Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1909-07-14
Clever ART FORGERS
They Flood the Markets Abroad
With Their Wares.
PARIS THE CLEARING HOUSE,

tlques-ltaly Leads In the Production |
of the Spurious Articles.
Italy has always been the classic soil
for fabrications, but in some depart-
ments Holland and Paris run her close.
Vienna has Il specially for rock crys-
tai and thirteenth century gold work.
Florence and Lucca for fourteenth
century armOr, London initiates the
pate tendre of Sevres, COnstantinople
makes oriental weapons, Madrid Da-
mascus swords Dresden sculptured
worries, AiX-a-Chapelle pewter plate,
Berlin Roman potteries, Amsterdam
wrought iron, Rotterdam Indian porce-
lains, Odessa tiaras and antique Jew
elry, while Paris is the chief mart and
clearing house for all these products.
italian bronze statuettes, now so
| much sought, are turned out with dex-
terity and taste in Tuscany. 1t is said
that it was from one of these foun-
dries there issued the group of virtue
| expressing vice, assigned to Clan BO-
! logua, which is now the choice treas
ure Of a celebrated French collection.
Switzerland makes a speciality of Louis
| XIV. repousse work.
AS for renaissance and medieval
| jewelry, hardly a bit is real except
what is in museums. 1t Is not to be
bought. In the disturbed epochs that
followed the renaissance precious
stones were broken from their set
tings and sold to meet urgent needs.
| The same need for extreme diffidence
| applies to the pretty bibelots of the
eighteenth century, watches, chate-
LANES, bOnbOnniCres. OF modern fabri-
cation, too. is the enameled jewelry of
the sixteenth century. Vienna turns it
out to perfection And so cunning are
the makers that, for example, they
take care that the ring on which q
lOcket is suspended should show signs
of friction, well aware that the buyer
who thinks himself cute will look for
this indication.
AS for the peasant jewelry, now so
much bought and sought in Florence
on the old bridge and elsewhere, the
genuine is long ago exhausted, for,
after all, peasants own but a limited
stock. 1t all consists of clever copies
or more often tasteful combinations Of
old designs. The stones, too. despite
their fine designations, are rarely any
thing else but those marvelously clev-
er tinted rock crystals so ingeniOusly
made in Switzerland and sold by the
ton If desired.
Venice is the great depot for ebony
inlaid with ivory, and cabinets incrust-
| Cd xxrffh hon re rrlO
and now in their decadence, are still
the joy Of travelling Americans on the
lookout for bargains Buy if the OBJ
ject pleases you. but do not when you
pay your dollars imagine you are ex-
changing new lamps for old. AS for
old clocks. grandfather or other there
IS not one genuine in hundred. Ware
worries! They are generally bone or.
worse still. celluloid aged by the help
of tobacco or of that invaluable hand
maiden, licorice juice.
Nor does even glass defy the artif
icer In the Museum of ST. German
, can be seen Roman goblets, their out
sides incrusted with dirt whose iri-
descence has been obtained by fish
scales fixed upon their surface. Some
| times real Tits Of iridescent glass film
are transferred upon modern frame
work. COlc@ne turns out lachrymatOry
vases by the gross. not even troubling
to copy the old shapes. but using the
long narrow bottles in which cheaI
sweets are sold These are buried il
! dung after being smeared with som,
connection of which the secret il
guarded, and in little time they ISSUE
from retirement patinated and rides
cent. Old German and Bohemian glass
IS also excellently copied in Hamburg
aud Paris Venice. too. has not for
gotten its traditions and turns out it
own old wares.
Sevres and Dresden innocently help
ed the counterfeiter by selling thei
not yet decorated pieces. if imperfect
for n trihe. On this genuine grounC
the forger worked with ease. Thi
e traG.c has been stopped. Still tn
forger knows no obstacles or over
comes them. and false Sevres an
Dresden are supplied by all dealers
3 and the pur hascr rarely has the mi
mute knowledge that will save him. L
the eighteenth century oriental porce
lains were openly made in England
n and Holland and sent to China 70
decoration. when they returned as rea
China porcelain. or the reverse proc
ess obtained. The porcelain was mad
I'm China and decorated I'm what wa
presumed to be the Chinese style 1
Europe. Paris at the present momen
makes and exports old China porc'
lain, and many a tourist who buys
find at HonGkong or Shanghai merel
: brings back Goals to Newcastle. Rh'
dian plates are made near Paris in al
solute perfection. Except as matte
Of sentiment there is no need to see
?. the old. Be cautious, too, in buyiu
a Greco-Roman pottery. 1t is mostl
made at Naples.
Most of the genuine things wei
snapped up long ago or else are owne
- by museums or by the heirs Of thos