Judging Fakes by the Fingers

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 71, 25 March 1933, Page 18

Judging Fakes by the Fingers

Thousands of fakes have' pa3sea through the hands of Mr. Ernest Hawking, curator of the Geffrye Museum of Old Furniture in Kingsland Eoad, London, and been discarded, yet he seldom looks at them. He says he is able to tell by a touch with the tips of his fingers whether a valuable-looking antique is as genuine as people would have him believe, or whether it is a piece copied from the original and pressed on to an inexpert collector. Mr. Hawking states that hands are even more valuable to the expert in antique furniture than eyes, reports a London paper. He says that this sensitiveness has to be acquired before the age of twenty-one or it may never be obtained at all. He added: "I acquired the touch when I was between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two. I was trained to it by experts. The touch cannot come without that training and the handling of old and new pieces. It is a very curious sensation. The touch comes to you and suddenly you find that where one day you cannot tell the difference between the old and the new, the next you cannot fail to judge correctly. ■ "Age gives furniture a peculiar feel, and I trust that feel more than anything else in ascertaining the age of an article. It is a matter of finger tips generally, but the first part of the palm of the hand plays a very important part with some things. "I have been handling antiques for forty years, and it is my firm belief that the expert sense of touch, sometimes called a sixth sense, is not pecu-

liar to" the blind as many imagine. Trained fingers are more useful for very many purposes than the eyes. It is possible to slip the fingers under a piece of furniture without people knowing that you are judging the age, and when it is impossible to get near enough for an examination by the eyes. "I was once called to a beautiful house in the country where the owner showed me a marvellous-looking table which was supposedly Tudor.. He did not tell me that it was an antique, and I put my hand on it out of interest. I found at once that it was a clever-copy, although my eyes were two feet away. The owner noticed me touching it and said, 'That is a genuine Tudor piece.' He had paid a good deal of money for it and believed it genuine.

"The faking of furniture is done rather openly in these days, for the manufacturers make the stuff in perfectly good faith and sell it as a copy. Afterwards it may get into unscrupulous hands and be sold at a big figure as genuine. Every week new pieces are brought to the museum here, for our collection is on loan and changes every week. I have had to reject piece after piece, because I knew at a touch that they were not genuine. "I have always loved antique furniture and it has been my weakness whenever I have had any nioney. I have bought many pieces myself and from time to time, have had to part with them. That is part of the interest, however, for the chief joy is in collecting the pieces initially, not so much in owning them."