Robert Burns is already one of the most studied writers in literary history, but even 226 years after his death new findings are emerging to challenge the imposters who tried to profit from his name.
“We thought he had four writing styles as he went through life,” said Professor Gerard Carruthers, one of the foremost Burns experts. “Now we are thinking he has six. We have noticed the size of his dashes change as he got older, there are changes in his literal lines of embellishment. Something new is always coming up to distinguish Burns’ work from the fakers.”
It is for forensically-sharp observations like this that auction houses, museums and wealthy individual collectors are beating a path to Carruthers’ door at the University of Glasgow.
With Burns manuscripts and first editions selling for tens of thousands of pounds, it is important that when they go under the hammer they can be authenticated as genuine.
“There are dozens of fakes still out there in private collections,” Carruthers said. “I have had several phone calls from auction houses over the past year as well as national institutions and at least a dozen private individuals in the US and Europe. They have been caught out in good faith in the past so they are keen to have access to our expertise.”
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The Glasgow team of scientists and academics working with Carruthers are in demand because of their mastery of two techniques.
The first includes the development of a database that focuses on Burns’ writing style and the differences between his hand — and the materials he used — and that of notorious Victorian forgers such as Alexander “Antique Smith”.
The database covers characteristics such as handwriting, type of paper, watermarks and letter-locking (distinctive ways of folding letters).
When contacted recently by the owner of a manuscript copy of the bawdy song Nine Inch Will Please a Lady, it had all the Burns characteristics, including genuine 18th-century paper with grid lines and watermark. However, the devious Smith was also known to have sourced and used such paper. Only when the Glasgow team found the distinctive red ledger lines of Excise paper — Burns was an exciseman from 1789 — did they feel confident to pronounce it genuine.
Only after seeing this, Carruthers said, “were we able to say with a high degree of confidence that the manuscript fits the profile of a genuine Burns”.
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The second technique under development being by university researchers is mass spectrometry, a computer-based examination of the chemical composition of the inks and papers that Burns used. In the first study of its kind, the team tested inks and paper from 11 documents — three Burns documents from different periods and eight fakes from the 1890s by Smith.
The differences were clear, Carruthers said. “From this small beginning, we now know what inks Burns used to write many of his texts and are able to provide a clear physical distinction with his most prolific forger.”
This year the team will apply for a £750,000 grant from national funding institutions to develop mass spectrometry — which does not appear to cause any damage to the documents — in a three-year project that will require the services of a forensic chemist and many hours of laboratory time.
Carruthers hopes that the study will enable mass spectrometry to be used more widely in the authentication of historical documents that fetch high auction prices and, eventually, the wider art world.
“Mass spectrometry is a very useful tool,” Carruthers said. “And if we can use it for ink then we can probably use it for paint. There are many possibilities.”