TREASURES BOUGHT FOR TRIFLES

Shannon News, 18 March 1924, Page 4

TREASURES BOUGHT FOR TRIFLES

A Peterborough, bricklayer, said to have .purchased a Rembrandt -for a pound at a local auction sale, is the latest addition tc.a long list of fortune’s favourites who have secured valuable old masters for - ridiculously small sums (says London “Tit-Bits”). It is but a short time since we were reading of a Newbourg grocer who picked up at a sale a Raphael, which was valued at four thousand times the price—twenty-four shillings—he paid for it. ‘ . Twenty-four francs was the price paid by a Paris artisan for Raphael's ‘‘La Belle Jardiniere?’ for which he found an eager purchaser at the equivalent of £3200; and a. Rubens,, said to be worth £7OOO, was bought for a five-pound note at a Carnarvonshire CARPENTER’S CANVAS. A few months ago carpenter presented himself at the shop of a picture dealer in the Rue St.. Lazare, Paris, offering for sale a. largo, and dirty canvas for the modest sum of twenty francs. “I don’t suppose the picture is worth anything?’ he said, ‘‘but the fiame ought to be worth thc.monoy. The dealer, who was in want of a frame of a similar size, paid the twenty francs, and removing the canvas, threw it aside into a corner m his shop. . , „ Borne months later a customer happened to notice the, discarded canvas. ‘‘Halloa! You’ve got a treasure hens. It is a variant of one of Raphael s works, ; the Vatican ‘Adam and Eve. Within a few days the dealer had ; sold his picture fos 80,poo frapes. No less remarkable was .the good ■ fortune of a, picture-lover, who strolled into a shop in Paris, and, -noticing among a lot of lumber a study in red chalk, bought it for half a franc. On examining his purchase more carefully lie found he was the possessor of Raphael’s, original design for his . famous picture, “La Disputa del Sacramento,” now in the Vatican, the value of which is. little, short .of £IO,OO. A romantic story was told, a .short time, ag»>. of a widow who took an old picture to a : secon,d,-haudr dealer, begging him lo buy it .as she wanted a few shillings to pay-the expepsea of, .visiting some friends. The dealer examined the canvas,. which was covered with generations of dirt, , and. offered 39/ -for it\. When-the canyas was cleaned it proved tb. be a very fine example of Gainsborough, worth at least £6OOO. SOLD FOR £SOOO. Another romantic story is told of a Vandyck representing Abraham with uplifted swor r d, in the. act of striking his son Isaac. For many . years it had hung neglected in an old Cheshire mansion/until finally , one, of the sons of the house. was ; glad Jo .exchange it for tiyo diamond bra.cej.ets. and a 1 reestpin. , , It. changed* Jiaufis,several, later for a few pounds, until it ;Caxn.e into .the possession of -a Mr John Bolton, of Manchester. An .art expert was commissioned to;inspect-and report on the picture. He pronounced?, it tq be a genuine’Vandyck, and .purchased it .conditionally, for £SOOO. Not long ago an East Ham pawnbroker advanced.. £l6- on seven old pictures, lending the money, as he said, “mainly on the value. of the frames, one of which contained quite £3 worth of gold." When the. agreement expired, the unredeemed canvases were consigned to the .lumber-room, and forgotten, until one day. an antique dealer chanced to see them. On his advice they were submitted to experts, who pronounced them valuable old masters. They,j included a Rubens and a Gainsborough worth several thousand pounds.