The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-04-24
A WANING FAD,
An Old Furniture Man Who Finds His
Business Played Out.

used to do thriving business by col
Letting in his travels ancient pieces of
furniture. He owns his occupation is
about done. He didn't fancy the loss of
his revenue. and being sensible kind
of fellow made it his business to find
out the root of the cause of the shrunken
revenue. He thinks he was successful
and got hold of the root, but it was I'M
available to cause any growth of his
business plant, however well nuturcd.
He talks about it in this way Begin.
ming about ten years back the craze for
following up auctions and buying old
furniture set in in the country. In the
cities it dated away back of that. The
first symptom of the disease was old
clocks, and | find. looking back over
my books. I've sold twenty-five in the
last ten years. Some of them were fair
looking and some were not. You see
the way it generally is, an old family
about three generations back, that had
the wit to make enough money to buy
handsome, costly ones. transfuses the
same capacity to its descendants, and
they are well able to keep any old relic
they have, money being no temptation
to them to sell. It's generally the an
Pcestorless people who go nosing around
after other peoples old things. Well,
sftr CLOCKS chairs set in, and they
had" it hard; all broke out with
chairs; couldn't sleep nights; fiddle-back
chairs mostly. I've sold them as high
as SO many time. | acted as middle
man at one time. I used to buy them
in the broken-down stage and sell them
to woman in the city. She slicked
them up and sold them for SO; said they
came right from dear old grandma's
dome. Then old writing-desks caught
On. When you come to look at it, there's
more sense in buying an old desk than
in any other old piece, for modern
provement up 10 date in these goods.
You see, in old times there were no
safes used in houses to give secure
keeping to the law and family docu-
ments, so it was necessary to have some
receptacle for them. An old desk of
curled maple and slanting front, its
lots of little pigeonholeS, sly locks and
drawer-room is really a valuable piece
of furniture.
About the time desks took hold,
Bullets got in gear. | never saw but
one l could care for. Cape Cod is a
splendid place to pick up fine antique
furniture. | saw this buffet there.
genuine cherry, no veneering, wine
color with age, and carved to fit the
queens taste. 1t was eight feet broad,
clawlegged, swell front, and. | believe,
brought from Italy by some old salt
who sailed from the Cape. | bought it
and LETT it there until summer visitors
came. A man from New York saw it.
He was gentleman, that fellow was.
He said he'd been American minister at
Paris, and he scarcely ever saw better
one in any of the old palaces there. He
gave me S75 for it, and had it done over
in New York. Then it was shipped to
his place where he lived summers at
Mount Vernon, and he said when | saw
him again that it became famous
That mans home was filled with heir
looms in silver, wood, fa brics, and pict-
ures, but one night, when the family
was in New York it caught fire and the
whole valuable collection, which could
never be replaced was burned. And
the most aggravating thing about it
was that the insurance on the contents
of the house expired that very day
Complete loss Ii that wasn't impious,
dunno.
"Owners of houses out in the country
and the livers in provincial cities are
now the only people who can be roped
in for old furniture and other an
tiquities. The styles gave out among
the stylish. You may have read of the
sale in New York City short time ago
of Millionaire Allen Thorndyke Rice's
valuables-everything he left-goods
enough to furnish ten hotels, the press
reporters say. Well, you can guess how
much the crowd of very fashionable
people care about old furniture, for
they were sold for merely nothing. A
| large sideboard of solid mahogany,
made in Paris sold for $55. Another
piece of furniture which would have
been jumped at i'll one-horse city was
Sheraton desk, very old, perfectly
preserved, the woodwork and carving
being the most expensive, sold for $50
after lots OF urging by the auctioneer.
Ordinary mahogany desks, like those
people will pay $50 or $40 for before
they are done over, sold for IS and $40.
Some solid mahogany chairs, very an
tique, made in Paris by one of the
swell decorators of long ago, sold at S14
each, though it was not denied that they
cost $50 each at the lowest estimate.
Brass and iron of all the old and eX-
pensive shapes sold at from 50 to IS a
set. People who are up with the time
have got done with such old stuff; they
don't want to give it house room. But
when it came to old feathers, damasks,
.brocades, or old engravings and prints
such as Fortuny's. Simone's and Rose s
works. those New York swells grabbed
them up in moment at good price
They are now what makes house The
thing, because now the modern furni
ture, which is copied from the elegant
antique styles, is made SO suberl
wealthy people and cultivated people
buy it. and if they have been guilty o
buying somebody else's old trash tina
was awkward in style and never fine il
makeup, they put it out of sight anC
put in its place the modern manrfact
ureS.
That's what has spoiled my money
making as a collector of old furniture
vI,.