The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-07-26
The Demand for the Antique.
A Dealers Frank Talk About the Rickety
and Ancient in Furniture.
New York Sun.l


ly," said dealer. people often come in
from the watering places to get the first chance
at any good things we may have discovered
at the May auctions. 1t takes US some time to
patch them up to suit the market. Yes, there
is always certain demand for these worm
eaten but pathetic relics of the infancy of the
republic We sell to many nice people, who
have taste for the ancient and honorable in
furniture, and then we have another class who
buy freely and pay high prices refer to the
newly rich. During the past ten years many
of them have taken kind of dislike to the
word 'shoddy;" they have found out what it
means, you see. As consequence there arises
regard for the 'old antique as they call it,
which increases our sales and raises our profits
on everything classical and riekety in the way
of furniture and decoratives. Folks that can
not show a long line Of ancestors make up for
it by good collections of not strictly reliable
tables and chairs.'
Sis it in men or women that this mania pre-
dominates?"
women. Men get the fever second d-handed
like, from their wives. We have to be wide
awake in selling, for we can't make sales with
out asking high prices. Some mouths ago a
ho5tler came in with an old rag of rug to sell.
1t was large, but an ugly, queer, faded looking
thing, evidently a worn-out imitation of those
Persian or Turkish mats which look as though
they had been dragged through some retail
paint shop I gave the man dollar for the
article, and my porter gave it half hours ex-
perience with club. Then L cut q long
breadth out of the threadbare centre, squared
up the ends, and put a carpet sewer to stitch
ing the pieces together, adding, of course a
heavy black fringe. Within a week two la
dies called, and being of the new artistic
school, they, of course, picked out that mat
the ugliest thing in the shop. How tender in
color, said one, and she about hit it. IL was
tender in other respects, too, if she had only
known the fact "A precious relic, indeed
said the other. is it Moslem, slr?' Pure
Moslem, ma am, said 1; 'all wool-comes from
the Adams family What is the price,? she
asked Now, I'm an old dealer, but hesi-
tated for fear 1 shouldn't ask enough to i'm
press her. She took my confusion for reluc-
tance to sell, and from that moment her mind
was made up. She took a careless turn around
the room, and by that time my mind was made
up, too. No, no; wouldn't be willing to
state the figure we settled on; it was private
rates."
"Do you sell many of these things?'
"The sales are not SO very large, but the
profits are quite fair, quite fair. Antique fur
niture is our main hold it sells right along.
1t is hard to keep up really good stock.
Here is fine old set-all mahogany. 1 had to
pick that up piece by piece, and some of it was
pretty well smashed up. You see, it is finished
in peculiar style; all the table and chair legs
are mounted on a lions claw holding brass
ball-handirons to match. It's very rare and
valuable-worth $1,000. Some call them
Hancocks."
s"After the General, of course-so solid and
heavy?"
"Oh, bless you, no. After old John Han
n ,0f Oh,
of the Declaration of Independence There
have been at least thousand sets of that
respectable old gentleman's furniture sold here
and in Boston. Mine is the only original set,
and this is why have taken the liberty to
carve a. rudimentary H on the back of the
roomiest arm chair. Every perfect set contains
the old patriots favorite chair. We always
put handsome silk band across the arms be-
cause we wish to retain for the purchaser the
sole right to sit in it. This fine old piece is the
chair known to have been used by Gen. Howe
during his somewhat precarious residence in
Boston at the revolutionary period 1 have
two letters strictly authenticating it. regret
to say however, that from the number of Howe
chairs in the market, that officer must have
spent most of his time in moving from one
chair to another, and done considerable more
sitting down than fighting. This one is genu-
inc.
Certain lines of revolutionary articles are al
ways good; people are only too anxious to be-
lieve in them. Washingtons, however, are
difficult to SELL The public must draw the
line somewhere, and it's generally at Washing
tons and Jeffersons A dealer spoiled the mar
ket for Washingtons. You see he sold secre-
tary with a contemporary certificate. and some
fool held it up to the light and found the water
mark to be 1850. Such manifest rascality in
lures business; it wound up the Washngtons,
and 1 had to mark down Martha Washing
ton bedstead to an Aaron Burr. 1 did sell a
Jefferson hat stand three years ago, but it
stretches an honest dealers reputation to
make many very ancient sales. MayhOwers
cannot conscientiously handle; no amount of
swearing will make them go. DE Witt Clin-
tons and Hamiltons are all sent to Boston just
now, and they send us B. Franklins and
Adamses, all having ancient certificates and
Boston postmarks-in short, the most reliable
evidence. Some of the letters, you will OBJ
serve, are pasted under the seat. Here is
something from Philadelphia chair which
belonged to the honored Penn. See its strength
and apacity-evidently made to order. Now
here is the original stool which Nathan Haze
sat on just before his ex-"
: 81 see. Have you any sale for foreign
goods?"
"Yes, bat it doesn't do to keep more than
three or four distinguished foreign articles in
sight at time. There's some furniture our
public cannot swallow easily. AS q rule,
though, it is safe for dealer to act up to the
principle that his goods are as likely to be
authentic as not. II he doesn't know to the
contrary, it is fair to affirm that his articles
are what they look to be. Very many buyers,
though, don't care for relics: they want re-
spectabe old furniture that looks as if it be-
longed to wealthy old great-grandmother.
Here and there you've got to remark that al
article was found ,in-well, almost in Julius
Caesars garrett. had to sell Marie Stuart
sofa the other day. L had it laid out for a
Hannah More, but had to mark it up to suit" :"
The sources of supply-that is, for genuine
ooods-is oattinu weaker and waakar Grand
fathers clocks, for instance, of good style and
in fair order are scarce. | sold my last one for
1926. The customer told us plain out that he
wanted something that showed ancestry and
we let him have it. The New England States
have been travelled through and through for
them. Once in while one turns up. The old
carved bookcases and chests OF drawers mount
ed in genuine old-time brass, oan be had now
and then. Carved oak mantels and chimney
pieces tiles, tapestries &C.. are good when you
can get hold of them. One trouble is growing
greater every year. We cannot get anything
like full sets. Sometimes we have to wait a
wear and more before we can decently COM
plete room. Such collections bring very high
prices know of one that fetched $4,000. As
for most of the ancient bric-a-brac, it should be
regarded with suspicion. Revolutionary tea
pots were once leading article on account of
the tea overheard. But regret to say that the
demand was broken up by an unprincipied
dealer whose fraudulent methods knocked the
life out of what was once very salable arti-
Gle.
Yes, personal relics are to be had. Genuine
ones are rare. There are dealers, though, who
will sell you anything you want, from Gen.
Putnam sword to the bulrseye repeater OF a
delegate to the first Congress. These last arti-
cles are known to the trade as orphans.
"Oh, don't speak to me about manufactures
of our goods 1t is most awful to think of.
Yes, sir; know two factories where's it done.