Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar91912newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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January, 1912 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 17
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The chair to the left is a reproduction of the famous William Perm chair preserved in the Banquet-Room of Independence Hall, Philadelphia. The settee and the armchair have been fashioned to complete the suite by modern craftsmen dinary common sense. One would hardly expect to find on sale anywhere, even in the most plausible shop, an antique seven-light candelabrum from Solomon's Temple. Such a treasure, if it existed at all, would have been acquired long ago for such a museum as the Louvre or the Metropolitan, and one may safely accept as copies all the array of really charming candelabra, lamps and brackets on sale in the shops, to which dealers are wont to give extraordinary his- tories and put forth at low prices. Of late years the market has been flooded with reproduc- tions of the different sorts of Majolica, which are unblush- ingly sold in many shops as original, and from Italy. This class of imitations is particularly exasperating, for the sub- ject of Majolica is as yet a sealed volume to most amateur collectors, and the wily imitator finds a ready sale for his reproductions of plates, decorative panels, and apothecary jars. The best and indeed the only protection for one in- terested in antiquities of this class is a close and careful study of the subject—an intelligent idea of the technicalities of glaze and surface, and the other points upon which a good guide will be of the greatest possible help. Another class of pottery which is now extensively imi- tated is the blue-and-white Staffordshire, a ware especially popular with amateur collectors by reason of its decorative value and of its spirited portrayal of places and events con- nected with American history. Everyone knows, or has heard, of the fabulous prices paid by collectors for rare ex- amples of this ware. I remember some years ago attending a sale in New York of the collection of a noted amateur, and much of the interest centered upon the eager compe- tition between two or three bidders for a few plates, platters and a tureen of white-and-blue Staffordshire. The very popularity of this ware has caused its successful imita- tion and the shops are glutted with plates showing the "Landing of Lafayette," the "Boston State House," and even some of the series showing the adventures of "Dr. Syntax." A particularly disagreeable episode occurred not long ago when a dishonest dealer sold for a very high price one of these imitations, the actual value of which is but a few cents. Staffordshire ware is now being made showing modern views. I have seen plates showing excel- lent pictures of "Trinity Church, Boston" and "St. Patrick's Cathedral," and possibly these plates, and others of the same series, will sell for high prices a century hence—who can tell ? Perhaps after all, imitations of the antique in furniture are the most difficult of detection, for here the craft of the imitator seems to have surpassed even himself. Of course, any clever furniture-maker can skillfully copy old furniture, but in the finishing and "aging" all sorts of clever processes are employed. One finish will be used to brighten a sur- face, another to deaden its appearance; a solution of dis- solved wax will produce still another effect, and the shooting of wood full of bullet holes produces the worm-eaten ap- pearance which the amateur collector usually expects to find in old oak. Mirrors are among the articles most widely and success- fully imitated. I have a charming little gilt-framed mirror which caught my fancy some years ago and which I pur- chased (with some misgivings) as being a real old Georgian mirror. It bore all the ear-marks of age—frame worn and dull, under surface of glass somewhat injured and several layers of different kinds of paper were pasted over the back, under which was painted or stenciled the name of what was evidently a London dealer, and a date some time in the Eighteenth Century. I long ago decided to regard the little mirror as a beautiful fraud, but console myself with con- templating its beauty and by remembering that neither in England nor in America have I ever come across a duplicate. In arranging antiques as household furnishings care must be exercised in planning their setting. Try to plan their backgrounds so that the quaint old treasures may be set forth with all their beauty and charm well displayed. Often antique pieces may be utilized in building. I once knew a dramatist, for instance, who made frequent trips to Europe, bringing home all sorts of artistic "junk" which he had run across. One of his treasures was a fine old carved beam, colored as well as carved, which came from the facade of an old tavern in Rothenburg and which afterwards was used with excellent effect in a beautiful country home not far from New York. There can be no general rule regarding the placing of the possessions one may be fortunate enough to acquire. Few can hope to achieve a house which consists of period rooms, each furnished in antiques of some particular era— and many of us must live with our treasures placed in set- tings more or less "composite." If one's collected antiques be many or few, their interest will make them seem to fit in with any surroundings of fair woodwork and wall covering.

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