You’d see it all the time in olde timey cat burglar movies and police drama TV shows*. Someone would try to pass off fake jewels as the real thing. The person who discovers the trick will declare the fakes as “paste.” (I assume that’s how it’s spelled, but maybe not.)
I always thought “paste” was a curious word for phoney gemstomes. Anyone know the origin?
Paste is a type of hard glass with a high lead content. Artificial gemstones were often made of it.
The fake jewelry was made from a material that starts out as a paste.
Paste usually refers to rhinestones. You can read a lot more about the subject here:
http://www.glamforless.com/History.htm
I’m wondering if the term might have also had something to do with the way stones were mounted in cheap jewelery: glued in place rather than held by prongs. (I’ve seen some antique cheap costume jewelery that was mounted in this way.)
According to the OED:
1662 C. MERRETT tr. A. Neri Art of Glass V. xcii. 143 This past imitates all Jewels and colours, and hath a wonderful shining and lustre, And in hardness too it imitates the jewels. 1718 LADY M. W. MONTAGU Let. 10 Apr. (1965) I. 399 That Paste with which they make counterfit Jewells. 1782 J. BYRES Let. 13 Oct. in I. Jenkins & K. Sloan Vases & Volcanoes (1996) 188/1 Sir William Hamilton has got…two curious rings, the one a Hercules playing the lyre on a fine jacinth, the other an ancient paste about a third of an inch square, on which is a Syren. 1828 E. BULWER-LYTTON Pelham I. i. 2 The diamonds went to the jeweller’s, and Lady Frances wore paste. 1889 Harper’s Mag. July 262/2 An expert knowledge has become widely disseminated which easily detects the paste from the real jewel. 1948 R. M. PEARL Pop. Gemmology vii. 246 Fine glass imitations called paste became so popular in Europe that they were a fad among the wealthy. 1991 ‘E. ANTHONY’ Relic (1992) (BNC) 127 Shops and dealers who specialized in old paste, in decorative objects, phoney icons and faked religious relics.
Given the answers above, probably because paste itself (not the term) has fallen out of fashion, in favor of cubic zirconia, etc.
To add to the literary references, I’m pretty sure the term was used in Guy DeMaupassant’s “The Necklace”. Wasn’t it the final line of the story? Something like, “Oh, my poor dear, those diamonds were nothing but paste.”
Not exactly.
“Oh, my poor Mathilde. But mine were false. At most they were worth five hundred francs!”
Let’s not forget that we’re talking about translations from an originally French story.
Coincidentally, when I saw the thread title, I immediately thought of The Necklace because I also clearly remembered the jewels being described as “paste” in the final line. I remember it because the first time I read the story as a kid I was a little confused as to how jewels could be made out of paste. I decided it must have been some kind of mache or something.
Anyway, I don’t know what the French says but I know for a fact that at least some English translations use the word “paste.” (My WAG is that “false” is probably a bit of dumbing down)
Just wanted to point out the something-that’s-not-quite-irony about correcting The Scrivener with a page of of bartelby.net. 