The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19
ANTIQUITIES? WELL JUST 4 MINUTE
 in Warsaw, Russia Champion Art Fakir Lives FOOLS THE PUBLIC
Anything That Can Be Desired Is Obtained Here at Your Order. The Public Likes to Be
 Fooled, It Seems
R. Dunear in the Louisville Courier

R. Duncan in the Louisville Courier.
 Journal.
 Warsaw--"Ohl Collectors like to be humbugged. They are f1attered to see the papers record enormous prices paid by them for some piece or other They must have something old, they refuse to look at the most beautiful work fin the world if 1t is avowedly new, no matter whether 1t be candelabrum or coffin. My work is as fine and delicate as any done in 800 years. American col lectors are as bad as any in this respect. But they pay best"
 The speaker was the cleverest fakir in the world. More than one Paris house has offered him a large salary to work exclusively for them. But he prefers to keep his independence and sticks to his modest home at Kieff. Let him be known as MT. Feinblatt.
 The beautiful bibelots which collectors fondly believe to have come from some old French chateau are made in Kieff The magnificent empire writing table at which Napoleon is supposed to have dashed off a. nasty note, and the bed with graceful curves on which his first empress is supposed to have rested are made in Warsaw; while the relics of Egyptian culture, brought from Thebes with the deserts sand still clinging to them have been no nearer Africa than the Russian port of Odessa. Why?
 No Machines to Ruin Handiwork
 Because the men who work in these towns are so clever that they deceive ,f oIo their work may even be seen in the mu- seums. In this age, when everything Is machine made, they have preserved their handicraft to an extent unknown in the western world, The jeweler or silver smith of America and England has lost his cunning. Machinery has gradually do- prived him of the use of his fingers. Only in countries where delicate mechanical contrivances are unknown can such work exist. It takes years to make, but 1t Is so we'll done in the end that you are in clined to ask yourself If the old "objets dart could have ecualed them. These artifcers are not Russians but members of those Hebrew colonies which have been established on Russian soil for centuries and have kept apart from their neigh bors, preserving their own language and customs Their handiwork is full of east ern delicacy and is carried on with the patience which allows a man to spend ten years on the chiseling of one box or the hammering of single silver tray
 The Secret Is Imitation Moszer ''Feinblatt," whose fake factory visited at Kieff speaks scarcely any Russian and no other European lan- guage. Although he is no linguist he has made one or two pilgrimages to mu- seums in Paris, Vienna and Berlin, where lac toIr ut1 >F+ +l~ and historical relics he intends to copy. He obtains detailed drawings and pho | tographs of them He returns home full l of ideas which 1t would take a lifetime | to carry out, hut which help him work up to the wishes of the big Paris and Berlin dealers when they send him word that some rich collector is hunting for relics of a certain age or monarch.
 The imperial museums at St. Peters, burg are so full of wonderful bibelots and historical curios that Moszers brother Sjmul, has never been farther afield for his inspirations. And yet he has given a perfect copy of the comfit boxes of Catherine the Great, which were sold to American collectors as having come from the salon of ruined Russian magnate. dealer who knows both the sets as- sured me that 1t would be impossible even for an expert to distinguish between those in the Czar's private collection and the copies. The difficulty was to get exact drawings and photographs of the origi nals, which are in pure gold and sup posed to have been made in Paris after designs of a Russian favorite of the em- press.
 All in Little Dingy Shop
 The temple of beauty is a dirty little shop in the quarter of the town entirely iv,I, faI t,xr Hanra Hh1 x,1oA once small dwelling house, for the shop window is only one window of an ordna- ry sitting room, it's fellow having been turned into door. Not more than ten feet by eight, it contains a dirty counter where a small glass case displays one or two cheap watches and the sort of silver trinkets peasants and servant girls buy. The window shows more trinkets and carelessly placed among them is a large old Russian drinking cup with bird claw feet and beautifully chased bowl. It looks at least 300 years old and has the old Russian silver mark. It serves as a sign by which foreign dealers know that this miserable little shop contains possibilities.
 Of course the old silver cup was made and chiselled by one of the Feinblatts. who sit at work in a small room behind the shop. Their table Is crowded with small tools and hammers. One or two rows of bottles filled with washes they concoct stand on a shelf on the wall be- hind These connections are carefully guarded secrets and nearly every fakir has his own. They give the gold or sl- yer that look of old metal which so many .collectora think indispensable to curios. though many imperial museums have large stnffs of cleaners who polish the oldest objects as bright as on the day they left tho beater's hands. With con Etant cleaning tho fakir's washes also wear off, just like the accumulated stains of centuries. Stronger washes are used for relics supposed to have been dug out of temples, and the fakes are actually kept under the earth for some months. only to be dug up when there's market for them.
 Only Moszer "Feinbatt' was in. He