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Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting / inscription/statue | | Latin term or phrase: spurius ex orichalco | | This is an inscription on a statue of a baby sitting on a globe, which was one of three identical statues given to people involved in the "butter-box babies" case in Canada in the 1940s. |
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Canada
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20 mins confidence:  
2 hrs confidence: brass copy / false
Explanation:
Since "spurius" means also "fake / false". it may mean it's a brass copy of the original statue.
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2 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +1 a fake (made) from mountain-copper
Explanation:
'Orichalcus', sometimes misspelt 'aurichalcum' from a false etymological association with Latin 'aurum', 'gold', derives from Greek 'oreikkalkos' and means (1) copper mined in the mountains, (2) any yellow copper ore, or (3) brass made from this ore. There was also another variety, called 'album' or 'white' by Virgil (Aeneis, 12.87) and described by Theopompus (Historiai, 1c9) as a blend of 'pseudargyros' ('fake silver') and 'chalkos' ('copper'). Plautus (Curculio, 1.3.46, Miles Gloriosus, 3.1.61, Pseudolus, 2.3.22) and Pliny the Elder (34.2.2 § 4) inform us that it was a substance greatly prized by the ancients. It was used by the Romans to make such things as valuable armaments (Statius, Thebais, 10.660) and even a (military) tuba (Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, 3.61). Callimachus (Lavatio Palladis, 19) mentions a mirror made out of it.
'Spurius', which is used substantively, not adjectivally, properly means 'bastard, illegitimate child' but is here metaphorically employed of any fake or fraud passed off as something genuine.
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