How can pinchbeck be distinguished from real gold?

Several indicators. Weight: pinchbeck is lighter than 18-carat gold (density around 8.4 g/cm³ against 15.6 g/cm³ for 18 ct) - at the same size, a clearly perceptible difference. Magnetism: pinchbeck is not magnetic (as gold is not), but where iron impurities were present in cheaper pieces it can be slightly magnetic. Acid test: a drop of nitric acid turns pinchbeck green (copper oxidation) but produces no reaction on gold - this test damages the piece and should be carried out only by specialists. Patina: over the decades pinchbeck develops a dark to greenish surface; real gold stays a stable gold colour. Hallmarks: genuine gold pieces carry carat marks (375, 585, 750, 916), pinchbeck pieces do not.

Was pinchbeck a forgery?

No, not in the modern sense. Christopher Pinchbeck marketed the alloy openly from the outset as a gold imitation - a high-quality alternative to gold that looks almost identical but costs considerably less. Only in the nineteenth century did some workshops begin to pass pinchbeck off as real gold - which is deception. Original eighteenth-century pinchbeck pieces are not a fraud but a material in their own right with an aesthetic tradition of their own. They are collectors' objects today, with their own auction prices.

Why was pinchbeck so widespread in mourning jewellery?

For three reasons. Price: in the eighteenth century a pinchbeck mourning pendant cost around a tenth of a comparable gold piece - which made mourning jewellery accessible to a broader middle class for the first time (see The Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century). Visual equivalence: a pinchbeck piece was indistinguishable from gold at first glance - which preserved social presentation at a time when mourning jewellery was worn in public. Sentimental value without material value: because the material value was minimal, the emotional value of remembrance stayed to the fore - pieces were not melted down but handed on across generations, because they posed no temptation to the melting pot. Paradoxically, more antique pinchbeck pieces survive today than comparable gold ones.

Pinchbeck (Gold-Imitation Alloy)

Pinchbeck is a copper-zinc alloy of the early eighteenth century, developed by the London clockmaker Christopher Pinchbeck - deceptively similar to gold in appearance, considerably cheaper, and in Georgian sentimental jewellery the dominant material of middle-class mourning and memorial pieces.

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