Most people walk past money their whole lives. This manual teaches you to see it — on your own shelves, at estate sales, in the box you were about to donate.
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The difference between the person who spots the treasure and the person who donates it isn't luck, and it isn't a lifetime of study. It's a small set of habits and tests — the same ones a roadshow specialist runs in the first few seconds before they ever pick a thing up.
A drawer pulled out and flipped over will tell you the century. Most people never pull the drawer.
This is the entire skill, written down: turn it over, read the wear, count the dovetails, find the pontil scar, check the hallmark — and never, ever clean it before you understand it. Learn the tells once and you'll never see a shelf, a sale, or an attic the same way again.
Each section gives you the specific tells that reveal age, quality and fakery — with illustrated diagrams and the value ranges that comparable examples have fetched.
Dovetails, screws and saw marks that date a piece to the decade — and how to catch a "married" fake.
The ring test, the light test, and reading a country-of-origin mark for an instant date.
Pontil scars, mould seams, cut versus pressed, and the UV trick that reveals uranium glass.
The magnet test, the hallmark sequence, and the letters (EPNS) that mean "worth a fraction."
Metal marks, old-cut diamonds, and telling collectible paste from precious stone.
The loupe test that separates an original from a print in one second — and reading the back.
Identifying a true first edition — and why the dust jacket is most of the value.
Why original paint and the box are everything — and how to spot a cast-iron repro.
The universal red flags forgers can't help repeating — the section that pays for the book.
No expertise required — just your eye, a loupe, and the patience to turn things over.
Few, wide, slightly uneven joints are cut by a person — pre-1860s. Many identical ones came from a machine. The clearest single clue to age in a chest of drawers.
A rough scar on the base means the blowpipe touched it — older, hand-made glass. A mould seam that climbs over the lip means a machine made it, after about 1910.
Under a ×10 loupe a reproduction breaks into a regular grid of dots. An original painting or drawing shows continuous, irregular marks. One second tells you which you're holding.
"Found a piece of uranium glass in my mother's cabinet with the UV trick from the glass chapter. I'd have donated the whole box."
"The dovetail and screw tells alone saved me from overpaying on a 'period' chest at a fair. Worth ten times the price."
"I finally understand the hallmark row on silver. Read it on my phone in an afternoon and went hunting the next morning."
It's written for exactly that reader. You don't need to memorise styles, makers or dates — the manual teaches you to look: a handful of physical tests and tells, each illustrated, that work whether or not you've ever set foot in a saleroom.
The tells are physical and universal — how an object was cut, joined, blown, marked and worn. The hallmark and country-of-origin sections cover both British and American conventions, and the principles carry across markets. Local prices vary, which is why every figure is given as a range, not a promise.
It's an illustrated PDF — emailed to you the moment you buy. Read it on any phone, tablet or computer, or print it at the kitchen table. No app, no subscription, no DRM. Yours to keep.
No — twelve categories: furniture, ceramics, glass, silver, jewellery, paintings and prints, books and paper, toys and advertising, rugs and textiles, plus a dedicated fakes-and-reproductions chapter and a "from find to sale" guide so you don't give the value away at the wrong counter.
Seven days, no questions asked. Email and your $39 comes straight back — the manual stays yours.
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Read it on any device. Print it if you like.
The next overlooked treasure is sitting exactly where everyone else has been told there's nothing. Learn to see it tonight.
Get the manual — $39