The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-03
LITTLE BOGUS
 CHINA MADE
TAKERS FIND THE PRICE roo
 SMALL FOR PROFIT.
Some Early American Prices Copied. Paul Revere silver Valuable Enough to Repay Imitnti0n--"0id Eng
 fish Plate- Made With a
 Sfolsn Hall Mark.

| The fraudulent duplication of Ameri-
 can china. glass. and silver is not near 1 ly so extensive as one might be led to l believe by the demand for these ob- l jects Yet there are certain pieces of native china that have been duplicated with considerable success.
 All of these Notifications have come from certain source, which has been traced with approximate accuracy by the New York dealers. who are care full to follow up such frauds.
 So far not more than four or five of these American plates have been re- produced. Among these is the LoveJoy plate, showing a quotation from the Constitution of the United States. This is usually painted in light blue on white background. The genuine speci- mems have on the top of the plate picture of the assassination of Love joy, which took place In 1887. Other copies of the old plates put on the mar ket by the suspected dealer have been taken from the old blue and white made in Staffordshire and again in this country early in the century and bear ing pictures of such scenes as the Bank of Philadelphia or the White House.
 As the best specimens of these plates have sold at s45." said an expert to The Sun reported. .it is not worth while for the dealers to copy them. Then they must be careful and not make their copies too numerous. If the supply seems too large the demand will be more easily satisfied, and prices will go down. These considerations have made the dealer indifferent as to the duplication of American pottery
 The dealer who does think 1t worth his while to fake these old plates orders them from pottery, taking on sam ple of what he wants--the real thing. I have heard that he takes the trouble t ohave these plates made in EnGiano I in order to cover his tracks.
 "When they have once come into ms hands, they are for a while put into some extremely cold place. Then they are suddenly exposed to high degree of heat This cracks the enamel all over the plates and into these cracks grease is rubbed. Dust CT lampblack Is then rubbed over the cracks and sticks. giving them the appearance Of having been used for years. Some times a pit Is chipped off the edge and rubbed with oil and dirt or lamp black.
 eThen the pictured surface of the plate is scratched with sharp pointed object to give 1t tho look of long usage. The plates are then put away into some very dusty place where they get lit- tie dirtier looking before they are fin- ally put on the market.
 This Is rather an elaborate process for the compensation that results. dozen plates is the most that the dealer can attempt to put on the market in year, and as his net pro6tSmay be more than $20 apiece, the industry in this department of fraud Is not extensive Tn china only the plates have been re- produced. as the hollow ware is too costly for fakers to produce and brings too little.
 Tn the same way there has been no attempt to initiate the early specimens Of native glass. Some of them arc very quaint and graceful. but the prices are not high Very unusual and charming specimens of the glass made by the German settlers In Pennsylyania under Count Mannheim, which is thought by laany to be the first glass made in this country may be bought for very reas- sonable prices. It is in white or a cloudy blue or in combinations of the two
 As this old glaes V blown. it would be necessary to have a mould made which would make these old pieces cost more than they do now when they are genui~e.
 old American glass even dating from the beginning of the nineteenth cen tury, is interesting and quaint. but not expensive. pecanters blown like all the glass of that period. unique in form and ornamentation, can be bought for $5. l-
 The supply of blue and white china turned out by the potteFles now Is not intended as anything but a marketable imitation of the old work and repro duces a few of the old time scenes of American cities that the English mak- CTS began to put on their Stafford shire ware after the war of 1912.
 Previous to the Revolution, Amerl-
 L. T n..n- W.-s.- brought from China. Then they used Lowestoft for a while before the ex- pcrtation of the Staffordshire china be- came general. This fell into great dis favor after the war or 1Sl2. While the Dutch were trying to siege the trade of Great Britain with this country, the English manpfacturers determined to hold on to it by every possible means. So they began to put American scenes and views on their porcelain and even flattering inscriptions in order to re- tain the trade that has been so profit able. All these plates and hollew pieces date from period subsequent to the war of 1872.
 The Justification of old American silver Is In at least one case well worth the while of the bric-a brac fakers. The Paul Revere pieces will bring as 6 uch at $50 or $500 when they are properly authenticated. All the spoons an dother bits are marked with the name Revere" printed in block letters or an oblong die. Theer has been a great deal of the old Revere silver, since his father before Paul was also a silveTsmith.
 Forgers of this old silver who got hold of old spoons and had the name Revere marked on the back found that they had one great diflculty in pas sing off their genuine spoons have been smoothed down by long usage. But they are still remarkably clear and distinct. If the new dies are made distinct, the letters are sharp and do not show the result of wear which is so plainly noticeable on the genuine pieces. If, on the other hand. the let ters In the name Revere" are so stamped as to have the appearance of having been blunted by wear, they look coarse, and the expert can detect the fraud at a glance.
 It is practically in the Revere spoons alone that the fakers have attempted to work. Small creamers, as they are called in the business, brings as much as s25O. but 1t Is impossible for them to be so manufactured as to deceive the experts.
 With the English silver sold in this country the result is very different. That can easily be fraudulent and yet appear perfectly genuine to any but the most careful expert. Old Englisn silver dating from the fast quarter of the eighteenth century IS not so ex- tremely rare.
 It Is previous to this time that the specimens are so rare. From the time of Queen Anne, for instance, there are few speciments to be mad. There Is comparatively little or the time of