Got to Love "Photo Matching"

[icollectDCsports]

Agree. It's frustrating. Definitely have seen eBay listings use the term "photo matched" incorrectly. There may be times when a seller may not know what it means and confuses it with what folks sometimes call a "style match." And there are also times when the item and photo wouldn't even qualify as a true style match. Of course, there are also sellers who know what it means, and hope that a buyer doesn't so that the buyer is fooled into believing the use of the term means the item is what the seller represents it to be.

[drcy]

And the pinstripes don't even match.

I've written a to be published university textbook on the methods of art and artifacts authentication, which includes advanced scientific tests such as carbon dating, spectroscopy and thermoluminescence. One thing pointed out repeatedly throughout the book is you never come to a final conclusion via just one test. Even when the test is done correctly and is accurate and is the most advanced test available, it is just a test of one quality or aspect and has to be supplemented with other information and logic. This is why art historians work with scientists, and neither on their own, when authenticating a famous artwork. Both perspectives are needed.

An example is with a questioned Rembrandt painting. That radiometric dating shows the paint is the right age, that is important information for authentication but doesn't prove it was by Rembrandt. It could have been by another artist of the time, including his students who regularly copied his paintings as part of their studies. You need an art historian and other techniques to show it was made by Rembrandt.