Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-04-26
SOLD IN BUYING.
Light on the Dark Ways of Some Brio
a-Brac Dealers.

From Tit-Rts.
For ways that are dark and tricks that
are as Ingenious as they are dishonest. said
a well-known collector of antiques. the
heather Chinee might well take lessons
from some Of our dealers in bric-a-brac in
| fact, some OF their tricks are so clever that
| even an expert may at times be deceived
while the average purchaser runs the
greatest chance OF being sold"
This is, perhaps. especially the case in an
tique furniture. for which there is such a
craze nowadays that the demand far out
strips the legitimate supply, and nothing
| Is more certain than that the supply will
never De allowed TO fail so long as the de-
| mand exists.
The truth is that there is very little gen
uine old furniture TO be picked up nova
| DAYS. and the dealer must either turn away
| good customers or fabricate the furniture
an amiable art in which he excels. For ex-
ample, man will pick up an antiquated
bedstead for few shillings in a country
cottage and will fashion from IL an ANTIQUE
cabinet which would deceive any one but
a connoLsseur. and quickly find purchaser
Tor II for perhaps ESQ or $40. By means OF
| sulphuric acid and French polish he will
| make IL as black as ebony, and a few min
| utes with a shotgun Will riddle Il with
~crm-holes Is most artistic and realistic
manner.
In this way an old chest Of drawers or an
old wardrobe can be converted into a cost
| iy piece OF furniture which has every ap-
pearance of being well-preserved example
| OF sixteenth or seventeenth century work
ana by little manipulation a single genu-
| Inc piece of old furniture can be converted
| INTO quite number of pieces each OF which
VIII fetch many times the cost OF the origi-
| nal.
A favorite method of disposing of these
| furniture frauds is to send them to remote
country cottages, where their custodian
coached for the purpose. will explain to the
hot f.n.- lar-. -.
| IN his family for centuries" The collector
| mas no reason even to suspect this state
ment, which the circumstances all seem to
1 corroborate, and he adds a few bogus
| treasures to his collection and congratu-
| lates himself on his luck
Occasionally the dealer discovers quite a
treasure house of real ancient furniture in
some out-of-the-way corner of the world
| Probably its owner knows little OF its real
value, and regards 1t as no better than
| lumber. When. therefore, the dealer ap-
| proaches him and offers to refurnish his
! mousse IN the latest style in exchange for
| the rubbish" to which he has taken a
| fancy" the rustic is more likely than not
| to consent, and thinks that for once he has
outwitted townsman. He little knows
| that all his brave new furniture is not
! worth a twentieth part of the lumber" he
has so gladly got rid Of
The purchaser of old silver is quite as
Iikely to be deceived as the buyer of an
| uque furniture. a common plan is to cut
the mark out of some small piece of genu-
| Inc old silver. such as a spoon and intro
| duce ii skflfully into a large piece of very
modern metal, the value of which is thus
increased immensely. This very common
fraud would easily impose on any but an
| expert, who would detect the imposition at
once when he observed the difference in
color between the dark old silver and the
| whiteness of the modern metal or the
| smallness of the mark In relation to the
| size OF the piece of plate This transference
| of marks from old to new silver is the COM
monest of all traps fer the unwary, and
| purchasers should be on their guard
against il.
one would think that ancient armor
would be sacred from the arts of the
| ''forger," but 1 can assure you that very
many of the suits which are proudly point
| ed out as having been worn by one of my
ancestors at Otterbourne or Agincourt''
We're not even in existence a dozen years
ago. These old suits of armor and an
cient weapons are turned out wholesale at
certain factories on the continent
Fortunes, too. are made by supplying an
Client tapestry which. faded and discolored
ragged and patched, has all the appearance
| of having been worked by the hands OF
chatelaines half a dozen centuries ago. In
| truth. it would be the ca siest thing in the
world to fill Your house with antiques of all
| kinds, costing thousands of pounds. not a
single one of which would be anything but
a fraud.