Collectors' Corner: JoJo and the Essex Treasures

All-Capitalising EBay seller jojosjewellery (180 Feedback score) Weston-super-Mare, United Kingdom has some interesting stuff on sale. Like this GOLD ROMAN FOB SEAL INTAGLIO metal detecting A STUNNING RARE HISTORIC ITEM,  yours for just (!) £3,995.00. Oh yes, all perfectly OK they say: "A STUNNING EXTREAMLY RARE FIND GOLD ROMAN INTAGILO (sic) SEAL ROMAN HEAD CARVED INTO RED GEM STONE AS FOUND METAL DETECTING IN ESSEX WITH OTHER ANCIENT TREASURES SELLING AS FOUND NO RESERVE AND FANTASTIC LOW START PRICE (which is an odd thing to say of a 'Buy it now, ONO' sale). The accompaying p[hotos tell us more that the seller needs to spend more time on their manicure than inform us about the object, though the fuzzy photos do not inspire much confidence that the carving is stylistically ancient, and the battered gold mount is not Roman. The other treasures include another intaglio (this one just £1,250.00), RARE ROMAN INTAGLIO SET FOB metal detecting FIND STUNNING RARE HISTORIC ITEM. Another fuzzy photo of the stone itself, it may have been metal detected in Essex, but the mount is not Roman. It is described as 'A STUNNING EXTREAMLY RARE ROMAN GOLD GILT ON SIVER? MOUNTED INTAGLIO SET CARVED GEMSTONE WITH A WOLF? AS FOUND METAL DETECTING IN ESSEX IN THE 1970s WITH OTHER ANCIENT TREASURES'. Yeah, the other one has bells on it. The intaglio stylistically would fit in with a series of cheap modern gems carved in Thailand with carborundum grinding wheels in imitation of ancient ones. It looks more like a set of bagpipes than a wolf. If you have a spare 2.5k to throw away, you might be tempted by a RARE SILVER ANCIENT TUDOR RING metal detecting FIND STUNNING RARE HISTORIC ITEM (another Essex find  'found with other treasures'). I doubt it is 'Tudor', and it is  a shame that JoJo did not proffer an identification of the blue stone (dyed howlite, perhaps?). There is a gold posy ring  ('A STUNNING EXTREAMLY RARE MEDEAVAL LOVERS  RING  GILT? WITH INSCRIPTION OLD ENGLISH NO I N GOMASOV DARTE? I GIVE YOU MY HEART? SIZE L HAS HAD A GOLD 9CT INNER STRENGTHENING BAND FITTED AT LATER DATE AS FOUND METAL DETECTING IN ESSEX WITH OTHER ANCIENT  TREASURES').  [no 9ct band is visible in the photos- actually quite clear]. Then there is a RARE SILVER ANCIENT TUDOR HATPIN METAL DETECTING A STUNNING RARE HISTORIC ITEM. Yes you guessed it, this machine stamped item was not pulled out of granny's hat box but was a metal detecting find "from Essex" and guess what? It was "found with other treasures".

Convenient that all these things were "old finds" before the Treasure Act, eh? But what a lot of "treasures" we are asked to believe that this Essex artefact hunter had stashed away out of sight for half a century... How many more collectors have had similar stashes? And how when they surface after a collector's death can we sort out true provenances from dealers' blague (and cover-up lies)? 

How when items like this are put on sale is one to verify that they were indeed found before the Treasure Act was passed (and do they not fall under the preceding Treasure Trove legislation anyway)? Can the seller pass documentation on to the buyer to prove that the object is legal to own according to the laws of the place it was found (like a dated and signed protocol assigning title from the landowner to the finder)? 

Finally, how were these prices established by this seller? Are they just "off the ceiling" prices? This is significant because a treasure hunter finding similar objects may be disappointed that the TVC gives lower values than the ones they can see online for similar-looking items.