Mr. Frederick Litchfield alleged that a "Queen Anne marble wine cooler," had probably been manufactured from am Italian garden ornament) and described) a xocalled Charles LI, walnut table with a cane top, as an, entirely modern and spurious freak. Cescinsky alleged that a "Queen Anne lacquer table," had been partly manufactured from a Chinese tea chest. Macquoid denied this and said that the Chinese characters discovered on it convinced him that it had been made in Holland during the Queen Anne period by Chinese. Of a Queen: Anne blue lacquer cabinet said to be very eld, rare, and valuable, Mr. Cescinsky not only said it was a fake, but alleged that he had seen it -in course of manufacture at the workshop of Mr. Frederick Tibenham of Ipswich. Mr. Tibenham was called as a witness: and admitted making eight or ten such cabinets curing the last eight or ten years but denied that this was one of them. Under further cross-examination he admitted that he had an account with Mr. Basil Dighton, and was associated with him in the control of the Cambridge Tapestry Company. This Company, tie said, was engaged in the manufacture of tapestry _in imitation of old designs, which was used in the renovation of antique furniture. Asked whether any of the tapestry Juanufactured by the company was on the furniture in dispute he said that "he did not think so."
The cross-examination by the plaintiff's counsel of Mr. Basil Dighton referred to the profits of the dealers in antiquas.! A pair of lamp stands sold to! Mr. Shrager for £450 were shown to have cost defendant £165. For 2! walnut screen sold for £650 the sum of £220 had been given. Many other instances were given of high profits. Mr. Dighton claimed that there was no fixed price for antiques, they were worth just what could be got for them. This is no Goubt a reasonable claim, but it will be sad news to the coliéctorsi who have paid high figures for their treasures.
Antique furniture collecting is a craze of comparatively recent growth. If became fashionable about 30 years ago, and at that time it was possible for a collector of moderate means, to acquire a fine collection of genuine pieces. About 15 years later it became a craze and many crude imitations of the antique were placed upon the market. This was the period when worm holes were imitated by firing small shot into the wood, and the polish of age was given by a liberal use of the blacking brush.
WONDROUS ART OF IMITATION, If the stories of Mr. Cescinsky in his famous articles on Tha Gentle Art of Faking Furniture," contributed several years ago to the "English Review," are to be believed, these imethods- are now completely out-of-date, and no conscientious furniture faker would dream of using them. The line of development to-day is in' "restoration"? One genuine antique will go into the workshop of the restorer and will emerge as half a dozen, each which will contain a portion of the original and will therefore pass as a genuine "restored'' antique chair, cabinet, or whatever it may be. The process consists in taking the original to pieces making duplicates of all the separate parts and putting them all together again with a genuine portion of the original in, every completed specimen. The wear of age is cleverly imitated by means of the skilled use of a power-driven wire brush. Coats of paint and varnish are put on and then imperfectly cleaned off.
Whether these ingenious stories are true or false it is certainl curious that every town of size in the United Kingdom now boasts a large antique furniture emporium able to supply "genuine" Chip-; pendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, or eny other kind of rare antique furniture to the people who have a taste for it. For many years ths demand has been increasing by leaps and bounds but the supply is always easily in advance of it. Very few of these shops guarantee that the pieces they sell have nod been "'restored,'? and most of them. also deal in expensive furniture of Sheraton, or Chippendale "pate tern." It is now anticipated that jor many years to come their sales will be chiefly confined to the lat ter type of goods.
Ju summing up in this case the Official Referee made some caustic comments om the fallibility of "experts." He might at the same time have paid a well-deserved tribute to the skill of the contemporary British workman, who has proved that he can easily equal the famed craftsmen of the 18th century if he is given the time and materials with which to do' it. Evem Mr. Basil Dighton himself confessed that he did not know whether one of the pieces was genuine or spurious, and the experts who have so often grown lyrical in their appreciation of the superior skill of older craftsmen have been completely confounded.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.