The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-04-11
OLD FURNITuRE O r
Good Articles CostIy-Vniuo or brass Orns-
~ts-Noh and Their Prices.

"Our customers" said an old furniture dealer,
"often complain that we charge too high prices.
Our prices are high, l confess. but then our
wares are worth paying for. Here is a chair, for
instance. which l made myself. Doubtless 1t
seems to you to be an ordinary wooden chair,
which you could pick up at any big store for "a;
yet l would not sell II under $50, and / should
consider II cheap at that. Though 1 say II, there
is not a furniture maker In town that could du-
plicate that chair; no, nor an architect who
could draw a plan Of 1t. plain though 1t looks.
1T Is impossible to explain the points of furni-
ture. One knows a good article by the look Of 1t.
1t is like Judging n picture. Nor is experience
sufficient. A man must have an artistic oye.
Occasionally men come In here who have had no
experience at all, and yet are able to pick out
the good things at q glance. Thcrc ueed TO be q
man In Brooklyn who made a good living by
buying up valuable pieces OF furniture from all
sorts OF holes and corners and selling them to
dealers without putting u hand to them in the
way of refurbishinR. He had a natural genius
In that direction The chair which / showed you
might perhaps be more valuable II 1t was an
original design. But we never originate. We
have forty.lvo Chippendalc models TO copy from,
and II Is not likely that we could improve upon
them. With such articles rs chairs it is, OF
course, impossible to keep a design to ones self.
There arc other things, such AS the brass
ornaments on old bureaus and sofas, which arc
valuable not only in themselves but as models.
II might seem that these could be multiplied in
definitely, one cast being taken from another.
Such. however, Is not the case: The casts lose
In definiteness as they are multiplied. The first
is less clear than the original, the second than
the first, and so on. After the third or, fourth
they are almost always useless. Dealers are
very careful not to let copies be made Of their
valuable brasses.. l have some brass ornaments
whose designs alone cost me $40 each, and /
know they were stolen at that. Men have offered
me twice as much to he allowed to copy them,
but l have refused.
There are always men lurking about the
auction rooms ready to pick up anything valu-
able-brass ornaments, bits OF carving, miniature
frames, even the legs OF tables and chairs.
Nothing comes amiss to them. Recently l
bought n clock with n silver bell and gold hands.
l was for leaving the whole thing until / could
send for II. but the auctioneer advised me to
take tho hell and hands with me. Iunscrewed
the bell and put it In my pocket, but would not
be Mt the bother OF removing the hands. When
l returned later the hands were gone. There
was not n dollars worth of gold in them.
There Is, / am sorry TO say, a certain amount
OF stealing ~practised by the old furniture brokers
themselves. Mos, of us make rc-upholstering
part of our business. The old cushions are
generally stuffed with good hair. which sells at
80 to 10 cents II pound, and in the case OF the
best curled white, ~ a pound. A workman
finds IL a very easy matter TO abstract the good
and substitute poor cheap stuff"