Quote:
Originally Posted by Runscott
Yes, there is. We've mentioned it on this board, and Mr. Messier mentioned it at the end of his report. The fact that your consignor doesn't want to incur the additional tests, doesn't invalidate their usefulness.
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Asking for the consignor or auction house to perform destructive investigation as part of the forensic process seems a bit much, IMO.
I do forensic investigations myself (not of anything related to this field), but it is very common to say that an investigation is limited to non-destructive means or to state that additional information could be gleaned from a destructive investigation. Analysis of the paper fibers and binder sounds like a destructive process to me.
It's simply not worth it IMO to tear apart something that is potentially so valuable only to say, well, how about that... it was still consistent with 19th c. paper and binder. Once again, that still would not be a conclusive "yes, it's authentic", but rather ruling out yet another possible avenue to prove the negative, as Corey pointed out.
Personally, I'm impressed with the efforts that were undertaken.