A free exhibition exploring centuries of literary and historical deception has opened at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Fakes and Forgeries, on display at the library on George IV Bridge, features forged letters, poems and manuscripts from its archives.
The items have historical value because of the stories behind their creation, offering an insight into the people who fabricated them and the deception they were intended to achieve.
Among those featured is Alexander ‘Antique’ Smith, one of the most prolific 19th-century forgers, who produced documents in the names of Mary, Queen of Scots, Robert Burns, Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott.
Smith’s work flooded the Edinburgh manuscripts market in the late 1880s before he was caught and sentenced to a year in prison. His forgeries continue to surface, posing a risk to collectors.
The exhibition also examines fraud involving Lord Byron, whose popularity as a literary figure created strong demand for unpublished works and correspondence.
One forger, operating under aliases including ‘Major Byron’, claimed to be the son of the poet and a Spanish aristocrat.
The false identity helped him gain access to genuine Byron documents, which he used to create convincing forgeries. Some even deceived Byron’s publisher, John Murray.
Another focus is the Sobieski Stuart brothers, who fabricated a royal lineage and historical documents in the mid-19th century. They claimed to be direct descendants of Bonnie Prince Charlie and produced a forged manuscript detailing the tartan patterns of Scottish clans.
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Chris Cassells, head of archives and manuscript collections at the National Library of Scotland, said: "A decade ago, 'post-truth' was the word of the year.
"Little were we to know that ten years on we would find ourselves in the era of 'post-reality.' Deepfakes and generative AI have undermined our ability to tell fact from fake and we’re now grappling with a world where seeing is not necessarily believing.
"But, while the technology has changed, the history of fakes and forgeries goes back centuries. It is the practice of many institutions to actively and knowingly collect forgeries—and we are no exception."
Mr Cassells added: "As forgers such as Antique Smith and Major Byron have become so notorious, their 'work' has become collectible in its own right. And like it or not, they are part of our literary history.
"The circulation of forgeries remains an issue for collecting institutions such as the National Library of Scotland.
"As such, our curators must stay vigilant when adding literary and historical documents to our collections: to separate the fakes from the real deal."
The Fakes and Forgeries exhibition runs until April 2027.
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