The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-08

OF births and deaths, domestic joys
And loves delicious spell,
OF faithlesS wives and nuSDands, TOO,
OF murders, dire and fell,
OF sordid brawls-that it can't talk
Perhaps is just as well.
New York, Dec. S.-If you haven't
a bed that your great-great-great-
grandfather and Incidentally your
great great-great- grandmother slel in
[ a mirror that reflected your double
great aunt's patrician features or at
least a chair that your grandmother
great-uncle used to sit and snore in
before the fire then it's up to you to
hustle around and get a fourposter
that someone else's great-great-great-
grandfather and Sreat-great-great-
grandmother slept in or mirror that
reflected someone else's great-aunts
double chin or wing chair that
creaked under the weight of someone
el5e's grandmother's great uncle.
Know Different Designs.
The craze for antique furniture in
creases with the passing of the years
even as the high cost of living. Maids
and matrol discuss glibly the dir
ferent merits of Hepplewaite, Shera-
to1, Chippendale, the elder Adam and
can tell a Louis QuinZe chair from a
Louis Seize even tho they are prone
to pronounce it a ounce. Antique
dealers are finding it harder to TOOL
these well versec female furniture
fiends as to periods and dates but
alas whether a piece is a copy or the
original is not easily detected in these
days of camouflage.
OF course wonderful old pieces can
be picked up at ridiculous prices in
Europe now. The main problem is
after you get it what are you going
to do with it. An acquaintance of
mine who has lived in London for
many years is quietly feathering her
nest with many choice and cheap
pieces which of course she will be al
lowed to bring in with the rest of her
household goods when she returns
home after the war.
She at least can rest secure and Sc
rene in the implicit knowledge that
some ones great-great-grandfat
and grandmothers really did use her
stuff while we who purchase our an
tiques here are apt to be speaking
doubtly incorrectly when we refer to
our junk as "old antiques"
"Antiques'' Really New.
In fact, most of the antique furni-
ture over here is made while you
wait. An old cabinet maker called in
to render first aid to a marvellous
fourposter which has been in the old
Southern family of a friend of mine
for generations disclosed many dark
doings of the antique furniture deal
ers and he spoke from years OF ex-
peTlenC0 WIN one OF the largest ana
most exclusive of New York antique
| furniture shops.
1t seems bright lovely new copies
of old pieces are made up in job lots
at Grands Rapids and then shipped to
their antique shop to go thru the
process of ageing. The indignities
that these perfectly good bureaus and
tables and highboys are then subject
| ed to are quite bochey in conception.
Heavy chains are dragged back and
| forth and ground around over their
fair smooth surfaces. ScaIding water
and bottles of ink are unset on virgin
vanished tops and allowed to stay a
while. This ink treatment is particu-
larly popular with desks and secre-
taries. Blows with hammers and
chisels are dealt impartially and then
the poor old highboys and cowboys
and whatnots are taken out, lined up
against the wall and shot Yes, pep
pered with bird shot so It can be
blamed on the worms.
costs originally $50 in Grand Rapids
may easily fetch $500 or a couple of
thousand in New York
In the free of such prices too they
| still have the nerve to dub some of
the pieces cowboys. If they dealt ex-
clusively in highboys and high chairs
1t would be more to the point
Up to the moment of going to press
have always endeavored to keep nv
children from mauling unduly nv
meager assortment of Grand Rapids
best. After hearing the cabinet maxi
er's story. however, 1 have decided to
turn them loose and soon hope to have
a collection of antiques that will rival
the ricketest treasures in the proud
possession of The DAUGHTER of a
Thousand <Earls.