OCR Text |
Show SHAMS IN ART. No one who has had occasion to make collections of fine art or bric-a-brac but has cried out many times with the poet O imitatores, ?? ?? These imitators have overrun the entire field and left the traces of their base forgeries in every nook. Every one of the great masters has been copied and counterfeited, or had ascribed to him the pictures of other men, times without number. <br><br> The multiplication of these shams goes on continually and the most clever devices are resorted to hide the deceit. People are meanwhile such bad judges, and so anxious for specimens by famous and favorite artists, that a ready sale is commanded by transparent frauds. In the matter of drawings and engravings, the same imposition is practiced, and bad copies pass current for genuine originals. <br><br> Literature fares no better. Skilled caligraphists every now and then, offer for sale as genuine, beautiful manuscripts declared to be most ancient and rare. Or they produce copies of more recent documents, fortified, perhaps with signatures, and if real, worth much money, but being forgeries are valueless. The trade in sham autographs alone must be considerable. <br><br> As for books, there exists thousands of such as are ascribed to writers who never wrote them. Those which have been exposed by critical sagacity would form a large library, involving every department of literature. <br><br> Sham antiques, avowedly from Greece and Italy, Egypt, India, and many other parts, are of every-day occurrence. The forger shrinks from nothing; he is equal to the beautiful cameo or intaglio, and he is not above the semi barbarous pottery of the oldest nations and periods. He will emulate the art of a Grecian sculptor or sink to the level of a Flint Jack. This latter notoriety, we may say in passing, not only counterfeited implements in flint and stone, but tried his hand at geological specimens, such as the remains of fossil fish. <br><br> Forgeries in metal are countless, and have been common from a very early date. There is reason to believe that some ancient States counterfeited their own coins, as when they palmed off plated copper for solid silver. The manufacture of spurious coins and medals has always been a favorite occupation, even if sometimes risky. <br><br> The collector is perpetually encountering shams of this sort, and is at his wits' end to steer clear of the traps laid for him. We know that some forgeries are worth more than genuine specimens; but this is one of the eccentricities of taste. At the same time, not a few imitation coins and medals have a value as beautiful works of art and skill, as all must own who are acquainted with the "Paduans," and even the recent works of Becker and others. <br><br> The young collector should be on his guard, and not unadvisedly purchase the rarer medals and coins of Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Bactria, for example. Nor is he safe with those of British, Saxon, Norman, or later English, for there are many make-believes abroad. The rarer the coins of any reign or period, the more likely are they to be counterfeited, either in their proper metal or in some other. <br><br> Quite recently we saw a dozen Queen Anne's farthings for sale at a fair price, supposing them real; but on inspection every one proved to be a well-executed modern sham. Circular badges in lead and brass, often with dates, and always forgeries, are common, and so are quaint leaden castings of different sorts, and bronze daggers, figures, and other objects. <br><br> In glass and china, shams are as plentiful as blackberries. Your fine old glass, if in any quantity, almost inevitably includes examples of artistic hypocrites. As for your china, in all human probability you have been made a victim. That highly-prized Nankin, fortified by marks of recognized antiquity, is, perhaps, comparatively modern; for the Chinese are given to the reproduction of ancient patterns, and of the very marks which indicate the dates. <br><br> Still, there is no help for you, and you must be content to believe that it is genuine oriental, and exactly like the real thing. Even this belief may not always be founded in fact, because it is on record that the skillful French artisans have not only counterfeited the Chinese ware, but actually exported it to the country of the Celestials. A story is told of a diligent collector in china, who was so deceived by a quantity of the French imitations that he purchased them and sent them to Europe, where, of course, the truth was soon discovered. To what extent Chinese patterns have been reproduced in Europe and sold for genuine, cannot be guessed. A similar remark applies to Japanese goods and Persian ware. <br><br> Old Dresden is to all intents and purposes forged at the original factory, and it has been copied by several English and any number of Continental makers. It is Major Byng Hall, in his pleasant book "The Bric-a-brac Hunter," who writes the following about a supposed young English lady who "must buy some Dresden china" because she is in Dresden: "The cups and figures and so forth are purchased, carefully packed, and treasured as ‘the exquisite old china we bought in Dresden, my love-an enormous bargain, though the price seems very large to people who don't understand that kind of thing.' And poor Miss Harriet remains happily unconscious that similar treasures, ay, and possibly far better, might have been purchased at home for half the money; since I have not doubt dear Harry's ‘old' china was only recently produced at Moisson, that glorious manufactory, which all lovers of art ought to visit." <br><br> In the book just quoted from, Major Hall says: "I am well acquainted with a female artist in Paris who is, I believe, the owner of a small fabrique from which every species, cup or vase, is produced in soft paste; and, taking advantage of some of the cleverest painters and decorators from Sevres and elsewhere, she can secure imitations which the keenest eye and taste can, with difficulty, detect. In fact, having one morning paid her a visit, she showed me a charming real Worcester vase, richly painted with birds and flowers, cracked through the center; and then, to my astonishment, handed me a pair which bore the exact copy of the Worcester mark, so beautifully painted, and so exact in form and character, that none but first-rate dealers and collectors could have possibly told the difference, adding that she could imitate anything." |