Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-06-18
AT MUSEUM, OF COURSE
Imitator Hendley Is . Son Of Wizard
Jack Hendley.
COLOR SENSE A MARVEL
Can Initiate Anything From Bloom
ON Peach 30 Weather Stain
on q Stone.

eminent ought to be ashamed Of itself.
but instead OF that IL retains q man
especially TO perpetrate them. 1t II no
neer-faking either, the government work
10 eIacting and when the duplicate speci-
mems are completed there is no telling
which IN the original and which tho fui-
tation- There are probably few men OF
similar calling in the world. and fewer
still who are as clever in that line.
The National Museum has dug up a son
Of Wizard Jack Handley. who IN his day
was the premier initiation man Of the
United States. and they now keep young
VIII Hendley busy all the time maxim g
something look like something else. It
seems to be . peculiar gift. and Is valuable
In . museum. He works chiefly in plas-
ter, making casts OF anything and color
ing them so they look like the original.
and he seems able 70 reproduce a counter
felt Of anything from a raw oyster TO a
stone idol There are a good many tricks
in the trade that have been handed down
from father to son. such as reproducing
the bloom OF a peach or scraping an apple
TO get the vegetable wax that will make
the surface of plaster apple look like
the original fruit.
Wonderful Color Sense.
But there Is personal equation in the
work. also. that could hardly be acquired,
that Is the color sense that will see reds,
brown and greens in an old piece of
weather-beaten wood where the ordinary
observer would see nothing but gray. 1t
is fact, too, that young Handley's men,
DRY for color is almost Hncanny. He
seems to carry a color scheme In his
head as most people would remember
tune. One incident OF this sort will
illustrate. Some time ago he was In st.
Louis. There was a private collector
there who among his stone implements
had a stone AK of which he was very
proud. The museum wanted duplicate,
and a cast would do as well as an
original. Hendley made a mold from
which he could make plaster cast out
the collector would not allow the stone
AK to go out of his possession. So
Hendiey carried the mold back to Wash
ington. made a couple Of casts and coli
ored them. giving them the stone sur
face Of the original This was about
q fortnight after he had seen the ak.
One OF the casts was added to the mu-
scum collection and the other he sent
back as a compliment to the st. Louis
collector. The latter wrote that when he
put the imitation and the original to-
gether he could not tell which was which
except for the weight
The way in which the surface OF plaster
casts can be worked up to resemble sand
stone. quartz, flint, jade and volcanic
glass IS remarkable There IS one whole
case full of prehistoric Implements in
the corridor of the new museum build
ing that are wonderfully interesting speci-
mems. some with the dirt and mud still
in the grooves as when they were dug
ND. And the interesting part of 1t is
that they are all plaster limitations. but
even an expert ethnologist could not tell
1t except by handling them.
ALWAYS New Problems.
There are always new problems coming
up in the curious art of making some
thing out of something else. One Of the
features of the big ethnologic collection
that is now being installed in the hall Of
the new museum building is a series OF
groups These include the various fam
lies Of man. There are Patagonians, Ha-
waiians. Eskimos. all sorts Of Indians.
a family of Igorrotes and altogether
about twenty groups Each OF them is
shown engaged In some characteristic
tribal work. The Eskimos are loading
seal on a sledge. When it came to
making snow that looked like real snow
Hendley was faced with problem. He
said he puzzled over II till he saw the
cook doing some laundry work at home.
and then ne saw just how he could get
the right surface with hot iron and
param He drew on the domestic econo-
my for the color of the old ice, too tint
1
for the sparkle on the snow he drew on
the house. too. for he got II out Of a
sugar shaker. But the finished work Is
perfectly realistic, and that homemade
snow would give any one chilblains.
Vast Amount Of Work.
The rearranging OF the national collec-
tons in the new museum building en-
tails a lot of work on all the specialists
OF the big institution. The hall Of re-
lig1ons is a wilderness of Chaldaic in
scr1ptions. Egyptian carvings and among
other things the big human sacrif1cial
stone ten feet across from the Temple or
the Sun in Mexico Nobody would think
for a moment that II was not the original
stone, but as a matter OF fact. 1t Is all
plaster, cast in sections and put together
around a circular wooden framework
II was more or less Clipped and cracked
In removal, but Hendley has worked II
over until the stone" IS, IL anything
rather better than new, even TO the aged
weather marking OF the surface.
II there is anything the museum can
not get in the original, from a rare trilo-
bite to Corinthian fresco. It can turn
Hendley loose with the original. and he
will make an imitation that would fool an
expert. II is a curious trade, this leg1ti
matized taking. and the only reason for
some OF the other remarkable things that
have been done in the vener able instftu-
ton, is 10 prevent the impreS sion getting
abroad that there IS nothing genuine on
exhibition there. The genuine largely out
weigh the imitation antiquities. but there
are few antiquities wanted that cannot be
made while you wait.