interesting parallel in that the most famous works from all three authors came early in their careers. While Ms. Fisher's greatest fame came in the 1960's, it was largely based on reissues of works she did in the 1940s. And, neither Ms. Child nor Ms. David ever topped the popularity of the works in their first five years.
Oddly, Elizabeth David's very best work of scholarship was probably published near the end of her career, and it is probably her least known major work. This is `English Bread and Yeast Cookery', which lead to her achieving her highest official recognition's from the Crown and from English intellectual society. What is surprising is that this great scholarly work may have as much in common with Rachael Carson's `Silent Spring' as it does with Peter Reinhart's books on bread baking. Along with great information on home and commercial practice, it was a revelation of how poor English commercial bread baking could be.
In addition to her unfortunate romantic live and her James Bondean experiences at the opening of World War II, Ms. David's life in general seems to have been less happy than that of Ms. Fisher and far less happy than the `too good to be believed' life of Ms. Child. Ms. David's father died young and her mother did not have a great deal of interest in her four daughters. Early in life, Elizabeth made up for her family's alienation by living beyond her means, with the knowledge that her family's estate would bail her out of her debts.
Her relations with her family and many friends seemed to be perpetually bumpy. Elizabeth could be both very reserved and very prickly, with a blindness to seeing the other point of view in a lot of cases, leading to more than one very long term alienation from former friends. She was, for example, very difficult to interview and had a great aversion to seeing her name in print in contexts other than as author of her own works.
Her business dealings tended to the difficult as well, although not entirely through her doing. Her relations with publishers of books and magazines seemed to be especially difficult, leading to serious legal entanglements. Her problems with the cookware store, `Elizabeth David, LTD', of which she was just one of five shareholders were largely her own doing, as she ignored good business sense and ran things largely to suit her personal tastes. Then, she took serious offense when her business partners brought in a manager with good marketing skills.
While Elizabeth David's influence was not great in the United States, it did have a great effect on the general direction of American cuisine in her friendship with American expatriate, Richard Olney and their joint influence on Chez Panisse movers and shakers, Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower, plus the tiny San Francisco eatery, Zuni Café, soon to be the second best known San Francisco eatery, after Panisse.
This book was more enjoyable to read than the recent Fisher biography, `Poet of the Appetites', but not quite as much fun as the Child biography, `Appetite for Life'.
If you consider yourself a card-carrying foodie, you should read this book.
Good cook, half-baked personality.......2002-11-26
To correct a comment in a review on this site - the brilliant, talented Olivia Manning was not a friend of the thoroughly unlikable, secretive Elizabeth David. Read the book to find out why. As for David herself, a graphologist summed her up when she was 17 - "she does not shine, she absorbs". A taker, not a giver in other words, and this book certainly does not contain any examples of her alleged charm.
The joy of cooking.............2002-09-28
When friends and relatives and acquaintances gathered together Sept. 10, 1992 to memorialize Elizabeth David, they shared bottles of Macon Prisse 1991 and Morgan Chateau Gaillard 1991, as well as conversation. Artemis Cooper, author of `WRITING AT THE KITCHEN TABLE: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF ELIZABETH DAVID suggests David would have approved. In the space of several decades, David had revolutionized cooking and meal preparation in Britain and introduced the British to really fine wines. Like her counterpart in America-Julia Child-David had no idea she would cause such a stir when she began to write articles about French, Italian, and other Mediterranean cuisines after WWII. David's notion that one could cook and eat other people's food-a multiethnic moment if there ever was one-was downright avant garde in the 1950s.
Cooper covers David's (nee Elizabeth Gwynne) life from her early days on the family estate in Wales, through WWII when she worked for the British in Egypt, to her amazing career as an author of books on food and food preparation. Before, during, and after WWI, David lived in Italy, the Levant, Egypt, and India where she learned how to make many local dishes and to appreciate "home grown" foods we call organic today. When Ms. David began to write about her dishes on her kitchen table, rationing was in still in force in Britain. Nevertheless, her first book on French country cooking was a hit. She then went on to write a number of books and many articles focused on what various people grow, cook, and eat.
Elizabeth David certainly lived in interesting times. A most intriguing aspect of Cooper's biography is her skillful placement of David within her age, a period during which the social mores of the UK changed somewhat dramatically. David had many interesting friends, including the writers Lawrence Durrell and Norman Douglas. Her book agent was Paul Scott, author of the RAJ QUARTET, and Olivia Manning, who wrote the Balkan and Levant trilogies known collectively as THE FORTUNES OF WAR was a friend from her days in Egypt. If you enjoy biographies as social history, I recommend ELIZABETH DAVID.
Revealing look into a place and time.......2002-01-25
When I purchased this book, I had no idea who Elizabeth David was, but as a writer I couldn't resist reading about such a successful cookbook author. Artemis Cooper sorted through an immense amount of material and produced a wonderful story of a woman and the times that created her.
Born well-to-do in Britain, Elizabeth David started life basically ignored by her parents, and grew into a dilettante. With some bad judgement she ended up in the wrong place (Italy) toward the beginning of World War II, and spent years being exposed to a completely different kind of food than she had known in England. So one of the "bad" events in her life helped guide her to cookery writing.
The biographer has a lovely writing style, and fills in the bits quoted from letters and interviews very smoothly with narrative explanations. For example, Artemis writes "Robin Fedden invited Elizabeth to Chantemesle, some fifty miles northwest of Paris, where his parents lived. On one side of the house was the River Seine, winding between little green islands alive with birds, and on the other, the abrupt ascent of a dry limestone escarpment. Cherry and apricot trees stood about the house. 'It was beautiful there. I have never forgotten it,' Elizabeth wrote. Perhaps it was then that Robin proposed to her; many years later, she admitted to Robin's daughter Frances that she and her father had been engaged." The biographer does this throughout the book, turning one little quote into a lyrical paragraph (though if you think this sample was overdone, then you probably won't like this book).
By following Elizabeth's life, I learned that food rationing remained in place in England until the mid 1950's, and what horrible things can happen to an author when the rights to her books pass to other publishers than the ones she originally signs with (shudder!). While the story lagged for me when she returned home and began writing cookbooks, other readers who are more familiar with her and the people in her life will likely disagree.
On a personal note, I resolved to learn from some of Elizabeth's mistakes. Much of the unhappiness in her life stemmed from her personal weaknesses. A very rigid woman, she had trouble seeing things from another person's perspective. This allowed her the joy of being right, but separated her from other people.
Although a rather dense read, this book is overall very enjoyable.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
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History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
Charles Larson's journey into the subject of numismatic forgery began over 30 years ago, but his insight was substantially enhanced while serving as a prison guard to the most infamous master forger of the 20th century, Mark Hofmann. The informal interviews Larson conducted with Hofmann at Utah State Prison in the late 1980s lay the foundation for a number of methods revealed in Numismatic Forgery.
Customer Reviews:
Motivates the purchase of calipers and a 16x jeweler's loupe.......2004-06-01
Covers: Alteration (tooling, adding mint marks); Casting (centrifugal); False Dies (engraving tools, from electroplates, from casts, explosive impact); Collars; Planchets; Striking (hammering jigs and the 'gravity hammer'); and Wear/Patina.
Although written in the style of a "how-to" manual for replica and clandestine workshops, the book's target audience is collectors and authenticators. To employ Mr. Larson's techniques for crime you'd need to know the basics of precious metal casting, tool and die machining, gunsmithing, and numismatics. For readers without a metal lathe but with a serious interest in authentication and forgery-fighting, the book will provide an understanding of the covert minting process.
I was most impressed by Larson's treatment of the manufacture of steel dies through explosive impact copying. His procedure involves modifying shotguns to drive cast hubs into annealed dies. Larson's diagrams are explicit enough to convince the numismatist that explosive copying is practical. Details only of use to criminals, such as the type and quantity of gunpowder to use, are deliberately withheld from the reader.
Larson quotes an anonymous authenticator who examined 114 1916-S quarter eagles during the 1980s. 56% of them turned out to be fake! Hi-volume forgers in the Middle East and the Orient *already know* many of Larson's techniques. _Numismatic Forgery_ may provide a few useful tips to jewelers and machinists independently turning to crime, but the primary value of the book is to educate collectors in the characteristics of the illicit workshop.
Numismatic Forgery published by Zyrus. Outstanding........2004-05-25
A must read for anyone who buys coins: dealer or collector.
Very insightful and a much needed tool for the industry. There has been nothing quite like this. Nice back cover short reviews by Jim Halperin, Ken Bressett and Mark Salzberg. This book is major league.
Book Description
From the author of the acclaimed Ancient Coin Collecting series comes yet another essential resource—one that could save collectors considerable money and frustration. Counterfeits are relatively common among ancient coins, yet knowing where the dangers lie is key to avoiding disaster as a collector or investor. Accordingly, Classical Deception takes an objective and candid look at the history of falsifying ancient coins. It traces the careers of well-known forgers and discusses the many fakes that proliferate the modern market. Topics covered include manufacturing techniques, collector response to the problem and tools and methods of detecting fakes. Special sections include a catalog of the previously unpublished work of reproduction artist Peter Rosa and extensive bibliographies leading to a wealth of technical information.
- The essential guide to identifying counterfeit ancient coins and avoiding financial disaster
- Illustrated with more than 200 photos to help differentiate authentic coins from fakes
- From the author of the acclaimed Ancient Coin Collecting series
Customer Reviews:
Interesting read.......2007-01-12
Learn something every day. Love that maxim!! This book gives you the complete picture, well worth the money.
Dennis Skea
Good book but maybe not what you expect........2003-01-05
I enjoy reading Mr.Salyes' books and this one is no exception. He easily one of the best current numismatic authors. This work does a great job of covering the types of counterfeits along with their history and an overview of how they are created. It is a very good book for anyone beginning to collect ancient coins. One thing the book is not is a catalog of counterfeits nor a guide on how to detect counterfeits. These subjects are beyond the scope of any general work and are dealt with by various numismatic associations and their publications. So if you are only looking for a manual or catalog move on.
A Must Read for Beginners or old collectors........2002-08-27
This book is a must read for those starting out in collecting coins, either ancient or modern. It explains the differences in the original minting of coins, and the "modern" reproductions, fakes and forgeries, even ancient forgeries. It is easy reading, and will give a good basis for coin collecting. It is worth the short time it takes to read, and it may save you from some embarassment.
A MUST FOR PURCHASERS OF ANCIENT COINS.......2001-08-24
For a long time there was considerable confusion about the authenticity of ancient coins. While considerable quantities have been found in the former ancient sites, and they have been collected since ancient times, few works were available to help the collector distinguish between the actual ancient works and fakes and copies made after. Works that are available are hard to find, usually specific to one forger and quite costly. I can safely say that this book clearly outlines the things to look for, from the commonest tourist cast copy to the advanced techniques used to fool the more advanced collectors.
If you want to collect coins you should include this book as one of your first buys because it can save you many times its cost with the purchase of just one coin that is not right. This is especially true if you are buying on the internet from sometimes unreliable impersonal sources.
The format is great with a show and tell approach, easy to use, and references to other works on specialized areas of counterfeiting.
While it shows and concentrates on mostly ancient coins the information is valid for all copies. There are great plates of the fakes the average modern collector is apt to encounter now on the market. This book will help you acquire the basic knowledge necessary in collecting coins just as in any other facet of collecting antiques or art.
Product Description
Publication date is approximate, as there is no publication date in the book.
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