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If anyone's into making their own "ancient" documents for use in their act, here's something that might give you some interesting ideas beyond ageing the paper and the calligraphy. From the Radio Times web site:


Illuminations: Treasures of the Middle Ages

Wednesday 07 May
9:30pm - 10:00pm
BBC4

Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon visits a new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, which contains a treasure trove of the world's most important illuminated manuscripts. Germaine Greer joins the modern-day illustrator Quentin Blake to consider the religious and political power of these beautiful medieval masterpieces, and to assess their place in the history of art and book production.

Thanks TOMO i will record that

I remember using the old tea bag the whole piece of paper, a few lighter burns and in the oven for 20 mins to make "ancient manuscipts"-then used biro to write all over it to "add to the realism"
no wonder i didnt do well at history!

In the Theatre all we ever did for period plays was write the stuff, in Indian Ink or even a black felt 'wet' i.e one that runs a bit, pen, on brown wrapping paper, make the edges a bit jagged by careful tearing, then bake them in an oven. You would have to experiment on which level etc.
Allen Tipton

I get a real kick from making my own ancient documents. Usual methods - tea bags, drying in oven or on radiator, etc. A few spots of coffee granules on a wet piece of paper (probably wet with tea bag water) adds some realistic looking spots on the paper - let them dry properly though because they will be tacky to the touch for a day or so.

I'd love to fool the "experts" with something one day!

themagicwand wrote:
I'd love to fool the "experts" with something one day!

As soon as they Carbon dated or looked at the paper youd be found out!
Science once more destroys your dreams!!!
Mwahahaha

TheAlkhemist07 wrote:As soon as they Carbon dated or looked at the paper youd be found out!
Science once more destroys your dreams!!!
Mwahahaha

I saw a programme on BBC4, I think, about a guy who was faking documents to do with the Mormons. He used to remove blank leaves from authentic books.

There's a great tutorial on making aged paper here.

Has anyone tried Atmosphere Number 1 from Black Hart? Apparently, it makes props "smell old". They also do an Atmosphere Number 2 which gives your props a "faint whiff of mortuary or death".

The amount of fake treasure maps I would insist on making as a child was extraodinary! In fact, I might make another one now!

True confession:

I used to run an on-line company selling high class wooden magic wands (very Harry Potter-eque). On the website I claimed (very tongue in cheek) that the shop had once been a bricks and mortar establishment in Sheffield during Victorian times, that Harry Houdini had visited it and bought a dozen wands "for the folks back home", etc. etc.

The more I thought about it, the more I began to believe that even if there never had been a real magic wand shop in Sheffield, there ought to have been one. So I set about trying to alter history so that it would be accepted in Sheffield that once upon a time a magic wand shop where wooden wands were manufactured and sold had existed on a back street alleyway.

I produced one of those "local history" booklets that one sees for sale in bookshops and newsagents. I constructed an entire back history, including the story of a girl who worked in the shop on Saturdays during her early teenage years. This booklet sold very well, and was featured in the local Sheffield newspaper who faithfully reproduced the entire story without ever checking the facts.

The people who owned the shop where the magic wand shop had once stood agreed to have a brass plaque placed on the building front to commemorate the world's only ever magic wand dedicated shop.

Eventually the local library services got involved and ordered dozens of my booklet to be added to their local history collection. By this time the thing had taken on a life of its own.

Shortly afterwards the library local historian got involved and wanted to see the articles and magazines I'd cited in the booklet so he could verify the story. This would mean forging a lot of material. I decided I couldn't be bothered anymore, plus I started to think "My God! What is this monster I've created!" and bottled it somewhat. So I dropped the entire project, didn't return phone calls or emails, and eventually it died a natural death.

I still come across people who when I tell them I'm into magic ask if I've read the booklet about the magic wand shop that used to stand in Sheffield city centre.

My life is full of stuff like this.

i felt like actually applauding that, but you wouldn't hear (and my office mates would), so i didn't; but I thought it!

I've just remembered (this was all a few years ago) that Radio 4's Woman's Hour wanted to do a piece on the Victorian girl who worked in the shop. They wanted to try and track down her living relatives and present them with a magic wand! It was all getting too sticky by this time so I didn't let the Radio 4 thing become a "goer".

Just goes to show though that you don't need carbon dating to fool the experts. As magicians we should know this.

Would a certain Mr.Pullman have been involved in this enterprise?

Mandrake wrote:Would a certain Mr.Pullman have been involved in this enterprise?

Rumbled.

Well and truly!

In 1905 in Sheffield, a certain Mr. Pullman opened what is believed to be the world's only "bricks and mortar" magic wand shop. Mr. Pullman actually produced wooden magic wands in his cellar workshop, and these were sold through his shop which resided on Chapel Walk, Sheffield. The shop finally closed its doors in 1915, probably as a result of the Great War, and few examples remain of Mr. Pullman's great endeavour. In an attempt to preserve the history of Mr. Pullman's Magic Wand Shop, has produced a 50 page paperback book in which the history of the shop is recounted. The book also contains facsimiles of magical publications of the day, all of which lend a great Victorian/Edwardian "cobble-stones, pea soup fog and magic" feel to the book.

Time to get this going again !!