Amador ledger., 1909-07-02
CLEVER ART FORGERS
They Flood the Markets Abroad
With Their Wares.
PARIS THE CLEARING HOUSE.

| tiques-ltaly Leads In the production
| of the Spurious Articles.
Italy has always been the classic soil
| for fabrications. but I'm some >dcpart-
ments Holland and Paris run her close.
Vienna has a speciality 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-la-Chapelle pewter plate.
Berlin Roman potteries, Amsterdam
wrought IRON Rotterdam Indian porcc
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
depressing vice. assigned to Clan Bo-
logna. which is now the choice treas
ure of celebrated French collection.
Switzerland makes Il specially of Louis
XIV. repousse work.
AS for renaissance and medieval
jewelry, hardly 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, bonbonnieres. 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
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 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-
ed with tortoise shell, once its glory
and now in their decadence, are still
the joy Of travelling Americans on the
lookout for bargains. Buy if the OBJ
ject peases 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 a hundred. Ware
worries. They are generally bone or,
worse still. ceIluloid 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
descence has been obtained by fish
scales fixed upon their surface. Some
times real bits of iridescent glass film
are transferred upon modern frame
work. Cologne turns out lachrymatory
vases by the gross. not even troubling
to copy the old shapes, but using the
long narrow bottles in which cheap
sweets are sold. These are buried in
dung after being Smeared with some
connection Of which the secret is
guarded, and in little time they issue
from retirement patinated and rides
cent. Old German and Bohemian glass
is also excellently copied In Hamburg
and Paris. Venice. too. has not for
gotten its traditions and turns out its
own old wares.
Sevres and Dresden innocently help
ed the counterfeiter by selling their
not yet decorated pieces, If imperfect,
for a trihe. On this genuine ground
the forger worked with ease. This
traffic has been stopped. Still the
forger knows no obstacles or over
comes them, and false Sevres and
Dresden are supplied by all dealers.
and the purchaser rarely has the mi
mute knowledge that will save him. In
the eighteenth century oriental porce-
lains were openly made in England
and Holland and sent to China for
decoration, when they returned as real
China porcelain, or the reverse proc
ess obtained. The porcelain was made
in China and decorated In what was
presumed to be the Chinese style in
Europe. Paris at the present moment
makes and exports old China porce-
lain, and many tourist who buys
find at Hongkong or Shanghai merely
L..i.,..u LnaI. oon l.. "a NnIunnctln Rhn-