vi AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
March, 1912 
ry 
NEW YORK 
Brightwaters 
BAY SHORE, L. I. 
Pa 
Nature Lovers’ Paradise 
ACKERSON HOUSES 
Bungalows, Chalets and Cottages 
A gentleman's country private estate consisting of 
1300 acres converted into a ; . 
High-Class Suburban Residential Park 
The five spring-fed lakes, winding drives and walks, 
private yacht harbor 175 feet wide, | mile long, extend- 
ing from Great South Bay to the heart of the property, 
white sandy bathing beaches and pavilion, recreation 
casino, floral plazas and numerous other attractive 
features make 
Brightwaters 
The Master Development of Long Island __ 
Write for Album of Snap Shots No. E, and price list 
T. oe Fe Oe i . i 
Devel £ Choi roperty and builders of houses of meri 
is sac West. 34th Street, New York 
se 
CONNECTICUT 
50 2 miles from the village of 
| Farm Acres GREENWICH, CONN. 
City Water and electric lights available, service passes property. 
High Elevation, Woods, Stream (easy, with slight expense, to make 
a beautiful lake), Choice Location, Surrounded by Handsome 
Estates and Select People. Adjoining Land Held at Double My 
Figures. These 50 Acres Are Now Offered at $600 
Per Acre and it is a Bargain. 
“‘Action’” 23, Office ‘American Homes and Gardens, 361 
Broadway, New York. 
FT 
Surf Bathing at Ocean Beach 
Ocean Beach, Fire Island 
We sell the things that improve the health 
and increase the wealth of human happiness. 
What are they?>—Good air, pure water, surf 
bathing, still-water bathing, fishing, shooting, 
boating, cool refreshing ocean breezes and 
Seashore Lots at Ocean Beach, Fire 
Island. Price $150, per lot and up- 
ward. Furnished cottages and bunga- 
lows to rent. Illustrated descriptive 
booklet free. Write us today. Ocean 
Beach Improvement Co., John A. 
Wilbur, President, 334 Fifth Ave., 
New York, N. Y. 
Stucco Cement Bungalow, 4 Rooms, $600 
)MONTCLAIR, N. J. 
v. 
home hotel for the family, the business man and any 
one desiring a residence within an hour from New 
- York and enjoy the delights of country eleva- 
tion, rest and environments. 
clair Hotel offers. 
This is what the Mont- 
It is operated on the American 
plan, has grillroom with facilities for private parties, 
banquets, dances under the direction of T. Edmund 
Krumbholz of the Kirkwood, Camden, 
-\ S.C. and the Sagamore, on Lake George. 
Mr. R. C. Millard, Resident Manager, will 
reply to all inquiries and call upon request. 
COLLECTING ANTIQUES 
By EDWARD M. THURSTON 
fener collectors often labor under 
the impression that the day for obtain- 
ing treasures has passed—that everything 
worth having was long ago “collected” and 
that nothing but trash remains to be dis- 
covered. This, however, is a mistaken im- 
pression. We sometimes hear of a fortu- 
nate individual who has acquired some 
beautiful and valuable possession for an in- 
significant fraction of its real value, and 
while such an opportunity is, of course, now 
very rare, not so commonly to be met with 
as in earlier days, real treasures are con- 
stantly being found where least expected. 
Some one has said that almost every 
household article, not worn out by use, 
comes into the market once approximately 
in every fifty years, either by private or by 
public disposition. Instances are on record 
of a man’s placing an order at Christie’s, 
the famous London art auction-rooms, for a 
certain picture or piece of porcelain when 
it should be brought for sale to that great 
clearing house of the world’s artistic treas- 
ures. In America in this day of removals 
and domestic changes, of the sudden rise 
and decline of fortunes and of sweeping 
changes in tastes and hobbies, the tenure 
of one’s possessions is perhaps, compara- 
tively brief, so that the most interesting and 
valuable art objects such as we call 
“antiques” are constantly to be had. Some 
years ago a man was exploring a little shop 
in a western city where most of the things 
on sale were the work of Indians. Among 
the old pottery, bead work, feather head- 
dresses and antiquated bows and arrows, he 
discovered an old painting upon wood, com- 
pletely hidden beneath the dust and grime 
of the place. He succeeded in obtaining 
this panel for a few dollars. Upon carrying 
it home a very careful cleaning showed it 
to be a most beautiful and wonderful 
picture of an ecclesiastical subject, painted 
by an early Spanish master. One could 
easily account for its reaching the Indian 
missions of the early California days and its 
chancing to be discarded, as time passed, 
eventually coming into the possession of 
some one who could not know its value. 
A very worn and dim old Russian icon 
was once picked up in a small shop, this 
time in New York. The necessary clean- 
ing proved it to be of silver gilt, with the 
flesh parts painted in the stiff and Byzantine 
manner still obtaining in Russia, though 
this proved to be an early example and of 
great value. A particularly beautiful old 
fender was once rescued by the writer from 
the dust and cobwebs of an old shop in 
Conti Street, New Orleans, a fender which 
had so fallen from its high estate that it 
had been covered with green paint and it 
required a prodigious scouring and cleaning 
with acids to restore its original beauty of 
line and polish. From an auction of old 
household effects there came a most inter- 
esting old tea set of white and gold. Many 
plates, cups and saucers were missing, but 
the chief pieces were uninjured and there 
were enough of these to complete a service 
for seven or eight, and the writer has since 
had the pleasure of browsing around an- 
tique shops with the extraordinarily suc- 
cessful result of coming across three addi- 
tional cups and saucers of the same pattern. 
A New York collector has been many 
years collecting unusual bottles. His as- 
sortment now consists of several hundred 
pieces of every imaginable material and he 
says that many of his most valued treasures 
have come from the antique shops of Bos- 
ton, New York and Philadelphia—places 
