Frauds in Old China 
he keeps. When you find an antique 
store filled with 90 per cent imitation 
stuff—and there are several such both 
in Philadelphia and New York—avoid 
it like a pestilence, for you may be 
sure the other 10 per cent is fraudu¬ 
lent too. If you find one with even 
one piece palpably a fake, unless the 
dealer freely admits it and gives his 
reason for having it, look out for 
yourself and remember the maxim 
caveat eniptor. Worst of all is the 
man who says he believes what he 
offers you to be genuinely old, but he 
doesnt know. Why doesn’t he know .? 
He bought them; he knows where 
they came from and if he’s in the 
antique business it’s his business to 
know. If he asks the price of a gen¬ 
uine piece he ought to guarantee it and 
stand ready to return your money if a 
competent judge says that it is not 
genuine. Nor can he afterwards he 
heard to dispute an expert opinion 
since he has already pleaded igno¬ 
rance. The best way in a purchase of 
any importance is always to have the 
description included in the receipted 
bill. It saves questions arising after¬ 
wards as to what was represented and 
what was not. 
There are plenty of dealers who are perfectly 
honest—from their own standpoint; but that stand¬ 
point is not always the same as the collector’s! 
One man I know prides himself upon never 
misrepresenting anything he has for sale. “If 
it’s an imitation and they ask me—I tell them 
so,” says he. 
“But what if they don’t ask you 
“Well, that’s their affair. If a party comes in 
here and thinks he knows it all. I’m not going to 
undeceive him. The other day a woman came into 
the store and I had a reproduction of a Syntax 
plate lying around. ‘What’s the price of the plate r 
said she. ‘$18,’ said I. Then she wanted to know 
the price of a lot more things and tried to beat me 
down on most everything. Finally she grabs up 
the Syntax plate. 
“‘I’ll give you ^15 for your plate,’ she says. ‘Very 
well,’ says I, ‘you can have it.’ I wasn’t going 
to tell her she didn’t know nothing. Now if she 
had asked me if it was a genuine one. I’d have told 
her straight it wasn’t.” 
It’s just as well when you are dickering for old 
china to remember that, as a rule, dealers won’t 
lie unless driven into a corner, but they are not 
going to take money out of their pockets to pay 
for your education. 
This particular brand of Syntax plate that I 
speak of (Dr. Syntax painting a portrait) was made 
in England, presumably by the same firm mentioned 
earlier (the whole set of six is now obtainable) 
and brought to this country by a Baltimore dealer, 
who shall be nameless. He secured two different 
designs (Dr. Syntax and the Bees and Dr. Syntax 
painting a portrait) and tried them first in a New 
York sale room, where he succeeded in getting ^35 
each for a small number. The fraud, however,was 
soon detected and I understand, though I do not 
know for certain, that restitution was made. 
Two of them were next tried in a Philadelphia 
auction room. The price ran up quickly from 
;^I5 to $22, when the bidder received a nudge of 
warning from a fellow dealer. Turning to the 
auctioneer he said, “Of course you guarantee them.” 
For reply the wielder of the hammer said, “We guar¬ 
antee nothing; if you don’t want the plates we will 
put them up again.” He did. Ihis time they 
were bid in for ^14. 
But to return to the dealer who took ;^I5 for one 
of these imitation Syntax plates. A fortnight 
later a greatly incensed woman entered his store, 
declared she had been cheated, demanded that 
he take back the plate and return her the money. 
The dealer replied that he had not represented 
the plate to be a genuine one, and that she bought 
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