THE PRODUCTION OF ANTIQUITIES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3593, 17 January 1883, Page 4

THE PRODUCTION OF ANTIQUITIES.

There tire thousands of persons abroad in the land looking" for avenues of escape for their money, and an army of handy workmen with wares to sell will do what they can to make such outlets numerous and easy. It is an old story that antique furniture, two or three hundred years old, dated from any desired landmark in history, is turned out every year in great abundance by those who are skilled in the business. Old clocks, old dressers, old bedsteads, and old anything", even if made yesterday, have great value in the eyes of many persons satisfied with antiquity in appearance. Worm-eaten furniture is now one of the rages. This furniture is easily produced with the aid of bird-shot which is fired into it. Old houses torn down furnish wormeaten timber of which this set of furniture used by Philip of Sjiain was made. France produces old Eoiuen and Sevres ware by the carload. Limoges enamels are plenty. The new ones (nearly all are new) are buried in moist earth a month and then dated back 300 or 400 years, according to the wants of the customer. He can be suited as to age. The famous ware of Henry ll.'s time is produced the year round. Treated with fiitorhydrio acid it becomes painfully old in a short time. A case worth 20s has been known to advance to £300 with the aid of ten cents worth of acid. In Berlin, pottery used by the Romans—till the Ctcsars —can be had by the crate. —Fotterv Gazette.