Invisible Hands Fabrication Forgery And The Art Of Islamic Ceramics

“Invisible Hands” traces the remarkable history of forged and fabricated Islamic ceramics, showing how highly skilled craftspeople in the Islamic world produced “antiquities” for Western collectors in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on provenance research, archaeology, economic history and technical analysis, Graves follows these objects through diggers, dealers and museums, arguing that fabrication and forgery were not marginal curiosities but central to how Islamic art entered global markets. The book reframes fakes as sites of invention and craft, challenging traditional value judgments and offering a new paradigm for understanding authenticity, authorship and expertise in Islamic ceramic art.