Howlers
 

I am reminiscing over a rare item that I acquired during the early days of my collecting and this reminded me of the explanation given to me by the seller.
I refer to an officers' gilt and silver mid-Victorian Royal Dock Yard Batallion shako plate. The seller told me that it had been presented by Churchill to the Malta Dockyard in appreciation for work done to put ships back into service after heavy air raids. Some people have vivid imagination! Naturally, I didn't belie him.

I can well believe that howlers abound in the forum so if anyone cares to share a light-hearted moment...

GTB

I don’t like it when someone is trying to sell something that isn’t what they say it is. Especially if they don’t have any evidence to prove overwise. I know we do make mistakes it happpens. As we all know Kipling and King and others have made mistakes, to be fair though they didn’t have the internet. But some on here seem to think, if they say something is whatever, that’s it. Thus corrupting history. Proof/evidence is needed, don’t just make stuff up.....
Andy

I don't know what a howler is but I'll tell this story.
I don't think there is anyone that knows everything about what they collect or in my case what they research.
I was once told a story by a well known collector who said that he believed he knew all about an item that he collected and then one day he realised he was wrong because an item he believed was a fake turned out to be genuine.
I don't think we ever stop learning.

It is true that we never stop learning and that research is both rewarding and vital in both avoiding pitfalls and also fully appreciating items we have. I particularly like attributed items fresh to the market. Buying such a grouping I found items which I (and no doubt several experienced members of this forum) would have thought spurious, but which were obviously correct, given their attribution. Being cautious, I have not purchased several items over the years - on the basis I could not be confident they were right - no doubt some were 'howlers' in terms of being items I should have added.
'Research, research and more research' is a mantra I adopted a long time ago ... and there is much more to know than I will ever learn ... life being too short.
Mike