The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-31 00:00:00

PICTURE AUCTIONS AND PICTURE DEALERS.

Eurvean Marazine, N. S.,,fbr January.
BY A 'DEALER, Dealt out.
"Decipirnur specie recti.—Hon.

Don't you know that the maids killed
the cock ? No !—why I thought every fool
knew that, but it would seem then that there "is
one who (1,,,s not. Surely y. 11.1 must have read
.tEsop's Fables, and have forgotten that the maids,
being ordered by their mistress to rise at the
crowing of Chanticleer, put him to death, that
they might no more be disturbed in their slum-
bers. Now, knowing how devoutly attached
people are to their darling follies and vices, and
picture-fancying ranks high among them, and is
not the least expensive, I must, before I begin to
crow, and give warning, deprecate any inquiry
after me, with the same amiable design as that
which filled the teuder bosoms of these gentle
virgins. Having stated the conditions, I shall
proceed without reserve, as we say, to lay down
a dozen cautionary rules, which, as the sales are
coining on at this season of the year, will be found
very salutary if duly observed by novices, that
is to say, young collectors, or would-be connois-
seurs and amateurs.

RULE I.—As it would be very unwise, as you
must allow, to trust to your own judgment, so
would it be doubly so to trust to the judgment
of anybody else—especially a dealer.* " Ut
pictura, poesis," says Horace, and as poetry is
like a picture, so vice versa, pictures are like
poetry, a lying affair all through This is the
ground work, and success in both depends on it.
An unequal matter I admit, for the dealer in
poetry may be a long time before his profits can
compete with the lying of the dealer in pictures.
RULE IL—Of course you are not quite so
young as to bestow your credulity on the 'l'itians,
Guidos, &c. that figure in the catalogue ; but
even still less would I have you pay the least re-
spect to a single word uttered by the auctioneer
about original state, private collection, just im-
ported, to be sold without the smallest reserve,
and other phrases of this sort. Ile lies, and he
has his reward—the commission ;—if indeed he
be not a picture dealer himself, and " the pri-
vate collection of a gentleman' lately defunct,"
be not from his own store, and sold by the de-
ceased in person.
RULE 111.—Never buy an old picture in had
condition, an undoubted original by one of the
firstmasters—a Teniers, for instance, whose age
is not two years.-1- There is a manufactory both at
home and abroad, to prepare such ancient paint-
ings to gull you. How is a copy of Raffaelle to
pass for a Raffaelle, if it be not smoked and (la-
maged ? and what can be easier ? it is, as Slink-
speare says, " as easy as lying."

RULE IV.--Never buy an 01(1 picture in good
condition, or to use their phrase, " as fresh as
when it first came from the easel"—for though
this be true enough, it having indeed just left the
dealer's easel, where what was good, is spoilt by
his lining, cleaning, and stippling, and daubing
in. After all this quackery, a coat of varnish,
like charity, covers a multitude of sins, which
you will find out when you get it home perhaps,
but certainly, if you should ever deem it neces-
sary to have it cleaned again—or to sell it.
RULE. V.—Be not vexed, repent not, at what
you may think the loss of a bargain—a picture,
sold for nothing as it were, and which you might
have got, had you bid another half-crown—for
any odds, it was not sold at all. Nineteen sales
out of twenty of " private collections," " collec-
tions of gentlemen going abroad," &c. are made
up from the various dealers' stock, and by them
bought in, if they are not sold at their full value,
at least. If you are really iii consolable because
you have not been taken in, wait a little, and you
will see the self-same canvas in a different frame
perhaps, at some other auction in a remote part
of the town. If a picture sets in clouds in the
West, it is sure to rise in all the effulgence of a new
coat of varnish in the East. Like snipe shooting,
you may have two or three shots at the same bird,
within short distances both of space and time.
RULE Vl.—An unquestionable sale of pictures
collected by some known person of taste, and for
years seen in his possession, is tempting ; but be-
ware. Dealers, like blood hounds, are on the
scent, and will have every one of any intrinsic
value. Here they bid not against each other, but
one or more make the purchases, and they have
an after sale amongst themselves, when the
surplus over the bidding at the sale is shared
amongst those who do not obtain the. picture.
Here you may, perhaps, get a good painting,
but they will take care you shall pay for it, and
gold may be bought too dear.
Rura: VII.--Justly fearful of auctions, be
equally apprehensive of the dealers' shop—Scylla
and Charybdis. If you visit a dealer, it is a mi-
racle if you escape—all he requires is, that you'll
just call and look at his pictures. His paintings,
highly varnished, and in gorgeous frames, are
doled out one by one from an adjoining chamber,
his laboratory or repairing room, and placed in a
studied light—he descants on names—points out
beauties—asks a sum• which can startle no one,
for he promises to return it in six months if you
don't like the picture, and, in fine, talks you out
of yoursenses:—always generously supposing that
you had some when you went
ItULE Vlll.—lf you happen to have more mo-
ney than wit—a thing very likely to happen to
a dabbler in pictures—this would be a good and
speedy way of getting rid of the supertlux ; but
as it is a pity to disfigure well painted walls with
badly painted pictures, and grievously vexatious