The Art of Collecting Household Furniture 
trifles in the way of household furniture and 
decoration. To begin with, the attitude of 
the buyer is of first importance. Not only 
must the man of moderate means sternly 
limit himself as to the prices he pays, but he 
must take care not to fall into the habit and 
attitude of the mere curio collector, lest he 
fill his house with only ugly and useless 
things. A poor man’s home can hardly with 
propriety be an old curiosity shop, unless, 
indeed, he collect such things with a view to 
speculative sale. It must be borne in mind, 
too, that many dealers in second-hand furni¬ 
ture are the victims of convention and super¬ 
stition. Nearly all of them believe that 
candlesticks are valuable only in pairs, so 
Viennese coffee-pots, discarded by persons 
that found them too elaborate for daily use. 
These pots not only make excellent coffee, 
ROSEWOOD TABLE FROM A JUNK-SHOP 
but serve as an extremely handsome deco¬ 
ration for the top of a sideboard or a china 
closet. They are far more appropriate as 
household ornaments than the brass warm¬ 
ing-pans with which some persons incom¬ 
prehensibly decorate their parlor walls, and 
vastly cheaper than the Russian samovars, 
lately so much the rage. 
Finally, it is well to remember that only 
the best, modern, cabinet-made furniture 
equals in durability the furniture of fifty 
and a hundred years ago. Most modern, 
factory-made chairs and tables will rack 
to pieces years before a well-repaired old 
piece shows any sign of wear. It would 
be easy to prove that the truest economy 
for those of moderate means lies in the 
patient watching for what is sound and 
beautiful in second-hand furniture rather 
than in the purchase of modern imitations, 
however cheap or attractive in appearance 
they may be. 
E. N. Vallandigham. 
that it is often possible to pick up a single 
candlestick at a price far below its real value. 
The handsomest of those illustrated in this 
article was bought for a dollar and a half, 
and the pretty little brass bedroom candle¬ 
sticks for twenty-five cents. Andirons are 
harder to find at a bargain than almost any 
other article of old household furnishing, 
because they are steadily in demand. The 
second-hand shops abound in the so-called 
A FIFTY-CENT CHAIR 
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