The Truth about the "Tiffany Studios" Bogus
Buckle Scam
During the 1960's, at a time when Americans were recognizing
the centennial of the Civil War, a sudden onslaught of
belt buckles appeared that seemed to have been made during
that tragic period at flea markets, gun shows, swap meets,
and the like. These buckles were well-made (at least in
their outward appearance), were fun to hold, and they even
looked old! Not only that, but they were allegedly made
by  the
famous Tiffany & Co., as well as a few others (most
notably, E. Gaylord, and Anson Mills). Then, just to add
one last touch to ensure sales would remain steady, these
buckles started appearing bearing the names of well-known
American corporate icons such as American Express, Coca-Cola,
Wells Fargo, Western Union, and many others. To the beginning
collector of nostalgic items, these buckles were fascinating.
Soon, unsuspecting collectors were spending upwards of
$500 or more for these bogus buckles. The awful truth of
the matter is, none of these buckles are genuine; in fact,
they are not even reproductions - they were designed during
the 1960's and '70's to specifically defraud innocent victims
into purchasing these fake "antiques."
Unlike today, with the ability to quickly research information
on the Internet in search of the truth, new and inexperienced
collectors were unable to easily determine how genuine
these buckles were (or were not) - for the most part, only
experts recognized that these buckles were bogus. This
is not to say that people were ripped off due to their
own stupidity, rather, these buckles are made with sufficient
expertise to appear authentic - even today, unwary collectors
still have a difficult time believing 
that these buckles are indeed fakes. This web site is dedicated
to stopping the ongoing fraud that continues to this very
day. While these buckles are still seen selling for upwards
of $1,400 on eBay (and elsewhere), they are, for all practical
purposes, absolutely worthless. As paperweights or as items
purchased merely for their heuristic value (some collectors
like to use the rather pleasant
euphemism, "fantasy items," to describe them),
they're worth no more than $5 or $10 each. Anything more
than that is a rip off. This site; however, will refer
to them as simply bogus or fake buckles - there is no reason
to hide the fact that these were designed and manufactured
for the sole purpose to defraud tens (if not hundreds)
of thousands of innocent people.
So, just where did these bogus buckles come from? Well,
it appears as if an Englishman, John Fairchild, was behind
this scam that was intended to play upon the sentiments
of his intended victims - average American collectors who
were interested in historical items. Unfortunately, Fairchild
was all too successful. When sales of his original "Civil
War" buckles started to decline, he (or someone very
close to him) apparently came up with another scheme to
keep sales up - he started to focus on the "Wild West." In
the early 1970's a book, entitled Tiffany & Gaylord:
Express & Exhibition Belt Plates suddenly appeared
on the scene in an effort to further bolster the scam started
by Mr. Fairchild. The book was allegedly copyrighted in
1950 and written by Percy Seibert. The photo of the so-called
Percy Seibert is located just above and was taken directly
from this book (with a few enhancements, of course)! Soon
thereafter, J. Duncan Campbell, a consultant for the Smithsonian
Institution and an expert on belt plates and other such
items from the period recognized materials he had written
in 1963 copied verbatim in good 'ole Percy's bogus book.
Mr. Duncan then produced what must be considered the definitive
guide on exposing the buckle scam - New Buckles of
the Old West. Not only wasn't the book published and
copyrighted in 1950 but the publisher  never
existed, Percy Seibert plagiarized not only Mr. Campbell's
work but also did a great job of creating fake pictures
of "historical" documents, and his book was filled
with many other horrendous mistakes. Perhaps the most obvious
is that his book was allegedly printed in Baltimore (it
wasn't) and yet it used English, not American, conventions
throughout (most notably spelling). Unfortunately Mr. Campbell's
book is long out of print although it is possible to obtain
through your local library (most likely through an interlibrary
loan). Since that time, many others have come forward with
additional concrete evidence to further support Mr. Campbell's
work. It is the intent of this web site to document these
and other sources to stop the scam that began in the 1960's.
Then, to further confound the large number of amateur
hobbyists in the collectibles community, who were finally
beginning to suspect that these buckles were indeed fakes,
another book appeared mysteriously upon the market - Accoutrement
Belt Plates. Unlike the Seibert book, which had already
been completely discredited, this new book was presented
as some type of catalog, allegedly published by "Tiffany & Co.,
London, England." The first, obvious, problem with
this is the fact that there has never been such a company
- the real Tiffany & Co. is the famous American firm
based in New York. According to Tiffany's
web site, their London store wasn't opened until 1986
and was the one that "initiat[ed] the company's expansion
into European markets." Of course, the appearance
of Accoutrement Belt Plates preceded that. While
a "copyright notice" and an official looking "registration
number" were provided in the front of this catalog,
there was no mention of any dates or, for that matter,
any other verifiable information as to who was really responsible
for the printing of it. Again, the only logical explanation
that it was created for one, and only one, reason - to
bolster sales of these fake buckles. The most interesting
aspect of Accoutrements; however, is that like
the Seibert book, it was filled with page after page of
egregious factual, grammatical, spelling, and other errors
- certainly not something one would expect from one of
the world's most respected creators of fine jewelry! Perhaps
the only redeeming value of Accoutrements is
that it has provided a fairly (but not entirely) complete
listing of all of the so-called Tiffany buckles. While
it cannot be verified, Accoutrements may have
listed all buckles that had been manufactured up until
the time of it's printing. There appear to be somewhere
between thirty to fifty additional buckles types created
(or not listed) in Accoutrements but the actual
numbers of these is currently unknown. It is hoped that
this site will also serve to document just how many of
these additional buckles there are.
Disturbingly, since the Tiffany Buckle scam was  unleashed
upon naïve collectors, countless others have since
reproduced these fake buckles - nearly all of them of significantly
less quality than the "originals." The vast majority
of these are quite easy to identify due to their shoddy
construction. Even so, these "fakes-of-the-fakes" are
often found on eBay as "authentic" antiques!
A section is currently being developed on this site to
assist new collectors in recognizing these imitations.
At this time, only one legitimate manufacturer is known
to have reproduced quality copies of the "original
fakes" and they used their own name the backs of these
buckles - not those of those of manufactures found on the
backs those made as part of this scam: "Tiffany & Co.", "E.
Gaylord", "Anson Mills", "A. J. Nash," "Robinson
and Adams", "J. Purdy", and Wilkinson.
Finally, as already noted, an individual by the name of
John R. Fairchild is believed to have been the mastermind
behind this scam. At the moment, much about him appears
to be shrouded in mystery but it is believed that, in addition
to the Tiffany buckle scam, he also manufactured fake collectibles
pertaining to Nazi Germany, operated a company using the
name of "Deanne and Adams" (which also appears
on the backs of many of the buckles that may have been
created after most of the "Tiffany" ones), may
have been sued by the real Tiffany & Co., and perhaps
even moved and operated his unscrupulous business from
Switzerland. It is also believed that John Fairchild passed
away quite some time ago (all details are unknown) and
that; apparently resulted in the end of his notorious buckle
scam. The real facts behind all of these assertions are
still unknown and Bogus Buckles would greatly appreciated
hearing from any one who knows the truth about any these
claims.
Now Available!
New
Release of the Infamous
Accoutrement Belt Plates Book
As part of this site's efforts to expose the bogus belt
buckles attributed to Tiffany & Co., A. J. Nash, Anson
Mills, E. Gaylord, etc., one of the most notorious books
created specifically to perpetrate the ongoing deceit,
is now being reprinted: this time with a Preface (that discusses
the fact the the buckles documented in the book are, indeed,
bogus), a table of contents, photos of buckles missing from the original version, and an index. The book has been
entitled, Accoutrement Belt Plates: Exposed! and is available from Amazon.com.
Disturbingly, collectors of the
bogus buckles are forced to pay absurd prices for copies
of the original fake book (one
site currently sells a copy for the outlandish about of
$110.00 and falsely states that "Tiffany and Co., London"
published it) - nothing could be farther from the truth.
With the reprint of Accoutrement Belt Plates: Exposed!,
collectors will no longer have to get ripped of when attempting
to purchase this bogus book. Every effort has been made
to keep the cost of this reprinted edition to a minimum
and is being offered at a mere $12.95.
Special Sale!
Accoutrement Belt Plates: Exposed! for just $9.95
In order to thank our site visitors, we have decided to offer Accoutrement Belt Plates: Exposed! at the reduced rate of $9.95 (not including shipping via USPS Priority Mail).
New Additions to Bogus Buckles
Visitors to this site will enjoy visiting our Book
Store that is designed to help collectors
obtain accurate materials (or items that are known
and identified as inaccurate) related to the fascinating
hobby of belt buckle collecting. In order to halt the
sales of some of the fake materials created to defraud
collectors, Bogus Buckles is proud to offer eBook editions
of some of the fake books and catalogs that appeared
during the 1970's and 1980's in an attempt to legitimize
these fake buckles. Even now, these "modern antiques" are
often sold on the Internet for hundreds of dollars.
Disturbingly, eBay intentionally ignores complaints
regarding some of the exorbitant prices asked for some
of these.
Visitors will also be interested in visiting our Photo
Album. This already contains pictures
of most (but not all) of these buckles. In the event
that you own one of the buckles not already documented
on this site, it you are encouraged to upload your
own pictures of them. Not only will this give others
an opportunity to share what information they may have,
but it will also serve to further identify any buckles
not already mentioned on this site. This service is,
and always will be, free.
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