SWINDLING OLD CHINA COLLECTORS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 153, 24 July 1909, Page 4

SWINDLING OLD CHINA COLLECTORS.

.HOW EXPERTS ARE OFTEN DECEIVED. In a recent law case some remarkable figures were quoted as representing the value of pieces of genuine Dresden china (says Tit-Bits), While, however o d china is often oae of the most profitable Investments, the danger of being victimised by fakes and forgeries is veiy great; and it is really only possible to "uard against Ibis danger by constant »tudy and handling of specimens. A well-known collector of old Worcester, for instance, whose collection comprises about two thousand items, has a cabinet full of clever forgeries, and he is constantly studying these. . But even experts arc taken in at times. About three years ago a collector bought at a London curiosity shop a couple of vases bearing the fetters "A.R.," which was said to have been the Dresden china mark since 1709. They were offered at £3O, and were worth at least £4OOO if genuine. The dealer confessed ignorance of their real value, and consequently The collector thought he had made a great find. And it was not until he showed the vases to another collector some time afterwards that he discovered that the marks were forgeries. Ultimately the dealer was fined for offering for sale alleged Dresden which he knew bore forged trade marks. „__„ ADVICE TO BEGINNERS. There is an enormous business being done at the present time by Italian artists in the manufacture of faked china. The favorite dodge is to obtain a genuine bit of old china and skilfully restore it by faking. Many of these spurious pieces are very crude and easily detected by the expert, but there are numerous skilled artists devoted to this work on the and, as the genuine items are finding homes in the various museums and the supply diminishes in proportion, artfully-contrived imitations, perfect in every detail, arc foisted more and more on the collector. Said a china expert to Tit-Bits' representative recently: "Marks are forged to such an extent that it is advisable for a beginner to study the differences of paste, glass, and decoration, and judge by these rather than by manufacturers marks."

an' artful dodge. 1 It is* perhaps, even more difficult to dttcct faked antique furniture than spurious china, for the simple Teason that the former is often made from wood of very old age. The beams and rafters of old houses are bought up and utilised for making or restoring chairs, tafoles, and dressers, which, although perhaps only worth two or three pounds each, are sold for ten and twenty times that amount. Perhaps one of the most artful dodges for disposing of this faked •'old" furniture is that practised by a dealer in the Western Midlands. He has over fifty Welsh farmhouses on his 'books, in each of which he has deposited for the use of the tenant, but also in the liope that holiday people might desire to ibuy them, old dressers, cupboards, and tables. The inexperienced hunter for old furniture invariably looks for worm-holes. They are. provided for him by judicious peppering with email shot, and lest he should be suspicious and probe for worm dust they are carefully "salted" with fine sand. It is well, therefore, that the enthusiastic amateur collector, while holidaymaking should beware of sudden finds in old and remote farmhouses. That innocent-looking son of the soil and his genial wife may merely be agents for the antigue furniture manufacturer. "OLD MASTERS." So many warnings have been issued regarding the faking old Old Masters that there is Dot quite so much money made at the game now- as hitherto. Still, forged pictures are legion. Copies are made of Old Masters and backed with old canvas. The picture itself is treated with several coats of varnish, mixed with various colors to tone down the new paint. Then it is brushed over with vinegar, which cracks the surface into a network, in the manner of an aged picture. It is put in a fitting frame, stored in a dusty garret, whence it is hauled forth and sold as a "genuine Old Master." Modern artists are similarly forged, and just before his death Sidney Cooper, the famous animal paiuter, was culled as a witness at the Carlisle Assizes, and during his evidence said that forgeries of his works were innumerable.

So skilfully are these forgeries produced that even clever artists are deceived 'by them. Mr. MaeWhirter, R.A., once related how he purchased a disreputable old canvas from an Italian sailor, who gave it a very plausible history. The painting, a "Holy Family," had, he said, been stolen from a church by a Greek sailor, and, as it had all the appearance of being a genuine Old Master, the R.A. willingly paid £4O fo r it. But a dealer soon afterwards proved conclusively that it was a "-blend of seven Old Masters, executed by a wellknown hack ]>n inter who worked for the trade."

A £2OOO DEAL. Rugs, tapestry, olil armor, Historical relies, and sculpture all lend themselves to the wiles and tricks of the forger. H is only about four yeaTs ago, for instance, since a "fifteenth century" chim-ney-piece was made by a Paris sculptor to the order of a dealer for £l2O. The dealer had the chimney-piece erected in a palace near Venice and then photographed. A collector in Paris, who was shown the photograph, sent his agent lo Italy and bought the article for £2OOO. Later the fraud was disclosed by a workman, and under threats of exposure the dealer returned the £2OOO. Perhaps some of the most impudent art forgeries, however, are those carried on in connection with historical relics. Most of us, of course, have read how Mark Twain found sufficient hits of the true Cross in tire various towns that he visited as an Innocent Abroad to build a church. His experience reminds one of the thousands of pens which have been sold with which treaties are said ■to have been signed. Good prices are paid for genuhie historical pens, those with which the Treaty of Amiens was signed in 1801, for instance, being sold for £SOO. FORGED HISTORICAL RELICS. Voltaire cannot have owned more than a fraction of the walking-sticks that have been sold as his; and a French tradesman used to boast that he had disposed of 132 "last walking-sticks" carlied by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A Paris tradesman for along time did an equally lucrative business in "the last pair of irousers worn by Victor Hugo."