Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-02-20
MOCK ANTIQUITIES.
A Business Which is Thriving in Paris
A Factory of 'OId Rouen Ware
From the Louisville Courier Journal

A Business Which is Thriving in Paris
Factory of "OId Rouen Ware
From the Louisville Courier Journal
The picture dealers have scarcely fin
ished Quaking at the exposure of the
tricks of their trade before the dealers
In faience find that their turn has come,
writes a Paris correspon dent. These
amiable people have so long carried on
a swindling commerce in Paris that they
had begun to operate with boldness
which hastened their ruin. Hence-for-
ward even the most guileless amateur
will have no excuse for being taken in.
It is a little puzzling to see bow he has
allowed himself to be gulled up to date.
The number of curiosity shops alone
is enough to put one on his guard.
They are springing up In all directions.
/ was amazed, during a walk in the Rue
de Lafayette the other day, to note the
new ones which have opened within
the last few months. Very magnificent
affairs they are, with gorgeous fronts
handsomely filled with "halberds, Iances
shields, banderoles, majolicas, buck
cts full of gems, aud innumerable frag-
ments CT tapestries, as we'll IS plates
galore" The newcomer to Paris whose
pockets are filled with newly made
money looks at these museums and
finds himself willing to take almost
anything offered him. Why should not
the plates be genuine? They are ugly
enough, he thinks, to be ancient; and if
they are limitations, who will know it Ia
Oshkosh or Valparaiso? He buys
plate for Luca della Robbia; that is
enough for him. Woe unto the man
who comes to him after the purchase
and says: "This thing is gross fraud:
it was made only last year in a factory
where thousands like it are turned out
annually for gulls like you; and the
stamp of age which you fancy that you
see upon it was attained by numerous
artificial processes which were both
cheap and nasty" Ten to one the buy
er Will turn red with anger and report
among his friends that the critic is a
presumptuous ass who loves to make
people uncomfortable by making fun
their artistic purchases, and who of
furthermore, does not know good thing
when he sees it.
The unedueated buyers-the thousands
of men and women who flock here from
all parts of the world in search of pretty
objects of art with which to ornament
their homes-these are the ones who
first encouraged the outcropping of the
swindIers. Mrs. Gen. X, fromSt. Louis
having got possession of veritable plat
ter from the hands of the maestro
Giorgio, Mrs. Senator Y, of the same city,
feels that the universe will be an empty
blank until she has a similar plate hang
ing IN her drawing room. Themerchant,
appealed to and offered fabulous sums,
finds his conscience sinking into ruins.
Mrs. Senator 7. will never know of the
fraud which he is tempted to perpetrate
unless he tells her; so he yields, and
furnishes her an imitation so artfuI, so
good, that it dims the radiance of the
acquisition IN which Mrs. Gen. x, was
beginning to revel, A gentleman sends
to the Figaro a letter announcing that
he was one evening in one of the curios-
ity shops III the Rue de Lafayette, when
the postman came In and handed the
merchant letter. He read 1t and laughed
1t was a proposition that the dealer
III curios shonld take stock in compa-
ny organized expressly ''for the manu-
facture Of old Rouen ware" and this
company was to start with a capital of
1000, 900 francs, divided into2 900 shares
of 500 francs each. The knayery is not
new. Many such companies have been
formed and run with marked success for
the last ten years. The sums made in
spurious Rouen, StrasbOurg and NeFers
faience since 1860 can never be accurately
estimated, but certainly amount to many
millions Of francs. There is one ''p0rce-
lain factory" in France whose managers
appear to have thrown aside every atom
of caution. They issue price-lists to
general dealers conceived IN this wise:
''First quality, extra, merchandise made
old so much"
A few years ago every dealer who had
an important position made speciality
of the works of Palsy. Every old
horror, which had anything In common
with the epoch In which the great pot
ter lived, was attributed to him, and
when rage for his productions had
been created, hundreds upon hundreds
of limitations were launched upon the
market. By and by this fraud broke
down, bat the dealers, who had mean
time discovered that the public is emil
nently gullible, we're ready with others.
They had the marks of time and hard
usage adroitly placed upon new wale by
a variety of ingenious processes, and
could produce at a moments notice an
old Roueu which seemed a veritable
tr0a1UoiUe 1t was some time before
thew dared to begin the forging of sig
natures. but when they did enter upon
it they did it at wholesale. A clever
amateur can take a common white plate,
worth Is cents. decorate it In imitation
of old fond de CUR Rouen faience, put
a tiny Cupid with his culver IN The
midst Of an odd and rather angular
blue, yellow and black ornamentatlon,
and can give this to dealer, who Will
II time sell it to some rich, and possibly