PICTURE SWINDLES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 77, 5 April 1904, Page 2

PICTURE SWINDLES.

'The Chrlstchnrch J'rres discovers that that ingenious Parisian picture fraud, 11. Tanqueray, has uguiii bcon devoting some atUmtiwi to Now Zealand, ami an equally fraudulent imitator is also engaged in exploiting tins unsophisticatml urn] trusting country just now. The latter calls himself a "Fine Art Society," and operates from Loudon. The "Sod i-l.v" consists of an enterprising individual wlio, as a matter of fact, lias no real London address at all! hut lives in another city. He issues a mendacious circular ottering certain surprising bargains in art at the most modest sum of tX Is. plus :-is carriage. Sometimes the victim t?ets a. few cheap lithographs that an insulted rising generation would throw things at if they were hung in , the nursery, sometimes he doesn't get anything at all. One Wellington man who sent along Ms got a reply ill two months demanding £<) J'is for framing, but no pictures. Fortunately, he was able to make thjngs so uncomfortable, for the philanthropist at the other end thai, after ten months, he actually got some tawdry pictures worth half a crown, Tujumeray has a less clunisv method. He sends an occasional subscriber a decent picture, to encourage the others. Only last week an inquisitive Christchurch man, who sent Tanqueray a photograph to be turned into a speaking likeness, and thoughtfully enclosed a lot, of newspaper clippings, warning the. public against the swindle, received a very decent picture back for a modest sum. No doubt Tanqueray expects to get a big advertisement out of that picture.