The Minneapolis journal., 1901-04-26
IN A NEW YORK cURIo SHOP
How the Expert Tells Real Antique
Copper From Imitation.
New York Evening Post.

New York Evening Post
The owner of the little East Side curio
shop was in a genial mood the other day
when a reporter walked into his dark,
cramped quarters. He looked up from the
polishing Of quaint Russian copper jar,
and began abruptly
Look at that. Isn't that a graceful
shape? The man who made that jar was
an artist. See how the hammer marks
show-heavy up here, where it was to be
bent, and lighter here in the center. That s
one way Of telling the real from the imi-
tation-by the hammer marks"
All around him were the brilliant cop
per and brass surfaces of the antique Rus
sian, Italian, or Dutch cooking and drink
ing utensils, and the miniature forest OF
candlesticks. "Is there much chance of
initiating such metal work as all this
around your" he was asked.
''Is there? l should say so. I can take
you to six or seven places in New York
where such good reproductions of copper
and brass jars and BEETLES are made that
you wouldn't suspect.
''See this one re?"-picking up a
heavy vase-like copper vessel, with bulg-
ing center and narrow top and bottom
that's on sale for So here A dealer who
didn't know me came in the other day and
tried to sell me copy of that-a good one,
too-for Sc. l could hardly tell the differ
ence myself
What are the differences? Well, fo1
example, all these Russian things have
to be heated red hot before they are
hammered into shape. That gives the
metal a rich, reddish hue, that can't be
marks, as I told you, are irregular and
vary in size and position. Besides this
there is an irregularity of shape possessed
by the real thing, which comes from the
hammering. These imitators take a sheet
of copper or brass, and before it's bent
pound the hammer marks on the fiat sur
facial alike. Then the thing is bent
on regular form into the desired shape.
But, bless you! no more than half or
three-quarters of you know the difference.
You can't detect it by the annealing
either, for that can be initiated exactly.
There is the thing that is mighty hard
to get hold of nowadays. That's wrought
iron utensils. Why, I'd give twice a.
much for an old iron candlestick as
would for a brass one. Why are they SO
scarce? Because they rust and corrode
so, guess Throw an iron implement
away and in year it will be eaten up,
almost
After judicial look about the little
shop, he continued: 81 can't ask Fourth
avenue prices. l haven't got the location.
But l sell to those shops and they resell
my things at a bigger price to their
patrons. Guess 1 could have an automo-
bile, too, if l could sell for what those
fellows do. That table there-look. Isn't
that beauty? l ask thirty eight for that
as it is, but it would sell for fifty any
where else
In response to the inquiry as to who
bought most of his antiques, he replied:
"'Well, the dealers first; after them the
artists, and studio-furnishers, and few
who collect these things, as l do, because
they love 'em. What 1 buy l buy from
private families, and all I've got is the
real antique.
Some way I hate to palm off stuff on
nv customers that isn't what they think
it," he explained virtuously.