Beautiful Victorian Front Doors and Transom

[phil]

I met a lady that bought a beautiful window she said it was "from a church" and paid lots. thousands. she was a very sporadic spender and had lots of money, millions, but also suffered from mental illness and was held for a time by the hospital because of her crazy spending habits. she'd enter a store and buy so much it was like a scene in a movie with the staff falling over themselves to please her because she dropped money like it was going out of style. she got a temporary rush from the excitement and kept repeating the scenario to a point of being totally ridiculous. quite sad actually. her beautiful house was filled with art objects and stuff she had collected

I saw the "church window " in person. the design was amazing. BUT it was basically made up of very thin pieces of glass that were glued to the windows and it wasn't vintage nor was there any leading. It was pretty deceptive because it was in an old frame, dusty and set in a back corner of the antique store waiting to be "discovered" once she purchased it there was no legal recourse. buyer beware, there are scammers that do that. I dont think she was even aware she'd been scammed when she showed it to me.

I also saw her buy this religious plaque from a church in Venice, yes we went there. I agreed to go on the trip shortly after we met. paid for my flights, non refunable on short notice, she had all the hotels pre booked and paid for so the offer was that I would just pay the flights and my costs.. cool I thought , but no not cool.

next I got to spent two months visiting her in confinement after I found out she was "certified" then the cops took her to the mental hospital before our departure, kept her 2 months and released her three days before our planned trip. what a crazy trip ,,, anyway that was an exciting lesson for me, but at lease I saw Nice France, ( where the people got run over by a truck) Milan, Venice, Flourence, I didn't see much of Rome, but a little. by then I was pretty traumatized by the result of this lady that refused to take her medication and went off the deep end without it. I had actually asked and pleaded with the travel agent to book me flight home part way through our trip because the antics were that serious, then found out I couldn't change my flight so I was along for the ride anyway.. I warned each hotel manager of the situation in case I needed a room, by rome I got my own room because it got so nuts. I asked her to take her meds and that set her off like she was on fire...

She came out of the giant church with this thing, a religious image on a board.
said she paid $400 for it and it was one of only two in existence. Just as she said that we passed by another window front , I said hey look there is the other one! and there in the window sat the other one. point is,, Even the church was playing the game, or maybe she was just that easy to lead. she said the wood it was made on was very old.. yes it probably was an old piece of wood. almost the same scenario, but I was surprised she even got scammed in a church, maybe church is the wrong word. I'm not religious but those buildings are so amazing.
It was a big monastery where crowds of people lined up to go through, I think it might be in a flooded area now which is sad. it was almost at the elevation of the canals.

This window might indeed be authentic. I wouldn't put my money on ordering something like that from a picture because yes people do pull that stuff.
the design, colors etc were very nice but it was mass production stuff sold as is where is.. so be careful out there. I have also seen many examples of people making nice stained glass and using old windows as frames. nothing wrong with it until it gets misrepresented as an antique. If it is sold in the surroundings of real antiques it can be presented in a deceptive but not really illegal way.

note the dust in the first photo. now if you were trying to sell some original old windows for that much you'd think you'd break out the Windex. I'm being pessimistic but that dust could easily be "applied dust" and the leading could be real, all one needs to do is obtain the very thin glass used for that type of glass work and apply it to the existing glass leaving the lead came showing. Presto a nice fake and a sizeable profit without doing anything illegal. a bit of work and it is still art. The viewers simply assume it is an antique. the frame does lead you to that yes the frame is a real antique. Is the art as old as these frames? could it be a fake?