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The St. PetersburgerA heritage guide to Russian crafts

Section 06 of 06

Buying Heritage: The Authenticity Guide

The site’s spine: the tests, the history and the care rules that turn souvenirs into keepsakes worth keeping.

Open collector notebook with pencil notes beside a magnifying glass resting on a velvet tray holding a small enamel box

Every other section ends with a version of the same question: is this one real? This section answers it directly. It collects the failure modes that copies share across materials, from printed brushwork to cast plastic amber, and it tells the one story on this site where documents matter most: the House of Faberge, its imperial Easter commissions, and the museum on the Fontanka that now keeps a famous share of them.

It ends where a good guide should, with care: lacquered wood, amber, porcelain and wool all age differently, and most damage to genuine pieces happens at home, not in the workshop. The rules are short, and they protect what the recognition guides helped you find.

In this section

  1. Genuine hand painted wooden spoon laid beside a printed imitation on a checker cloth with a loupe and a small notebook between them

    How copies fail: a cross craft guide to fakes

    Every craft fails differently, but counterfeits fail the same: they print what should be painted, cast what should be carved, and story what should be documented.

  2. Ornate gilded frame around a blank velvet plinth with a book of museum catalogue plates open beside it on dark green cloth

    The Faberge imperial eggs, as documented

    No craft story on this site is surrounded by more invention: the eggs deserve the discipline of the record, and the record is spectacular enough.

  3. Open care cupboard with a lacquered bowl on a felt liner, amber beads on cotton, a wrapped shawl and a porcelain cup dusted and waiting

    The care guide: keeping crafts alive at home

    Most damage to genuine pieces happens at home, one kind gesture at a time: a dishwasher here, a sunny shelf there, a perfumed wrist.

Two neighbouring sections continue the story: Matryoshka & Dolls and Amber & Jewelry. The recognition rules shared by every craft are collected in the guide to spotting fakes.