Frauds and Forgeries of "Antiques" 



185 



by the specimen on the table, which I am enabled to exhibit by the kindness of 

 a friend ; a broken Venetian vase, of remarkably fine form, has been taken, 

 the missing foot supplied by one of terra-cotta, and the whole covered with 

 some glutinous matter which serves to fix on the surface decomposed flakes of 

 ancient glass, concealing the fractures and the discrepancy between the body 

 and the foot. The wonderful skill with which ancient gems were imitated has 

 caused the comparative neglect under which that interesting branch of archaeo- 

 logy has fallen in this country. 



" With regard to medieval and cinque-cento works of art, the same fraudu- 

 lent practices are carried on. In imitating ivory carvings, the forgers have 

 been very industrious, and have practised with considerable success their ne- 

 farious trade. There seems to be two distinct schools of fabrication. One, the 

 French, situated, I believe, in the south-east of France, which has confined its 

 attention chiefly to Gothic carvings, several of which I have seen for sale in 

 London. The other school is German, probably not far from the Rhine, and 

 its productions are marked by considerable erudition; it generally imitates 

 Roman or Romanesque carvings. 



" Enamels have been also extensively copied; and I may here remark that 

 specimens, imitating nearly all the different varieties of enamel work, were to 

 be met with in the Manchester Exhibition. The early German and Limoges 

 enamels have been very skilfully imitated, and a very competent judge may be 

 deceived by the practice of restoring, by filling up with enamel, specimens from 

 which the vitreous matter has been decayed or removed by violence. The skill 

 with which the later Limoges enamels have been copied is shown by a trial 

 which has recently taken place in France : according to tbe statement published 

 in the papers, M. Boissel de Monville, a distinguished collector and a good 

 judge of articles of virtu, and who purchases such things to a large extent for 

 the sons of Baron Rothschild, had bought for those gentlemen various specimens 

 of Limoges enamels, such as cups, vases, and saltcellars, from one Chalvet, a 

 bookseller, who had taken him to Aries and various other places to see these 

 pretended antiques. It appears that a man named Pierat was the actual fabri- 

 cator, and had employed Chalvet as his agent. The deception seems to have 

 been very cleverly carried out. The tribunal came to the satisfactory result of 

 condemning Pierat to fifteen months' imprisonment and 1000 francs fine. Italian 

 Majolica has likewise found its imitators — not merely its legitimate imitators, 

 like Minton and the Imperial manufactory at Sevres, but also fraudulent copiers, 

 who seek to give all the imperfections of the old ware, and imitate marks in 

 order to deceive collectors. Some of this ware is made at the manufactory at 

 Doccia, near Florence, where probably was produced the specimen I now exhibit 

 — a plate with a clever sketch of a Satyr's head. 



" Similar frauds are daily carried on in porcelain. Much of the fine old blue 

 and white oriental China, which used to adorn our grandmothers' corner cup- 

 boards, has been coloured and gilded, to give it a more gay appearance, and the 

 repainting of Dresden and Sevres is very extensively carried on. With regard 

 to Dresden porcelain, it is useful to remember that when the specimens are sent 

 out unpainted a grooved and indelible cut is made at the manufactory across 

 the blue swords, with which the china is marked, so that, in the case of all 

 coloured specimens, the existence of the cut shows that the decoration has been 



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