I have seen a forged Holland & Holland 20 gauge SLE. I could immediately see that something was not "up to par" with the gun before I picked it up from the owner(who at that time he had bought a forgery). Upon quick examination of the forged gun I could see a number of issues that pointed out to me that the gun started its life as a Spanish SLE. (a $20,000.00 forgery)
Just like the story of the 20 gauge high dollar high grade LC Smith 20 gauge shotgun in the issue of DGJ (Winter 2019) that I received last week, forgers do not do their work well and a expert can tell the differences--at least the expert in this article in DGJ could determine the differences. (reported to be a $100,000.00 forgery)
I have not encountered a forged shotgun (a shotgun to be purported to be of higher grade than it was originally) where the forger did not begin with as near a new condition lower grade shotgun as the forger could find before he (and his colleagues) began the "malice a forethought".
Of course, I only know what I know and do not know what I do not know, although I have encountered a person or two who did not know that they did not know what they did not know---or that it was possible.
