The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-19
POOLING THE TOURIST. MANY FAKE CURIoS.
Spurious Antiques Made in Many Places that De-
 ceive Experts.

man or woman as objects which claim to be antique, and thus necessarily suggest certain mysticism or rom ance of ages past. Nobody will deny the subtle charm one finds in the pos session of fragment of ivory tinged old lace, or a more or less disreputable looking shoe buckle vouched for by lever and ever so many generations" as having belonged to this or that roy al or otherwise llustrious family or the unspeakable delight of the owner of hoary old copper coffee kettle, the undoubted antiquity" of which he fix es at a century or two before the aro- matic berry was known either in Flu rope or America. This charming tis- sue of shadowy facts is embelIished year after year by some anecdotal re- miniscence connecting the objects with their original owners-a legend making process which. of couse, vastly increas- es their worth as antiques.
 Then some fine day an unfeeling iconoclast in the guise of man of both practical and technical experi- ence happens along and cruelty shatters the romance. He brutally declares that the antique shoebuckles, deli- cately wrought and set with real rhinestones, and showing so much character" are modern and made in factory at Hanau, that the stones are no stones at all and not even back antique tinge and metallic deposit through electro process. He points out 1 that "the exquisite piece of ancient lace, patiently wrought by pious hands in the subdued light Altering into the cell of an old coister," is nothing but l bit of machine made fabric, with a piece of torn out purposely here and there to mark the ravages of time and i then very skilfully repaired by hand. He adds that the ivory tinge which marks the passing of ages" is obtain by sleeping the new lace in feeble solution of saffron, with few drops of iodine added.
 | He laughs the fair copper kettle owners enthusiasm to scorn, notwith- stading her apeal to look at "the cu- riously shaped handle, which speaks of the medieval artists ingenious in- dividuality," and gives the address of the maker in Switzerland who has hit on the expedient of putting ordinary milk pail handles on his antique cof- fas kettles thus giving them bizarre rots. In almost any peasants kitchen one of these perhaps fully six months | oil "artiques' is dangling, socty, stained and battered; it is eagerly purchased by the tourist from the re- | luctant owner. When I few days af- ter the salesman comes around the i peasant orders another ''antique," lstipulating the usual trade discount.
 The public at large has at best little or no idea as to what enormous pros portions the manufacture of spurious antiques has attained in Europe and, in certain lines, also in the United States, This applies not only to the imitation and production of practical 1 ly all of the important creations of the masters of old, the prices of which, even as limitations, are prohibit tive to the ordinary amateur collector of antiques; but any one with only a few dollars to invest also has innum- erable opportunities to part with these in exchange for less ambitious speci- mems of the beloved antiques.
 One may say without the slightest hesitation that the Americans consti- ute eighty-f1ve per cent of the cllen- tele of the dealers in spurious an-
 tlques, What is most astonishing is that this clientele is made up from the classes that vaunt themselves on their superior intelligence. It may not be complimentary to the fair sex to add
 the fact that perhaps more than nine tenth of the Americans abroad with a predilection for things ancient-new are women. By what curious process of req soning these good people imagine that
 they can come from America to coun-
 tries where collectors and connoisseurs have searched for antiquities almost | before the United States was known.
 and enter any little dingy shop and pick up hitherto unknown treasures is
 not for me to pass upon. Suffice 1t to | say that they do, in their fond and viv- i'd imagination, and woe betide you if you venture to demur.
 The natural consequence of such an | Iincessant and constantly increasing de- mand for antiques has been the foster | ig of one of to-day's most prosperous industries. Particularly during the last two or three decades this industry has
 taken up branches which are as amag- ing as they are audaclous.
 I am personally acquainted with the
 manufacturers who furnishes a man living in the most aristocratic quarter
 of Paris with most of the marvels of
 "antique" furniture which are found in
 his apartment. This distinguished per-
 sonage does not pose as a dealer-it
 would be too plebeian-he is a connois- seur forced to part with portion of his collections obtained by long years
 of discriminating study" He finds plen- ty of customers among the Americans and should perchance his collection not
 contain the desired article, he hap pens to remember a friend" or has heard of some family in such and such
 street where it may possibly be seen I-not bought-that it to say "unless his Influence should bring about such a happy result" Of course, the goods are
 his own, since he has half a dozen apartments all more or less 'salted' | with these historic gems of art.
 It is very easy to deceive the ordin- ary customer with spurious antique | furniture, for the simple reason that
 the average buyers do not know the | AL VXv- 1 especially are inordinately fond of