EBay research

Several years ago, the Antiques Roadshow filmed here in Birmingham at the Civic Center. I took my metal plaque of the Last Supper to see what I could find out about it. The gentleman who finally spoke to me more or less brushed me off. He didn't know what kind of metal it's made of, but he said it's worth less than a hundred dollars. I don't know what kind of metal it's made of; I suspect lead, but is lead very hard? The plaque is extremely hard metal. It isn't iron, because it doesn't rust (does cast iron rust?). It isn't silver, because it doesn't tarnish. Where the black paint or glaze has been scraped away, it's extremely shiny and stays that way. I guess it's lead.

Some time after the Roadshow, I painted over it with white acrylic paint, which will wash off, so that I could see the details. On eBay I've found an antique plaque, similar to mine but finer and more intricate, made of silver; and another antique, also very finely worked, made of copper and marked by a maker in Germany. My plaque is almost exactly like the German copper one, except that mine is extremely pocked and blurred, as if details have been worn away over time; but I know that's not the case, because of the hardness of the metal and the intact nature of the black glaze.

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The German copper one:

I tell myself that I didn't want to sell mine anyway. But if it were worth several hundred or a thousand, like the antiques, would I be that resolute?

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There are other replicas on eBay, some made of alabaster and other stuff, even plastic. From what I've read about them, I think mine was probably made in the U.S., in the 1940s or '50s.