Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-06-19
BRI0A,HnA0
How the Esthetical People are
Badly SwindIed.


New York Times.
Beware Of brie.a-brac. 1t is a snare
and a delusion. If the tricks of the
most astute dealer fool even the
Frenchmen in that great art center Of
| Paris, how can we hope that the sim
pie American, even though he be q
New Yorker or a Bostonian, can be
cute enough to escape the snares so
YEARLY set for him? When we see
that the directors Of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art have paid over hun
dred thousand dollars for the veriest
trash, and are still delightfully."- un-
conscious of having been humbugged,
how may we expect that less preten-
tious individuals should escape the
tieecing2 In china, enamels, bronzes,
worries, arms, coins, the bric-a- brac
trapper is always around, and his vic
tins are many. France manufactures,
most especially for her home market,
for England and. America, her old
Rouen ware and Sevres. She can
turn you out SAKE in quantity at
months notice, adopted to the partic-
ular wants of the Ceramic maniac.
Limoges enamels are especially
dangerous. A manufacturer works
on them by the wholesale, initiating
the whole subjects. He is honest
enough to sell them on their own
merits, but when the Limoges gets
into the hands of the uncrupuIous
dealer. buries them in moist earth for
a month, and then they date back
from the fifteenth century. There is
that famous Henry ii. ware. The
number is limited. The original pieces
you can count on your fingers. Still,
new ones are always turning up.
These are manufactured. The brand
new objects are treated to fuorhydric
acid, and in ten minutes they acquire
an old look. This little trick, which
costs not more than ten cents to &C.
oomplish, increases marvelously the
cost of such ware. From vase being
worth, say s., the price arguments at a
jump to $1,000. Be on your guard, We
American travellers who 60 to Paris,
as to the purchase of real old Regen-
cy clock. Such clocks in bronze are
cast by the ton every day in Paris, and
then touched up by tools so as to re.
semble the work of Boule. Antique.
furniture with wormholes in it is the
variest OF catches. All that is neces-
sary is to get an old piece of wood,
load a gun with mustard seed
the finest grade Of shot used for ob-
tanning pathological specimens, and
then with a good charge of powder fire
at slight angle into your vieux chene.
The illusion is complete. These holes
in the wood were made by worms,
which enjoyed themselves in the time
of Catherine of Medicis. The old
work is then closely initiated, and for
a bahut which is not two weeks old
you pay 5000. francs. believing that it
dates back from Henry Nv. Wood !
which has been eaten into by real
worms has its value, and when an old |
house is torn down in Europe, such
ancient timber. brings a higher price
for the antique furniture business
than fresh wood. Paris is not alone |
in the brio brac business. A French
authority tells us that the specially of |
Vienna is the making of jewelry of |
past centuries. Florence is distin-
guished as manufacture of antique |
arms; London turns out old
Seyres. In Berlin, Roman pottery,
older than the time of Augustus, |
is furnished by the crate; Amsterdam
produces iron work which antedates |
Quentin Matsys, and Rotterdam the
most deceptive delf. AS to New
York, the art of humbug, with that
increasing love of brio a-brac, has
created artists of singular skill, whose
inventive genius is quite equal to that
Of their European contemporaries.
We turn out any number of quite
creditable false antique coins and
quantities of sham old furniture. We
do fair trade in homemade old arms.
We are dabsters at Queen Anne furni
ture. Yankee ingenuity only wants to
be called on to respond at once to any
demand Most especially is summer
the harvest time of these manufac
turers of spurious goods. Then the
bogus wares, are shipped to Newport,
New Bedford, Saratoga or wherever
people with full pockets and little
brains congregate.