The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-03-18
Curious Frauds in Antique

Curious Frauds in Antique
NEW YORK, March 17-Tiffany sells,
for the funds of the Charity Organization
society, antique gems. A hundred of
them are of the Poniatowski cabinet
They are beautiful to the eyes that are
not too severe but they are frauds, and
in this regard they have no charm They
pretend to be Grecian, and they tell in
an antique way tales of legend and of
mythology. But they have a finish that
is not Grecian
Terra Gotta figurines, unearthed in the
ruins of Tanagra, are admirable, but
counterfeits of them, made with finer
delicacy, with greater skill are insuffer-
able. 1t is not art of the present that
one wants Of Tanagra figurines. The
PoniatoWski gems have the demerit of
counterfeit Tanagra figurines The prince
that collected them, whose name they
take, was the nephew of Stanislaus, the
last king of Poland, and is known to
have inherited 154 gems really antique
Viscount cataiogued them They in
Guided bust of 10 by Dioscorides. and
Eagles Head from the cabinet of NTH
ridates, Corinthian helmet, engraved in
sard, Jasper and chalcedony, that art
lovers had always enyied They were
undeniable treasures.
Prince Poniatowsh died at Florence
auction at London in 1899, the 154 treas
ures Of his inheritance were there But
there were also the frauds known as the
Poniatowski gems, and art lovers refused
to distinguish the true from the false
They paid only $50 for the 10 of DioscO-
rides, that they valued at 5000 Its
association with the Poniatowski gems
had 50 deprecated its value. The prince
had expected to bequeth to his heirs
I'm al Mi
only impoverished them. The Poniat-
owski gems We're engraved at the be-
ginning Of the nineteenth century by
Cades, Ginganelli and others who were
Roman artists. The Inscriptions, that
are difficult were made by Odelli.
When the fraud was revealed by Raoul
Rochelle, III the Journal des Savans. in
1884, the prince found apologists. Some
said that the engravers had plotted to
deceive him 70 this the engravers de-
INJURED. Other apologists Of the prince
said that, as an enthusiast of the glyptic
art, he had tried to prove that it needed
only the encouragement OF an art lover.
a modern Meechas, to be as brilliant now
IS it was IN ancient Greece.
Tiffany sells them unframed at an av-
erage of $40, and since the funds are for
charity, perhaps this ought not to be
criticised. 'Fhe buyers know that the
SCltio DIRE ilOl EScIS antique. 1ne cata-
logue does rot deceive them. But tile
Poniatowski gems are worse than value
less. They are temptations to curiosity
dealers, whoJ in the great capital cities
sell them to the uninitiated as original
antiques. Perhaps the morality of the
g1yptic art might suggest that the Pom
iatowski gems be destroyed or marked
Fraud simply.
Windows for Little Church,
At the Church of the TRANSPORTATION,
better known as the Little Church
Around the Corner twelve new windows
are to be shown in the chapel on Easter
Sunday morning. Four upper ones rep
resent the Nativity Christ Among the
Doctors, . THE Baptism of Christ, and
Christ in GethsemaRe" The eight lower
windows have as subjects the ''Beati-
tudeS.
New York Makes These Microbes
The boycott placed upon Limburger
cheese by DR.. NJ. K Allen, the health Of