Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-06-11
EUROPE'S BOGUS ANTIQUES

EUROPE'S BOGUS ANTIQUES
AMERICAN DEMANDS ARE BOOM
ING THE TRADE.
One of the Traps by Which Ameri
can Tourists Are Caught Described
by a Connoisseur-China and Fur
niture CIeverly Faxed.
Largely, it is said, because the de-
mand for English and foreign an
tiques On the part of Americans is
greater than BY all the rest of the
world together, genuine old paint
ings, old furniture, old China, ct Get
era, have risen to an amazing extent
during the last few years, while, for
the same reason. the production OF
faxed antiques has become an ever
increasing and more profitable
branch of industry.
England, particularly, is overflow
ing with these spurious specimens,
said Basil Dighton, the Cover street
dealer, in discussing the subject the
other day, while RoIen turns out
enough limitations of old Empire fur
niture to furnish the Tuileries a hun
dred times over One of the leading
experts in London recently had a
copy made of valuable Chippendale
table, and when the faxed table
and the genuine piece were placed
side by side the expert himself was
unable to tell which was which
For all kinds OF English antiques
Of the eighteenth century, continued
Mr.. Dighton, prices have risen stead
lily for the last five or six years A
Romney, which was worth $4,000
then, is worth $4,000 or $4,000 now.
Engravings have doubled and trebled
in value. Chippendale furniture has
risen remarkably set of chairs
from the Orrock collection sold re-
Gently for $4,000. A Chippendale
writing desk was sold at auction for
$780, 1t was Immediately resold for
$4,000, and shortly afterward a deal
er disposed of it at the handsome
price of $4,000 am told
The owner of a Hoppner portrait,
ignorant of its true value, recently of
fered it to a clergyman as gift. The
minister, knowing something about
pictures, demurred at taking advan-
tage of his friend and advised him to
sell the portrait at auction. 1t real
lied 100000.
There are shops in London with
whole stocks of bogus engravings, sill
yer boxes, miniatures and the like,
and the bargain-hunters are easy vic
Tins. The demand for genuine old
prints is very keen, and perhaps the
most notable instance of their appre-
citation in value is that of prints sold
q. 81 in 1880, which now bring $780,"
One of the traps by which Ameri-
can tourists, in their craze for an
tiques, are often caught is thus de-
scribed by a connoisseur:
People touring in the north of
England he says, "see fine piece
of old furniture in a farm house,
and never questioning the genuine
ness of anything found in such an out
of-the-way place, they buy it, If the
tourists should return few days
later they would find a similar piece
in place of the one bought, as bait
for the next visitor. These pieces
are all spurious ones and the takers
are so well acquainted with the trav-
ellers' way that they send these imi-
tations to the country places to be
sold. Through this practice a Welsh
dresser has often been placed by mis-
take in a Yorkshire farm house, but
of course, it takes an experienced
eye to notice such little incongrui-
ties.
England is OVERLOOKING with fax
ed antiques" he added There are
faxed Chelsea cupids holding little
baskets of flowers, faxed Old Tobys,
parsons and clerks, recumbent grey
hounds and harvest jugs with mot
toes.
"All kinds of English china are
faxed Lowestoft ware is faxed SO
cleverly that it cannot be told from
the old. Sheffield plate, which is
worth five times what it was ten
years ago, is faxed but the takers
cannot produce the glow of the gen.
uine work Pewter is faxed in Ger
many by the ton, and there are fac
tories near Nuremberg which turn
out pewter stamped with a place of
origin and date couple of centuries
old
THE German Government makes
excellent copies of works by Rey-
nolds and other English artists, which
sell for a dollar or two. They are
easily disposed of at higher prices to
unwary tourists. Hundreds of insti-
tutions of Morland's pictures are sent
to England from Holland, where they
are made. In Dresden they initiate
the old Dresden so well that it is
hardly an imitation; it is simply a
reproduction of the same thing. Not
long ago l saw Napoleon table bear
ing the Tuileries cipher. 1t was fax
ed
"At the same time real bargains
are still to be found now and then,
but it takes most expert connois
seur to be sure of things. Recent
ly I bought a Queen Anne table for
80 cents and It proved worth $50,
and table for 81 which would bring
$125. Such bargains, however, are
becoming rarer every day."-Wash-
ington Star.