[Illustration: MRS. C.W. HARKNESS'S CABINET FOR _OBJETS D'ART_]
Surely, if the great men of the Louvre could be so deceived it is
obvious that the amateur collector has little chance at the hands of the
dealers in old furniture and other objects of art. Fortunately, the
greatest dealers are quite honest. They tell you frankly if the old
chair you covet is really old, if it has been partially restored, or if
it is a copy, and they charge you accordingly. At these dealers a small
table of the Louis XVI period, or a single chair covered in the original
tapestry, may cost as much as a man in modest circumstances would spend
on his whole house. Almost everything outside these princely shops
(salons is a better word) is false, or atrociously restored. Please
remember I am not referring to reputable dealers, but to the smaller
fry, whose name is legion, in whose shops the unwary seeker after
bargains is sure to be taken in.
Italy is, I think, the greatest workshop of fraudulent reproductions. It
has an output that all Europe and America can never exhaust. Little
children on the streets of Naples still find simpletons of ardent faith
who will buy scraps of old plaster and bits of paving stones that are
alleged to have been excavated in Pompeii.
In writing about antiques it is not easy to be consistent, and any
general conclusion is impossible.
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