Clever Trade Frauds. How the Unwary are Imposed upon.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 43, 29 March 1884, Page 3

Clever Trade Frauds. How the Unwary are Imposed upon.

A leading London journal has lately been revealing some secrets of the jewellery trade. The articles referred to were suggested by a case tried in the open Court in which a dealer sued a jeweller on a claim for sapphires supplied. The defence was that the stones in question were only imitations—a pastecomposedofglassand borax. Judgment was given in favour of the defendant. One witness in the case, a dealer in stone too, admitted that he was no judge of the real article, though strong in his knowledge of imitations and their deceptive qualities. It was also brought out, on the best authority, that imitation jewels were so well got up that they could deceive anybody, even the astutest pawnbroker. Diamonds, itappears, can be split, and the top half mounted on a paste orcommoner stone ; while other stones, deficient in colour, are split, the necessary tint of colour introduced, and the pieces joined together again so cleverly as to defy detection . Some extraordinary revelations are also made in the manufacture of goods wholly constituted of metal. A thin jacket of good gold is sometimes loaded with basemetal, andfinishedinsoperfectamanner as to Avithstand all the ordinary tests. Many tricks of this kind are exposed by the writer referred to, and the moral he draws is for those about to invest in jewellery or plate to deal only with respectable jewellers — not to buy from casual acceptances — and in the case of valuable gold chains, for example, to insist on seeing tnattheir purchases bear the Hall-mark on every link, Butjewelleryis not the only class of goods on which the most consummate skill and handicraft are basely employed. Every article in demand, and most high-priced goods,areimitated, and that with such Bu.rpvi«n§ cleverness i» to deceive

I not only the ignorant but the skilled and the adept. The case of the ' ' people's cheap pianos" will still be fresh in many minds. A most respectable and valuable Edinburgh periodical once advocated the construction of good pianos at a price which could be afforded by most of the better class of tradesmen. It was shown, rightly enough, that a very large proportion of the expense of first-class pianos was laid upon the case, which has little or nothing to do with the quality of tone. The result was that a pretty large number of instruments were manufactured in accordance with thesugges tion. The strings, and indeed the whole of the interior framework, were of the best quality of material and workmanship; while the case was made of well-seasoned pine, which, not to deceive, was simply varnished. These instruments, though not very sightly, were of perfect tone and of great durability. Not many of them were destined, however, to fall into the hands they were intended for. They were bought up almost as produced, at from £20 to £25, by London Jews, who employed skilled workmen to veneer the pine- wood case. They were then thrown into the market and sold at from fifty to seventy and eighty guineas. Truly we live in an age of imitations. That there are " tricks in every trade" is after all a truism.