Everyone is something of a connoisseur of old furniture nowadays, a8 indeed modern furniture shops bear witness with their display of copies frown old models; and there are few more fascinating objects to collect. Unfortunately for that pursuit but few of us have the necessary time or money: and thus it remains for us to what pleasure we can vicariously, melancholy pleasure, perhaps, though real enough, in the descriptions of other people's hunting. Of this class of book an excellent example is The Quest of the Antique by Mr. and Mrs. Robert mn, whose account of their quest is equally charming for the romance and the technique of the thing. How far Mr. and Mrs. Shackleton were able to back their fancy with hard ca: not divulged, although the suggestion frequently conveyed ix that their bargains were genuine bargains. Taste they assuredly possessed, prompted by the inheritance of " kettle, " Shaker chair and a pair of candlesticks. At tome period also, they became possessed old house which had' ence been an ino (one of its rooms contained an open fireplace eight feet wide) and this they gradually filled with antiques collected, in the true spirit of fortune-hunters from Sometiruos there were keen disappoint ferret and cottage and even barn.
ments; as when they discovered that all is not Chippendale which bears his name: if it were #0, Chippendale must have been a syndicate, like the popular superstition about Mr. Andrew Long. For chippendale published.a book of designs, and his naric thus came to stand for a whole school. Of his own workmanship, distinguished not by inlay veneer but for "strength, proportion and craftsmanship" (how rich the words sound!) there are comparatively few specimens and they are io tense to be picked up. On the other hand Mr. and Mrs, Shackleton had some really remarkable triumphs, as when they bought from " workman in Padaa the plate on which he was eating his dinner before his cottage door. I cost them bnt a few centimes, and proved to be x piece of exceptionally valuable Italian pewter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.