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collections — namely, forgeries, i.e., counterfeit antiquities. The 

 most experienced collectors are sometimes taken in by these 

 worthless imitations, but they are more generally palmed off on 

 beginners, whose desire to accumulate rapidly a large collection is 

 greater than their skill to discriminate between genuine works of 

 antiquity and thc?e which are fabricated to imitate them. It is a 

 time-worn adage " that demand creates supply," and we find it to 

 be fully applicable to the case of collectors of antiquities and 

 objects of vertu. As soon as any classes of objects — be they 

 coins, old manuscripts, Roman pottery, early glass or porcelain, 

 bronze weapons, or flint implements — are inquired for, in a short 

 time they are forthcoming in almost any quantities. It is said 

 that when excavations are going on in London, and collectors are 

 standing by on the watch for discoveries, that coins, encaustic 

 tiles, bronzes, etc., are apparently exhumed under their very eyes, 

 which have actually been placed there for the purpose of being 

 found, and have either been "made to order" or have been 

 purchased from a neighbouring old curiosity shop. The number 

 and the wealth of English collectors have caused the trade of 

 forging antiquities to flourish in that country. But we are not 

 ourselves above suspicion, as there is good reason for believing 

 that in County Antrim weapons of the bronze age, and stone and 

 flint implements of all kinds, are made and sold to unwary 

 collectors. The celebrated "Flint Jack," whose real name was 

 Edward Simpson, brought the imitation of flint implements, such 

 as arrow heads, axe heads, etc., to great perfection, and even 

 invented some types of antiquities " new to archaeology." Towards 

 the end of his career he gave a public exhibition of his skill in 

 chipping flints to counterfeit genuine old forms, and he stated 

 that, in the course of his wanderings, he had visited Belfast, and 

 had disposed of some of his wares, at good prices, to collectors. 

 Another well-known artist in the same line was called William 

 Smith, alias " Skin-and grief," or " Snake Willy." He practised 

 his art chiefly on the eastern coast of Yorkshire. Since public 

 attention has been so much directed to the Swiss lake dwellings, 

 and the curious finds connected with them, a manufacture of 



