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One of the most notorious crimes involving forgery took place in 1985 when a known book scout Mark Hofmann "purchased" the Oath of a Freeman from the Argosy bookshop in NYC.
The Oath is reported to be the first item printed in the American Colonies outside the Spanish territories. No copy was ever found and the only reason anyone believed such a broadside could exist is that the Bay Psalm Book refers to it. Hofmann believed that such a document would be worth over a million dollars to its owner and offered it for sale to a reputable bookseller.
One noteworthy collector, Michael Zinman, came to see this document and cautioned that it was most likely a fake. First, it was unlikely that the Argosy would allow such a treasure to be dumped for sale on the retail market. Secondly, it seemed too good to be true.
The enormity of this find and the potential price this item could demand made investigation into its authenticity a must and so the document was put through a rigorous test, much like the kind of investigative forensics you see on television programs like CSI. What no one anticipated was that the sale of this item put into motion a series of criminal events that ended with the deaths of two innocent people. After that, more scrupulous investigative techniques were employed that ultimately found Hofmann to be a murderer and master forger.
Background
The bare bones of the crimes that led to Hofmann's arrest and imprisonment were as follows:
- A forgery was created.
- Hofmann visited the Argosy Bookshop and slipped the Oath into a plastic sleeve marked with a $50 price tag. He paid for the item at the register in order to obtain a sales receipt to create a provenance.
- Hofmann offered the item for sale to a private collector/dealer who, in turn, offered it for sale in partnership with Hofmann to the Library of Congress. The price was over a million dollars.
- After some investigation, the LOC refused the item.
Hofmann had borrowed money using this sale as collateral and spent it on a luxurious home.
- The Oath was then offered to the American Antiquarian Society (AAS). They investigated the item and refused the sale.
Hofmann was now presented with a serious dilemma. He was embroiled in a deal with the Mormon Church in Utah that was going to go belly-up and he owed serious money.
His reaction was to deflect his creditors' attention by constructing and setting off three pipe bombs. One was planted in the office of a young father who was helping facilitate a sale between the church and Hofmann. A second device was placed at the mailbox of a church elder. Both exploded and killed two people. The third device went off unexpectedly and injured Hofmann.
"The Judgement of Experts"
This is about the most serious case of forgery the book world has seen in recent history. Writers have told this tale to thousands of readers but the most fascinating part for booksellers is the level of investigation that goes into uncovering a fake. In this case the investigation is carefully reconstructed in a book titled, "The Judgement of Experts," edited by James Gilreath.
Gilreath's view of forgery is that "...one thing remained a constant in every instance: those who were willing to accept the forgeries as authentic were willing to ignore provenance as an important proof of authenticity." He stressed "provenance is the one unfailing guide, when used in conjunction with a critically intelligent examination of the physical properties and the text of any document."
The Process of Authenticating Rare Books
In order to create a document of this magnitude, the forger had to concoct a one of a kind document that cannot be compared to another document printed at the same time. The forged document had to be printed to create an illusion of moveable type. The type face had to be the same as what was owned by known printers of that period and show the level of wear expected from a printer's portfolio. This means that if an artisan is known to have printed two documents that "sandwich" the period when the forged document is supposed to have been created, the wear to the typeface cannot exceed documents printed later.
The paper used must be a blank sheet from that time period able to withstand carbon dating. A carbon-based ink is also necessary. One way to create that is to mix linseed oil with burnt paper from the period but the oil must not contain any properties that fall outside the era. (Synthetic materials are a dead giveaway).
The examination of the Oath included study under an optical microscope, x-ray fluorescence, infrared spectroscopy, and chemical tests. What scientists and scholars looked for were signs of consistency with paper from that period. One benchmark was "chaining" in the paper, a pattern that appears in the fibers during manufacture. Metals present in the document had to be revealed as was the absorption of radiation and the solubility of the printing ink.
Among the tests given to the Oath was its textual authenticity. Scholar Keith Arbour from the AAS researched the Oath against documents owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Arbour's study was aimed at the progression of writing between documents produced earlier in Britain and later in the Bay Psalm Book. Was there a natural progression of writing? Arbour believed there was not.
Not all of us can afford such scrutiny and hopefully none of us will ever have to face such a problem. But with forensics developing almost as quickly as computer technology, forgers will face a greater challenge in the years to come.
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