Fakes, Forgeries & Facsimiles: Shakespeare's Mulberry Tree
from his touchwood trunk the mulb'ry tree
Supplied such relics as devotion holds
Still sacred, and preserves with pious care."
Cowper, "The Task," 1785
described the mulberry tree that gave birth to the Shakespeare relic industry.
Supposedly planted by Shakespeare at New Place, his Stratford home, the
tree was sold for firewood in 1756. Instead of burning it, purchasers
transformed the firewood into saleable items and made a fortune. The issue
of fakery has several dimensions here. Did Shakespeare plant the tree?
Does wood from trees grown from slips of the original mulberry count as
genuine? Was a box marked "Shakespeare's wood" actually made
from "the" tree? Was the wood even genuine mulberry? The only
certainty, as a modern scholar observes, is that the tree provided a "new
and strange addition to rural England's arts and crafts, namely that of
making poetry pay."
A 1905 auction
catalogue features a prominent photograph of this "tea-caddy made
from the mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare." The lengthy text
description goes on to call it "an undoubted genuine relic, having
Sharp's own stamp on it." Thomas Sharp, the best-known maker of
mulberry souvenirs, stamped "Shakespeare's wood" into his
products. Note, however, that this box does not actually bear his stamp,
only a damaged area where a stamp seems to have been scraped away. The
box is possibly genuine mulberry, but fake Thomas Sharp.
tree tea chest ©
Fakes, Forgeries &
Facsimiles Exhibition Highlights
Can you spot the fake? | Original copies | Facsimile "witchery" | Famous owners? | False imprints | The Headless Horseman | William Henry Ireland | John Payne Collier | Shakespeare's Mulberry Tree |
Exhibition Intro | Visiting
This page updated January 26, 2004