Comments on: Billy & Charley’s Shadwell Shams

By: Richard Bradshaw

Richard Bradshaw — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 17:19:21 +0000

What a pair of clever Victorian Del-Boys eh? You cant blame them for making a bit of money spurning these fakes which are now collectors items in their own right, and now I hear there are copies of these copies!!!

I have four of these to date and find them very interesting; I started a small collection as “Things that are often mistaken for horse brasses, but are not” and became interested in their history.

A fascinating article indeed!

By: Norman Lakay

Norman Lakay — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:55:17 +0000

I am in possession of one of the medals with the date of 1205

Kind regards

N. R. Lakay

By: Shawdian

Shawdian — Thu, 18 May 2017 07:14:04 +0000

FABULOUS ! :)) What larks!

By: Robert Brown

Robert Brown — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:13:41 +0000

I bought one forty years ago, a large statue of a “mediaeval” warrior, and it still stands on my bookshelf!

By: mary moulder

mary moulder — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 20:22:16 +0000

I find it so amusing that things that were “of shame” in one generation can become great stories of huge chuckles several generations later. (I speak of my own genealogy experience of characters, of course.) It would be a great “tourist” item to reproduce the fakes in “pewter; ie fake cast aluminum; and sell them as ornaments truthfully giving the source of the journey to the present. Just saying…from Tucson, Arizona.

By: Gerry Wiseman

Gerry Wiseman — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 15:54:54 +0000

Most interesting. This is a new one to me.

By: Stephen Barker

Stephen Barker — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 13:52:04 +0000

Looking at them together the lettering and the dates look so false. But the images on the medals/tokens show real imagination even if the armour in many cases looks like it has been derived from Nineteenth century illustrations of the past. I am surprised the fraud was not detected sooner than it was.

By: Ellen in NEW England

Ellen in NEW England — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 12:53:20 +0000

Looking at the bunch of them together: the bug-eyes are so similar, as if they were all made by the same artist, not many different engravers over the course of many centuries. Also, the letters, especially those wavy S’s – the same thing. And the dates – as well as not being Roman numerals, they are so easy to read, unlike real dates on real coins and medals!

But I really like the animals perched at the top of some of them, and they are very attractive.

By the way, here in sunny, sunny NEW England, the water pipes are frozen this morning. One degree Fahrenheit outside, this morning; no shower for me.

By: phil bailey

phil bailey — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 10:38:31 +0000

What a brilliant story. A tribute to the ingenuity and spirit of a people You can just imagine the embarrassment of the art world .What a tragedy that Charley died so young I heard somewhere that the average life expectancy in Bethnal Green in 19th Centary was 25 So much for the Empire. Keep the stories coming your a gentleman Phil

By: valerie-Jael

valerie-Jael — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 08:31:26 +0000

They made some wonderful things, and must have been most creative, great story. It reminds me of Thomas Chatterton! Valerie