The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-15
ANTIQUE FURNITURE
 IS IN DEMAND.
New York the Third Market in the World-Many Clever Frauds
 and Reproductions.


 World-Many Clever Frauds
 and Reproductions.
 New York Evening Post.
 By recalling the number of shops in this city which deal in antiques" both real and spurious one may get some idea of the extent of the demand for old furniture and limitations of it.
 Paris is now the chief market for gen. une antique furniture of all kinds, hav- ing drawn largely upon Italy and all oth- CT countries. London ranks next. and the importance of New York in the trade has been increasing so rapidly that it is now. or soon will be. the third market in the world. Americans will pay higher prices than buyers of any other nation ality. great many of the purchases for this country are made on commission. for rich people who know what they want and to whom cost Is no object.
 The city of Amsterdam used to be an important market, and so was Brussels. The latter city still has much fine old French work and many excellent repro auctions. Hamburg does a considerable business in antique furniture mostly ob- tained in the south of Germany. and ships largely to England. Very little of the kind stays in Germany. except in. the hands of collectors and a few persons of wealth.
 ne large uSuduu III lHlS country IoI antique furniture. or furniture which looks like the antique. is said to have be- gun with the craze for the tall, eightday timepieces familiarly known as grand fathers clocks" These were picked up in farm houses all over the country, and quantities of them were brought here from England. where they were plentiful Fine, old specimens now fetch all the way from $150 to $500 As a rule. the works in old clocks are found to be in very good condition. including not only the hali clocks. but the mantel timepeces and the wall clocks made by Willard in New England, which are known from their shape as banjo clocks.
 The taste for these articles soon ex- tended to old furniture of every variety. and this country was ransacked for it.. with the result that New England, which was richly stored with 1t, was "cleaned up a long time ago. and the South was largely depleted. There was never very much of 1t in the Middle States, 1t Is said, except in Philadelphia. But a few years ago. amateur collectors and the agents of dealers were able to secure fine specimens, here and there in farm houses. They can rarely do so now, and rural owners have become keenly alive to the value of their inherited possessions. When | these can be obtained. the work of scrap ing, cleaning. oiling and general restor- ing usually adds considerably to the cost of the original purchase
 Nearly all the old fashioned furniture originally owned in this country was made in England. The highboys or chests of drawers in which 10 keep linen. etc. are distinctively English, except a few which are early Dutch. The former are almost invariably of carved mahogany and are usually in Chippendale designs. and the highest priced. Dutch specimens are chiefly of oak. and are of severe pat tern. The cost of a good old highboy ranges from s2O0 to $1 GOO There are also lowboys. which are similar chests about half the height of the highboys. What are known as console tables. some of both English and French. and are made of mahogany in Georgian and Empire styles, between which there is little differ ence. Then there are old card tables and tilt or screen tables such of the latter as have a ribbon effect on the edge of the top being known as pie-crust tables. Gem uine antiques of this Kind are sold for from $50 to $500 apiece.
 There has been a considerable demand for the old four-post bedsteads which were formerly hard to get. but a good many came on the market year or two ago, a number being imported from Eng land. The demand is not now SO large They fetch from $50 up to $500, those at the latter price being elaborately carved or of fine Georgian design. Colonial side