Lead Imitation Figurine

3D Model

A lead or lead alloy figurine of a bishop with arms raised; purchased by collector and ethnologist Alfred Fuller as an example of ‘Billy and Charley’ forgeries (made from 1857-70); William Smith and Charles Eaton were unemployed and uneducated Londoners who created forgeries of medieval artefacts to feed to growing interest in antiquity and an appetite for collecting artefacts in the mid-19th century.

Gifted to Senate House Library in 1965 via Estelle Fuller and the National Arts Collection Fund; archived under the Fuller Collection (ref. Fuller/1/6/1).

Modelled using Agisoft Metashape Pro version 2.0.2. Photographs taken using a Nikon D850 camera. 132 images used.

Copyright © 2025: Matthew O’Connor, Shibo Wu and Senate House Library.