Determining
the Authenticity of Paper
 Valerie:
Now, this, if it’s real it’s incredible. It’s
a letter written from the Titanic while it was sinking that was
apparently found in a bottle. And it says, “I’m putting
this in a bottle, this is not the ship of anyone’s dreams
except Satan’s”. This guy, Hugo Ross, who wrote it is
in fact someone who was on the Titanic. How do you tell if something
like that’s real?
Bill
Brayley: Well, it is tricky but there are a number of quick
tests. First of all, you’ve got to have a look at it, you’ve
got wrinkles in the paper here, perhaps it was rolled up. You look
for some, some smudging or water has been in contact with this,
there’s some staining which might be a good thing. Then, you
know what, you look at the paper itself. You know, see if it’s
 handmade
paper, there’d be lines there, if there was, it’s not.
So it might be just an inexpensive commercial grade, you know, turn
it over, smell it and see if it’s…
Valerie: What
are you smelling for?
Bill Brayley:
Well, if there’s any must or anything you might be able to
pick up an odour from it. So that’s kind of a quick analysis
of how to do that. I was involved in appraising for the Museum of
the Atlantic in Halifax, the Children’s boots, that they’d
just received as a donation and as further tests, what they did,
the University at Utah for DNA tests, the University of Lakehead
for chemical tests and because the Titanic material is so valuable
and so important and so sought after all those tests would have
to be done to give you some sort of conclusive data to say that
that might be a real thing.
 Valerie:
So you’d have to date the paper and data the ink…
Bill Brayley:
Yes, exactly.
Valerie: And
make sure that this wasn’t somebody’s science project
with tea leaves.
Bill Brayley:
Exactly. And you know, if there was some salt water in there anywhere
they’d be able to pick that up possibly from the crystallization
and so on and so forth. It’s amazing what can be done with
something like this.
Valerie: But
just looking at it you can’t tell.
 Bill
Brayley: I wouldn’t want to… it would be not
the sort of thing that an appraiser would do with any sort of…
Valerie: If
it’s real it is so cool.
Bill Brayley:
And worth a lot of money.
Valerie: Yes.
Bill Brayley:
Yes.
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