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'Antique Smith,' as Alexander Howland Smith was known, was a highly skilled forger. He worked in Edinburgh in the 1890's and very skillfully forged letters and manuscripts attributed to Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Mary Queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell, Edmund Burke, William Pitt, William Makepeace Thackeray, James I of England, Charles I and II of England, and others. His calligraphy was excellent and was accomplished without tracing. His forgeries subsequently have acquired a genuine appearance of age, and have frequently been offered for sale as genuine.
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