Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-04-04
COUNTERFEIT BRIC-A.BRAo.
Degenerate Condition OF the Furniture
Trade-Thc LamentatiOn Of an Old
Dealer
From the New York Sun.

Trade-Thc Lamentation Of an Old
Dealer.
From the New York Sun.
81 have been dealer in old furniture and art
uriosities-bric-a-brac is what they call it now
for more than thirty years" said a sexagenarian
ofthe east side, land have seen a great MANY
sad changes, but what grieves me most is the
present decentralization of taste in art matters
and the degradation of large portion of our
once respectable business. Deceptions in curl
osities We're often practised in the old days, bat
these. bad as they were, reacted upon the dealer
only. Buyers used to demand genuine work
and pay for it. At present men buy limitations
as such. poor miserable. weak limitations turned
out by the thousand. and try to cheat their
friends with them.
"A big, burly fellow asked me boldly last
week for some cheap furniture ID Roman and
Pompeilan FORMS He said Such things give
fire tone flavor of antiquatedIess to our
he mes Merciful gracious, flavor of antiquated-
ness, Why that horrible brute was brought up
on Il three-lcmged stool. Yet. while he was talk
in" he showed symptoms Of wanting to sit
down on that fine rocco dressing table. My son
was actually bullied into selling him for SIS
Mary Queen of Scots private bedstead he picked
up in Avenue A. You would be surprised
sir. at the number of the fools who come
here to buy things which never existed
outside OF European palaces. But limitations
often suit, if the price is right. Here is Vene-
tian mirror. 1t is small but genuine, and is
very costly. Now, what makes Venetian mir
rOr valuable is the enormous amount of hand
labor bestowed in grinding its beyels. They
must be followed up through all their curves
and arabesques, and finished with exquisite ac-
curacy in every part. But what do you think
OF attempting to initiate such lustrOus prismatic
crystals by means of vulgar, dngy pressed
glass? Yet such artistic shams are turned out
by the thousand. They are fancy glass mirrors,
of course. but they lack absolutely the one par
tcuiar quality to which the genuine article owes
all its wOndIOus beauty. The thing is base, sir,
utterly base.
'ln delicate cabinet work the same frauds
prevail. This bit of DelafOsses handiwOrk is a
case in point. The carving, you observe is
beautiful. and is done with sure hand TRY
to do the smallest part OF that work on round
surfaces. and you will see what mean. Well.
this box is worth 800. You may get the So
called elegant limitations for So SO. 1t is all
pressed woodwork glued up and stained. It's
carvings are stamped in the steamng mill
There seems to be constant, feverish strug-
gle to make everything resemble something
which it is not.
"Oh, no. am not afraid OF injurng trade by
anything l may say upon this subject. When
people are crazy alter fashions of any kind no
amount of reason enters into their calculations.
The greater the deception the larger will be the
sales. If the fraud is known to the purchaser
he will not complain, provided the price is low
and he thinks he can deceive his guests In any
event he gets the flavor of antiquity. for which
he Graves. Only last year the Cabinet Maker,
an English Journal printed an advertisement
offering for sale recipe for making Queen Anne
furniture. 1t sold well, judging from the
quantities of the queens weak-legged chairs
that are disposed of. People must know that
they are buying limitations.
. In the matter of chairs. the recklessness of
dealers is almost beyond belief. One of them
sold full set the other day-a full set. mind
yOu-Of Egyptian chairs. for a 5th avenue din
ing room. 1t reminds of the man who
bought the Life of AgricOla' in two volumes,
when what we know of him wouldn't make
common tract. In this case the goods were
warranted genuine. and high price was OBJ
tanned. The set was of ebony throughout vet
the British museum itself can boast of but six
Egyptian chairs in all, and only one of them is
of ebony. What We're the limitations made of?
Why. sir, of common beach wood. They boil
it first in nitrate of iron. and then wash it
with extract of lOgwOOd. That is the way to
make real Egyptian ebony. AS to antiquity, l
once saw workman in the fXing-up room of
an antique furniture dealer pick up chair and
deliberately smash 1t to pieces on the stone
floor Then he set to work with his glue pot
and some American putty to repair it. If
customer should question the ripeness OF its
years, the dealer would point to the repairs and
remark, quietly: Our ancestors must have
placed high value on that article, or they
wouldn't have spent SO much money In keeping
1t in good order
There is a little laugh among the trade Just
now over dealer who puts on the esthetic style
rather heavily with his customers. 1t seems
that wealthy buyer came along and asked for
antique furniture Have you a Louis QuinZe
feellng:' asked the dealer. No; cOnfOund it,
said the customer, Il want some old chairs
some of them old antiques
GU see. sir. that the present rage for clas-
sic furniture Is direct outcome Of ShOddyism.
The newly rich have been so heavily reprOached
for their lack of antiquity that they feel bound
to protect themselves with old articles, or old
limitations, which they pretend are inherited. l
went one day to house in Madison avenue to
measure for an antique cOrnice The pro-
prietOr called my attention to his furni-
ture This chair is superb piece of
work. said he; it was made to order for nv
great-grandfather, fine old Englishman, and
here is the old gentleman's clock. The old
gentemans clock was fraud of the worst de-
scriptiOn. Even the works were not designed
until he had been in his grave for half a CEN
fury. and On turning up the chair found it to
be the poorest possible American imitation OF
the English Glastonbury.
The trouble with many people who want to
give the antique flavor tG their house furnish
ings is that they let their cravings run into q
mania which It Is impossible for the dealer in
brio-a-bric to satisfy without deceit. l had
customer who wanted an imitation Dagobert
chair. That was We'll enough. but he insisted
on having my sons guarantee that II was genu-
inc. In moment of most reprchensbe weak
ness my son gave it TO him, and now think the
owner really believes it to be genuine. At all
events he tells his guests so. AS there is but
one of the chairs in the world. and that one is
in the Louvre. he is the subject of considerable
unpleasant criticism.
Am i an undertaken? No, l am not my
partner bought that thing. 1t is q genuine
Egyptian mummy case, made in good Old Con-
necticut. When entered the classic shades of
Hartford last year, and pursued my way through
lnEOcent-loCkng lIamlets to Fairfield and Say
brook IN search of tall clocks and Puritanic cab
met WORK, perceived that the Old state was
not free from guile in the matter Of furniture
Fairfield deacon brought forward a couple of
chairs which he said had been in an old COnnec-
ticus family for three generations. He would
sell the set, six in all. for 1925. While we were
hag9iing. my man had been on a tour of inspec-
ton around the place. He soon breathed few
words in my ear. and business was closed
abruptly. 1t appeared that the deacon's barn
was half-fIll Of make-believe old furniture
which he regularly pedded out to summer visit
ors. The so-calied relics which this wicked dea-
con spread before me were ingeniOusly decep-
tive. saw imitation worm holes (bOred with
gimiet) in his furniture; there were many in
dentatiOns and false mendings, and the STAMPED
brass mOuntings had been touched up with file
and hammer to make them look as though made
l., IL