some old iron stamps for the impress on the leather of the binding.
Some of these old implements that have escaped destruction are now used
to advantage, especially to stamp decorative coats of arms on imitation
antique bindings, so that the buyer should think the books have come
straight from the former library of a nobleman. The faker has used this
trick successfully with Americans particularly. In this way the stamps
of the _Sacré de Louis XV_, which are, apparently, still in existence,
have been used as a decoy on fine bindings, as well as that of the
Rohan-Chabot family coat of arms perpetuating the supposition that
books belonging to that illustrious family are still on the market. The
third method is called in French _rembotage_ and consists, as we have
said, of transferring covers from one book to another. There are some
good editions that have lost their covers and some worthless books with
fine bindings--fakery repairs this injustice of fate by transferring
the good binding to the more meritorious book, a simple act of justice
invariably rewarded in the world of fakery by the large sum that can be
asked for the edition thus treated.
There are naturally many ways to discover the bindings that have in
one way or other received the paternal and not at all disinterested
caress of the faker, but the best and safest way--shall we ever tire
of repeating it--is to train one’s eye to that helpful synthesis
of judgment called experience. Newly coloured and patinated leather
does not stand rubbing with a damp cloth like the old does, modern
gilding and modern stamping imitating antique designs are heavier and
less clean cut as well as not so rich--qualities best understood by
comparing modern work with the old, for although the differences are
slight they are, nevertheless, plain to the experienced eye accustomed
to comparing old and new. Even _rembotage_, the most difficult to
detect, may be found out by examining the way one part is joined
to the other, the peculiarities of the work, etc. All that can be
said, however, to put the neophyte on his guard who may imagine that
hints from books or special works on the subject are sufficient to
assist him, is: Go slow, and if you are really anxious to have a good
collection and prepared to pay good prices, in the beginning ask the
man who knows for his help--_Experto crede_.
It is obvious that no artistic temperament, taste or knowledge of
art is necessary in order to become a collector of autographs. This
class of collector, who may boast an uninterrupted line from scholars
to specialists, has neither the assistance nor complicity of art.
Consequently the faker, who inevitably follows suit, must have a
knowledge of history in order to avoid historical blunders, he must
be acquainted with particulars connected with the personage whose
autograph is to be forged, and above all must be an expert imitator
of other people’s hand-writing, in fact in him the art of forging
signatures must be brought to the highest perfection, for here
documents are to be forged, a succession of calligraphic characters and
idiosyncrasies far more difficult of execution than a mere signature on
a false cheque.
The aptitude of a bank clerk gives promise of a good expert in this
subject. Studies of various papers according to epoch is not of such
assistance here to the expert as in the case of books, for there is
still plenty of old-fashioned paper on the market, enough of it at
least to bear a few lines from a celebrated man, the chief quality
needed is experience gained by comparing originals with forgeries, or
better still such familiarity with a given man’s hand-writing that
its genuineness can be judged at sight, as a bank clerk does with a
signature.
There are some artists also in this class, but not only is it rarer,
but their work deals less with autographs properly so-called than old
documents mostly on parchment with illuminations, etc.
Stamp-collecting hardly comes within our sphere, and represents
rather a minor department of connoisseurship. Several books have been
written on the subject, many with valuable hints as to prices and with
reproductions of the best samples, etc. We would warn our readers who
may perchance be interested, that every stamp of value has been faked,
that, strange to say, some of these fifty-year-old fakes fetch handsome
prices and flourishing factories have been established to supply not
only the rare specimens already acknowledged as such, but to produce
at a few hours’ notice any sample despotic fashion may suddenly raise
to the rank of a rarity. Art plays so small a part that the way to
become an expert on the subject is to become an--expert. Beyond this,
which is only in appearance an _idem per idem_, there is very little
to be done. Experience consists of being familiar with the original,
the kind of paper used, the colours, peculiarities and also defects,
particularly the defects, as when the stamps were printed that are now
rare, the art of printing was in its infancy compared with our times.
There is no occasion to speak of minor fancy collections that, as
usual, form links between the true collector and the man with a mania.
Even in these minor branches there may be more than one interesting
collection, such, for instance, as that of General Vandamme who left
his relatives no fewer than sixty thousand pipes, and Baron Oscar
de Watterville’s and others. Art plays no great part in these minor
expressions of curio-collecting and science also occupies but a limited
field. One axiom may be given, however, which holds good for all
classes of collecting, whether artistic, scientific, or anything else,
and that is that as soon as the prices of certain articles come under
the nomenclature of fancy prices, through fashion or merit, the faker
is ready to hand.
In the Paris world of fakers, a larger world than the outsider may
imagine, an amusing anecdote is told. Learning the high prices paid by
astronomers for bolides, an inveterate faker called upon a well-known
chemist to propose a partnership for the production of imitations of
meteorites. Even if an invention, the anecdote gives the full size of
the faker’s spirit of enterprise.
CHAPTER XXV
SUMMING UP
With some show of reason Swift affirmed that all sublunary happiness
consists in being _well deceived_.
We are perfectly aware that this book does not support Swift’s ethics
of happiness, for while agreeing that the English satirist’s theory
may hold good on a great many occasions, we claim an exception for
collectors as a class. In the world of art, art lovers and collectors,
to be well deceived means to be living in a fool’s paradise, a most
costly dwelling which promises no eternal joy. On the contrary, the
happiness derived from being well deceived in this case is generally
not only of very short duration but inflicts smarting wounds to pride
and pocket.
In the world at large there seems to exist a certain benevolence
towards deluded ones, which makes it at times possible for the well
deceived to be the only one of his entourage unaware that he has
been duped. In the world of collectors such a thing is almost an
impossibility for, to quote a well-known French art lover: “After
pictures by Michelangelo and specimens of Medici ware, the rarest thing
to find with collectors is kindliness.”
The same art lover assures us that in this peculiar world not only
is kindliness (_bienveillance_) rare, but the opposite sentiment has
been developed almost to the point of genius. Collectors, especially
first-rate collectors who have finally emerged into fame through the
complex resultant of a good eye, shrewdness and extreme skill in
fencing with strong competitors, have a regular talent for flavouring
bitter pills for deceived friends and comrades with troublesome
innuendoes and smarting disclosures, for, as the above-quoted
connoisseur declares, they have a way of praising with “praise that
exasperates and with homicidal compliments,” and there is a type of
collector who knows his repertory by heart, a man who is a “_toreador
raffiné--il massacre artistement_.”
What the neophyte can do to avoid being “artistically” massacred, as
the French connoisseur puts it semi-euphemistically, is difficult to
say. Books and special treatises may explain the nature of the deceit,
point out the dangers awaiting him and show how traps are laid and how
they work, but to pretend to become a truly safe buyer on the security
of knowledge gathered from books and manuals would be like attempting
the ascent of some dangerous peak on the strength of wisdom drawn from
works on Alpine climbing.
The rudiments of the art do not concern so much the knowledge of how
to buy as of how not to buy, how to resist, namely, the first impulse,
which in an inexperienced art lover proves to be one of the worst
dangers. The slow, prudent method must be learnt of not listening to
first impulses till the first impulses are supported by something
better than the innate conceit of a beginner. We know, of course, that
there may be occasions when even a beginner may have cause to regret
not having listened to a first impulse, but such a thing is further
from the general rule than the beginner claims, and in any case it pays
in the long run to let a good chance slip rather than risk becoming the
possessor of some expensive would-be _chef-d’œuvre_.
In addition, during the early stages in particular, a certain amount
of scepticism must temper a too ready belief in what the dealer has to
say or show, in support of his assertion. There will come a time when
experience will help the collector to detect more easily than at first
alluring, suggestive information, etc.
Naturally it is not all dealers who are on the watch to take advantage
of the beginner. On the contrary, there are more honest dealers in
the antique market than one would think, but the trouble is that the
dishonest ones seem to be to the fore, to be ever there ready to
confront the inexperienced novice, and their noisy deceits become
far more known than good, honest dealing, causing perplexity in some
collectors so that it may be they disbelieve the man who is telling the
truth and give credence to the liar, who being a perfect master in the
art of misrepresentation, seems to be honesty itself.
Here, too, the determination to be rather sceptical as to documents,
letters, pedigrees and mercantile evidence may lead the beginner to
miss some good opportunity, but the case is rare and such losses
are as a rule amply covered in the summing up of the total cost of
apprenticeship, through not having paid for experience the extravagant
price usually demanded. In due time the art lover’s ability to discern
between dealing and dealing will be sharpened, and he will be able to
defend himself better.
This merely concerns dealing and experience in distinguishing the
genuine from the fake. But even supposing perfection has been attained
in this part, the fact does not necessarily imply qualification as
a connoisseur, collector, expert or even simple lover of art. A
collection may be composed of genuine articles and yet be a poor
one, utterly devoid of artistic merit or even commercial value of
importance. To have paid a high price is no guarantee of merit. There
are, as a matter of fact, perfectly genuine paintings for which
extravagant fancy prices have been paid, but which in the eyes of a
true connoisseur are not worth the nail they hang on.
It is almost impossible to conceive that experience in distinguishing
the genuine from the false should be acquired without the attainment of
some artistic progress prompting discrimination between poor art and
mediocre, and mediocre art and fine art, yet this artistic side is the
most difficult to develop to that perfection and semi-intuition of the
beautiful, so necessary to the real and first-rate connoisseur.
By what method this artistic side may be perfected in the collector
is still more difficult to tell, for in this direction experience
only counts to a certain extent. In fact as regards this artistic
education of the connoisseur we are inclined to repeat with Taine, in
his _Philosophie de l’Art_: “Precepts? Well, two might be given: first
to be born with genius--that is your parents’ affair, not mine;
second to work a good deal to bring it out, and that is not my business
either.”
Here too, then, actual methods are out of the question. They are,
perforce, of such a general character as to be no more use than telling
a blind man to keep in the middle of the road because there are ditches
on either side. It is, further, not uncommon for contrary systems to
lead to equally happy results according to the person employing them.
One antiquary when undecided as to the genuineness of a painting used
to have a photograph of it taken, for, he said, he could easily detect
the traits of forgery on seeing the work in black and white with all
colours eliminated, or, to put it in his own words: The faked side
sweats out. Another connoisseur held exactly the contrary theory,
declaring that he could tell nothing from photos but needed the colours
to help to detect the genuineness or fraud of the painting. Perhaps the
former had an artistic temperament based chiefly upon the charm of form
while the latter was what in art is termed a colourist.
In addition, at times another misleading cause may be added which comes
under the form of intervening suggestion and may put even a highly
gifted artistic temperament off the scent.
Perhaps an example will best illustrate this peculiar interference,
which is not only of a circumstantial order, as we have seen in another
part of this book, but may be the result of an unconscious _parti pris_.
Some years ago when Mr. Stanford White imported works of art and
antiques for his millionaire patrons, a Mr. X., who owned a fine
mansion on Fifth Avenue, very much admired an early fifteenth century
single andiron that was among the imported goods. He wished, however,
to have a pair. The suggestion that a modern copy should be made from
the only remaining original at first disgusted him, for everyone knows
how easily American collectors buy imitations for originals and how
disgusted they are if the dealer honestly says that a certain work is
an imitation. On being assured that the imitation should be perfect,
the new piece was finally ordered and the antiquary arranged for an
artistically exact copy of the ancient andiron to be made in Italy.
However, possibly because not wishing to be suspected of concocting
“modern antiques,” or for some other reason, the Italian firm sent
a perfect copy of the original in a brand new condition, suggesting
that a certain Italian artist living in New York should give it the
proper patina as he was fully initiated in the cryptic art of making
new objects look as old as might be desired. The art critic chosen to
come and judge of the final result of the work was, as the artist knew,
rather distrustful of Italians and their tricks, as he put it.
The Italian artist did the work as well as it could be done, and
knowing that it was going to be judged side by side with the original,
the hardest test that can be inflicted upon an imitation, he managed
to cheat the art critic by being excessively frank and honest, taking
advantage of his prejudice against Italians and a probable momentary
mental attitude. The two pieces were shown in the artist’s atelier, the
imitation being placed by the artist in the full light and the original
in the most benevolent corner, far from the window in a half-shade. The
first thought that passed through the art critic’s brain as he entered
the studio was that the “tricky Italian” had put the imitation where
the light was less strong and the shade more benevolently helpful.
“Very good,” he remarked, “but of course even when not in the full
light an imitation is always an imitation.”
“But that is the original,” replied the artist, for to make his
positive assertion the more definite the critic had been pointing to
the wrong piece.
A stony silence followed.
The story ends here and we do not know whether the critic ever forgave
the artist his honest trick. Knowing that the art critic was a real
connoisseur, a good exception to the class, we are quite sure that his
judgment was perverted by the preconceived notion that the Italian had
placed the imitation in the shade and thus had hardly let his artistic
temperament and knowledge of art come into play in forming an opinion,
or rather the opinion was already formed, and too quickly expressed,
by a semi-subconscious process of reasoning that had nothing in common
with art judgment.
So many are the special cases, and so little the assistance generally
given to new-comers, that the safest method in conclusion is to have
no actual method, to watch and study one’s own temperament, value the
first results objectively, to be ready to learn as much as possible
from experience under whatever form it comes and finally, like in so
many cases of human life and possibilities, to work out one’s own
salvation.
In this way, even if not called to the Olympus of the elect, the art
lover will certainly reduce his bad bargains to a minimum--bad bargains
in the way of buying the wrong things as far as the genuineness of the
article is concerned as well as with regard to its artistic worth. With
this he must rest satisfied for, as we gladly repeat once more with the
Nestor of French connoisseurs: “Beware of the collector who never makes
a mistake; the strongest is he who makes the fewest mistakes.”
* * * * *
As we have seen, the genus _curieux_ (curio-hunter) comprises a most
complex and multiform assembly of types. From the distant ages of Roman
dominion down to our times, collectomania has produced characters
graduated in originality from the grotesque to the tragic, the false to
the genuine, the sordid or wicked like Mark Antony and Verres to noble
representatives like Julius Cæsar, Augustus and Agrippa.
Curiously enough the noble type of collector and the usefulness of
his mission have generally escaped the observation of writers of all
ages. They seem to have been quicker to see the grotesque side of
collectomania than its utility. Martial, Juvenal, Pliny, Seneca and
others are not dissimilar in their remarks from--say, Molière and La
Bruyère.
So strong is the inclination to place the types in a grotesque setting,
to make them the target of witty sallies, that they very often mistake
oddities for signs of idiocy, idiosyncrasies and peculiarities for
craziness, and, carrying their analysis no further, they let loose the
vein of their satire on people whose passion for collecting has been of
extreme use to the intellectual world, greatly assisting progress and
the civilization of humanity.
“Just like a donkey beholding a lyre,” gibes an old Greek epigram
in allusion to collectors who, while buying eagerly, give so little
time, or none at all, to the enjoyment of the artistic merits of their
acquisitions. Addressing one of his contemporaries who had a passion
for collecting manuscripts and volumes but no inclination to read
them, Lucian remarks: “Why so many literary works? Do you collect them
in order to lie on the learned thoughts of others, or to paste the
parchment of the volumes to your skin? With it all you will not become
a jot more learned; a monkey is always a monkey, even though covered
with gilded garments.”
To follow up the special case of book-collecting to which Lucian’s
remark casually leads us, the same sentiment as that of the Greek
writer was entertained centuries later by Petrarch and Robert Estienne.
The former was a poet and bibliophile, the latter a famous printer,
author of the _Thesauros linguæ latinæ_. The two did not spare satires
on the mere collector of books.
A like attitude is taken towards Mazarin by a mediocre poet of La
Fronde, who reproaches the Cardinal with collecting books without
reading them; the same reproach that contemporary writers make to
Magliabechi, a passionate collector of rare editions who never went
further in a book than the title-page. Yet, to confine ourselves
to these alone, to Mazarin is due one of the finest libraries of
Paris which still bears his name, and by his careful, patient work,
Magliabechi was the founder of the Magliabechiana, now the National
Library of Florence, a marvel and model of historical character to
other more modern institutions of the kind. These two persistent and
passionate book collectors have certainly contributed more to science
and its progress than many of those scholars who made fun of their
hobby.
It must be taken into consideration that collecting, after all, is a
passion, at times a deep and firmly rooted one, and that passion, like
love, in its most exalted expression does not represent normality, but
while on the one hand presenting qualities of an intuitive character,
can be coupled with oddities and idiosyncrasies, frequently the
inevitable heritage of originality.
Hannibal who stored his money in the hollow of the bronze statues of
his collection, Sulla who put to death citizens to seize their rare
pieces of art, and Julius Cæsar who travelled with his cherished
objects of virtu, are known to us as collectors mostly through their
peculiarities, the amusing anecdotal side of a passion, certain to be
exploited by a writer, be he chronicler or historian.
Yet, to go back to the unjustified and indiscriminating spirit of
satirists, both of ancient and more recent times, which tends to
consider the collector a maniac or fool, many a Greek and Roman
_chef-d’œuvre_ of art has nevertheless been spared to our admiration by
the patient persistence and art-loving care of collectors.
It would, indeed, be interesting to follow the passage of some of the
most noted specimens of past art. If one could trace the true history
of each one of these objects in all its details, it would perhaps give
us the history of the collecting passion together with tangible proof
of its merits and utility.
It would, indeed, not only be interesting but also instructive to know
the vicissitudes of some of the works of art that have come down to
us. The few hints existing as to the lineage of owners of some of the
most famous pieces of Greek and Roman art, certainly promise interest
even though marred at times by the fact that much of the information
rests upon the vague authority of tradition, or is strongly doubted by
modern criticism.
“We owe, it is more than possible, the Venus of the Hermitage to
Cæsar; the well-known ‘Whetter’ has almost certainly been saved to
our admiration by Lucullus, just as Cicero may be thanked for the
‘Demosthenes’ and the collecting passion of Sallust has handed down
to us the ‘Faun,’ the ‘Hermaphrodite’ and the ‘Vase’ of the Villa
Borghese.”
These remarks of a well-known French collector who mainly notes
works contained in the Louvre Museum might be extended to many other
collections, especially those of Rome, where several of the works of
art have old historical records of undisputed character.
From the Renaissance down to our own days the pedigrees of celebrated
works of art are not only surer, but present at times a less
interrupted line of descent. With such it is not uncommon to find a
rare object pass from one collector to another, receiving the same care
and consideration as though passing from father to son as a cherished
heirloom--and it is, in fact, passing from one to another member of
the same family, the family bound by an identical burning passion, that
of collecting.
As to the essence of this passion, so often confounded with mania--a
mistake calling forth the following comment from a French collector:
“... _confondre la ‘manie’ avec la curiosité, c’est prendre l’hysterie
pour l’amour, ‘la Belle Helenè’ pour l’Iliade_”--we should like to
quote Gersaint, one of the few men who as art dealer and collector in
one, what might be styled private dealer in modern phrase, impersonated
the passion, as we have said, in its highest expression among the many
collectors of the eighteenth century. It must be understood, of course,
that Gersaint, one of these maniacs in, say, La Bruyère’s opinion,
was a representative of those passionate collectors who subordinate
every other passion of mankind to the one they have made the sole aim
of their lives. “... A _curieux_,” says this unilateral lover but not
hobbyist collector, “has the advantage of not falling an easy prey to
the many passions so familiar to the human family: the _curiosité_
fills all the empty spaces of his leisure moments. Entertained by his
cherished possessions, he has time only for working at the advance
of his _curiosité_, and his cabinet becomes the centre of all his
pleasures, and the seat of all his passions.”
The outsider and half-way-insider will agree that this is a trifle too
much; but, after all, the great collectors who have left to the museums
of their countries fortunes that would have been lost but for their
intense passion--treasures of art left by the ignorant to the doom
of decay--have all felt, more or less, the burning passion described
by Gersaint, in the passage quoted which goes on to assert that a true
paradise awaits the perfect collector, who is never bored, and never
the prey of spleen.
Without discussing the promises held out by Gersaint, as the perfect
collector is, to our knowledge, rare, let us state that our book
does not hope to urge any reader on to the perfection that ushers
into Gersaint’s bliss, but if the brief glimpse we have given of
Collectomania with its pleasures and dangers should convince some
really passionate lover of art that collecting has a nobler aim than
that of mere pleasure, if we should discourage a Tongilius or Paullus,
or if this work should scare some modern Clarinus and do away with a
noisy, useless up-to-date Trimalchus, we shall feel that the purpose of
the book has been justified to some extent.
INDEX.
Adamo da Brescia, counterfeiter of coins, 67
_Adventures of a Bric-à-brac Hunter_,
144
Agar’s, Mme., collection of dolls, 291
Agesilas, 21
Aglæphon, 25
Agrippa as an art lover, 31
Alberti, 86
Alcohol as a solvent, 227
Alexander the Great, 37
Alluye, castle of, 92
Altar piece, Rothschild’s faked, 262
_Amateur marchand_, the, 117
Amber varnish, 228
Ambras collection, the, 87
American collector, the, 141
Andirons, story of the, 305
Andrea da Foiano, 79
Andrea del Sarto, 99
Andreoli, Maestro Giorgio, 250
Anne of Austria, 123
Anonimo Morelliano, the, 98
Antiquary, old and modern, the, 143, 153
Antique, passion for the, 71
Antiques, the collection of, in Italy, 82
Apelles, 20
Apollo and Marsyas, 94
Apollo, Sulla’s statue of, 36
Apollo, temple of, at Delphi, 23, 61
Apollo, the golden, 18
Aponius Saturninus, prætor, 29
Archæological suggestion, 160
Aretino, Pietro, 117
Aristotle, 18
Aristotle, bas-relief of, 91
Armour, faked, 269
Arms, the imitation of, 267
Art collecting, spread of, in Europe, 110
Art critic, the, 160
Art, influence of Greek and Roman, 83
Art in Rome, 20
Art museums in Rome, 61
Art sales, 128
Artist and erudite, 140
Artistic war booty, 21
Artists as connoisseurs, 288
Artists at Rome, status of, 20
Aspetti, Tiziano, 98
Athens, 18
_Atria auctionaria_, 28, 212
_Atrium_, the, 48
Atticus, 40
Auction room, atmosphere of the, 214
Augustus and Vedius Pollio, 52
Autographs, forged, 200, 298
Baldinucci, 225
Barberini, Cardinal, 118
Barbizet Brothers, 252
_Barguette_, la, 110
Barocco, the, 113
Bas-reliefs, bronze, 91, 235
Basant, 131
Basilini, 147
Bastianini, 182, 188
Belli, Valerio, 98, 100
Bellini, 100
Beniviene, Girolamo, Bastianini’s bust of, 183
Biblical subjects, 102
Bibliomaniacs, Roman, 50
_Biographie Universelle_ of M. Weiss, 115
Bisticci, V. da, 92
“Black Band,” the, 171, 180, 219
Boethus, 30
Boiss, Mme., 209
Bolides, faking, 300
Bonafedi, Signor, 185
Bonnaffé, Edmond, 108, 112, 149, 193
Bookbindings, 296
Book collectors, Roman, 49
Books, 294
Bracciolini, Poggio, 75
Brass articles, patina for, 265
Bric-à-brac, 130
Bric-à-brac shops in Rome, 29
Brienne, 119
Briesco, Andrea, 87, 88
Bronze and other metals, to give tone and colour to, 264
Bronzes, 30, 89, 238
Brunelleschi, 75, 83
Brunellesco, 71
Brunswick Museum, the, 91
Brutus as a collector, 40
Brutus of Michelangelo, 103
Buffon, 131
Bullant, Jean, 92
Cafaggiolo, 249
Calamis, 46, 59
“Calcedonio,” Niccoli’s, 73
Calchar, 100
Caligula, 29
Caligula as an auctioneer, 212
Callot’s bad etching, 127
Camelio, Vittore, 91
Cameos, counterfeit, 58
Candelabras, 30
Canvas for restoring paintings, 229
Capodimonte factory, the, 256
_Cappuccino_, 282
Cardinal di San Giorgio, 82, 89
Carncades, 41
Carracci, “The Deluge” by, 120
Castellani sale, the, 213
Castiglione, 103
Catalogues, first printed, 116
Cathegus, 25
Catherine de Medici, 110
Cavenaghi, 167
Cavino, 91
Cellini, 103
Ceroplastics, 244
Cesnola collection, 248
Charles the Bald, Bible and Psalter of, 66
Charles VI, catalogue of, 68
Chasles, M., 199
Cheese as a vehicle for colour, 230
Chemistry’s aid to faking, 263
Chilperic, a collector, 65
Christian and pagan subjects, 96
Christianity and art, 63
_Chronique Scandaleuse_, 130
Chrysogon, 25
Chrysoloras, Emanuele, 72
Claywork fakes, 235
Cicero and Art, 19;
imitation and fraud, 24;
pubilc auctions, 28;
a collector of doubtful taste, 40, 41;
Chrysogon, 45;
_citrus_ tables, 54;
public sales, 211
Cinquecento art, 102; velvet, 289
Cinquecento collectors, 102
Ciriaco d’Ancona, 71
_Citrus_ or _thuja_, 54;
qualities, 55
_Citrus_ tables, craze for, 25, 54
Clarinus, 32
Classification, 138
“Cleaning,” 216
Client and art market, 31
Clodion’s clay groups, 208, 238
Clodius, 31
Clotaire, a collector, 65
Clovis, a collector, 65
_Craquelage_, on pottery, 255
Cressy, influence of the battle of, 110
_Crieur_, the, 28
Crozat, 129
Coaches, Commodus’ collection of, 212
Codrus, the needy collector, 32
Coin counterfeiting, 67, 92
Cola di Rienzi, 69
Collection, a form of banking, 64
Collector, the: the home of the, 18;
and satirists, 32;
types of, 34;
rapacious, 37, 38;
ultra-modern, 141
Collectors and collections, 135
Collector’s touch, the, 146
Colouring marble, 242
Commerce and art collecting, 130
Commodus’ effects, sale of, 212
Concini, 123
Condivi, 90
Connoisseurship and erudition, 138
Conquerors as collectors of art treasures, 22
Constantine, 18, 63
Constantinople and Oriental arms, 267
Copyists in Rome, 59; Greek, 59
Corinthian bronze, 30, 51, 239
Cornelius Nepos’ statuette of Hercules, 37
Corplet, Alfred, 252
Correggio, the Marsyas and the Antiope by, 119
Correr Museum, 91
Corvinus, Mathias, 96
Cosimo I, 104
Costantini, Prof., 178
Costumes and dress, 290
Coulanges, 124
Counterfeit coining, 67
Counterfeiting, imitation, and forgery in Rome, 58
Courajod, Louis, 84, 92
Courtier, the, in Rome, 28; modern, 164
Couvreur, 147
_Curieux_, meaning of, 136
Custom House officials, 179
Cut glass, 260
Dagobert, 65
Damascening, 270
Damophilus, 21, 43
David, statuette by Michelangelo, 108
Davillier collection, the, 90, 95, 108, 140
Dazzi, the Italian dealer, 179
d’Aunale, Duc, 110
de Bassiano, 91
d’Este, Isabella, 80
de Genlis, Mme., 136
de la Porte, Armand-Charles, 120
de Limeville, Sieur, 127
de Sévigné, Mme., 125
d’Oiron, faience, 109
Dealers, traders and shopkeepers, 154
Death masks, 92
Deceptive surroundings, 210
Della Robbia, imitations of, 250
Delorme, Philibert, 92
Delphi, 17
Demasippus, 25
Demmin, 251, 273
Derutha, 249
Devers, Joseph, 250
di Banco, Antonio, 84
_di mattonella_, 156
Didius Julianus, 212
Dolls and toys, 290
Donatello, 71, 83, 84, 86
Donatello’s _puttino_, 197
Dondi, 71
Dreyfus, G., 91
Drouot, Hotel, 214
Duchie, Jacques, collection of, 69
Dyes for marble, 243
Eclectic and specialist, 138, 140
Ecouen, castle of, 92
_Electrum_, Helen’s cup of, 18
Enamels, faked, 259, 260
England, rise of the passion for collecting in, 110
English furniture, 283
Ennius, 22
_Epitrapezios_, the, 36
_Ereinteur_, the, 217
Eros, the tearful collector, 33
Estienne, H., 109, 112
Estienne, R., dictionary of, 136
Etchings, margins for, 232
Etruscan pottery, 248
Eudel, Paul, 180, 199, 203, 238, 273, 278, 295
Evander Aulanius, 60
_Évangéliaire_, a rare, 66
Evelyn, John, 115
Ex-voto objects, 290
_Exhedra_, 49
Expert, the, 162
Fabius Maximus, 19
“Fabius Pictor,” 20
Faked atmosphere, the, 207
Faked reputation, the, 220
Faker, the, 194
Faker, the jovial, 202
Fakers, the aristocracy of, 88
“Faking the _milieu_,” 209
Faking in Rome, 27, 57
“Faustina antica,” Mantegna’s, 81
Filarete, 86
Firminius, 31
Florence, National Museum, 91
Flute player, the, 88
Fontainebleau, school of, 112
Forgeries, 153
Forni, 230
Fortunatus, 65
Fortuny, Mariano, 268
Forzetta, Oliver, 69
France and art collecting, 107
France, art in, 112
France, seventeenth-century art in, 114
Frankfurt, fair of, 109
Frederick II, Duke of Mantua, 66, 99
Freppa, 182
Friuli, Marquis of, 66
_Fronde_, the, 119
Fulvius Nobilior, 21
Furniture, faking, 167, 279
Gaillon, castle of, 87
Gegania and Clesippus, 29
Gellianus the auctioneer, 213
German-made arms, 267
Gersaint, 131, 148, 309
Ghiacceti, Luigi, 110
Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 85, 94, 100
Gilded bronze, 241
Gilles Corrozet, 111
Ginori’s china works, 256
Ginsburg, Dr., 205
Giovanni Tornabuoni, 80
Girardon, 40
Giuliano da Sangallo, 80
Giustiniani, 248
Gladius Rogieri, the, 273
Glass, faked, 259
Glazes for pottery, 255
Glyptography, 79
Go-between, the, 164
Godescal, monk, 66
Gold products, spurious, 277
Gorgas, 21, 43
Gouffier, Claude, 109
Græco-Roman pottery, 247
_Græeculi delirantes_, 20
Gratianus, 31
Greek copyists, 59
Greeks, the, as art collectors, 17
Green-bronze lacquer for metal, 263
Green or brown-green patina, 265
Green patina, 266
Grolier, 107
Gubbio, 249
Guillebert de Metz, 69
Gymnasium of the Areopagus, 17
Hall, Major H. Bing, 144
Hannibal, 37
Hercules and Antæus, 88
Hercules of Lysippus, 19
“Hercules Musagetes,” 22
Hercules, statuette of, 36
Heius of Messina, 49
Henry II faience, 252
Hispano-Moresque pottery, 249
Holland, collections in, 128
Horace, 25;
the _crieur_, 28, 32;
book collecting, 50;
patina, 51
Huber, Dr. L., 131
Imbert, 141
Imitation and fraud in Rome, 24
Imitations, contemporaneous, 232
Imitations by noted factories, 256
Imitator, the, 170
Imitators and copyists, 59
Impasto painting, 230
_Imperator Caldusius_, 92
Impruneta clay, 187
Inlaid work on furniture, 282
Inscriptions, 93
Iron work, 266
Isotta Atti, 86
Italian artists, versatility of, 86
Italy, collections in, in the fifteenth century, 70
Italy, exportation laws, 179
Italian faience, imitations of, 250
_Itinerarium Galliæ_, by Just Zinzerling, 115
Ivory work, 244
Jabach, the dealer, 115, 123
Jests, 160
Jewellery, old, 278
Juba, King of Numidia, 212
Julius Cæsar, 21, 31;
a specialist, 42
Julius, Prætor, 60
Jupiter, colossal statue of, in the Louvre, 39
Jupiter, head of, 79
Jupiter Olympicus, temple of, 21
Jupiter, temple of, in Elis, 23
Justinian, digest of, 63
Juvenal, Codrus, 33;
Tongilius, 34;
Licinius, 34;
precious goblets, 52
Krieg, 248
La Bruyère, 124, 140
La Rochefoucauld, 195
Lamberti, Nicolo di Piero, 84
_Laocoön_, the, 104
Laws against exportation, 172
Lebroc, 209
Lequesne, M., 184
_Les Collections des Medicis_, 74
Lescot, 126
Libraries at Athens, 18
Licinius the nervous collector, 34
_Liste anonyme des curieux_, 115
Livy, 61
Lorenzo, il Magnifico, 75, 77, 78
Louis XI and the miraculous ring, 78
Louis XIII as a collector, 122
Louis XIV as a collector, 39, 123
Louvre, the, 40, 41, 92, 96, 120, 122, 187
Lovesque, 141
Lucian, on Roman tourist guides, 62, 307
Lucretius, candelabra, 30
Lucullus, 60
Lustre work, 250
Lyndon, Minerva’s temple at, 18
Lysippus, statue of Hercules, by, 36
Machiavelli, 102
Magliabechi, 307
Maillet, M. A., 201
Malachite, kind of patina, 265
Malatesta’s temple of love, 86
Manheim, connoisseur, 54, 261
Mantegna and Isabella d’Este, 81
_Maquilleur_, the, 216
Marcellus, 19
Marcus Agrippa, 43
Marcus Aurelius as an auctioneer, 212
Marcus Aurelius, statuette of, 97
Marguerite of Antioch, 39
Mark Antony as a collector, 22, 31;
rapacity, 38, 39;
Corinthian bronze, 51
Marks of noted pottery factories, 258
Marks on steel, 274
Marostica, 67
Marsigli, Luigi, 72
Martial, 26;
the _septæ_, 31;
Milonius, 32;
Clarinus and Paullus, 32;
Eros and Mamurra, 33;
statuette of Hercules, 36, 213
Marzi, Ezio, Prof., 191
Mazarin as a collector, 115, 117, 120
Mecherino, 106
_Médailles insolentes_, 128
Medals, forgers and imitators of antique, 100
Medals, patina for old, 265
Medici collection, fate of the, 74
Medicis, the, 72;
Piero, 75;
Cosimo, 75, 104;
Giulio, 77;
Ottaviano, 99;
Alexander, 101;
Lorenzino, 101
Mediæval collections, 64
Mégisserie, the, 111
Meissen china, booming, 151
Meleager, statuette of, 89
Melpomene, colossal, in the Louvre, 41
_Memoires de Brienne_, 127
_Mettere il bavaglino_, 157
Mexican idols, 246
Michelangelo, 89, 102, 103, 111
Michelangelo’s David, 108
Michelozzo, 75
Milanesi, 100
Milizia, 226
Millin, 136
Milonius, 32
Miniature work, 232
Miniatures in Rome, 30
Mino, 91
Minor collections, 299
Moabite pottery, forged, 205
Modena Museum, 91
Moderno, 97
Molière’s works, 294
Montaigne, 108
Moreau, artist in iron, 266
Morelli, 147
Mosaic, a Roman, 46
Muffled glaze, 251
Mummius, L., 19
Munich Museum, the, 185
Murrhines, 52
Murrhines, prices paid for, 25
Museum of Arezzo, 92
Museum of French monuments, 92
Museum of Munich, 92
Museums and forgeries, 153
Musical instruments, 284
Mustard pot, find of a, 161
Myron, 39
Mys, bronzes of, 30
Napoleon as an art collector, 132
Natali’s imitations, 182, 185, 190
National Museum, Florence, 91
Nero, 18, 46
Newton and Pascal, 201
Niccoli, Niccolo, 71, 92
Nicomedes, King, 37
Nieuwerkerque, 182
Nolives, 182
Nonius, 38
Numismatists, 92
Octavianus, a collector of Corinthian bronze, 51
_Oeci_, 49
Orlandini, Prof., 192
Orleans, Duke of, 129
Oriental pottery, 247, 249
Oriental weapons, 267
Over-restoration, 234
Paduan School, 91, 196
Pagan art, the worship of, 85
Painting, imitations in, 99
Painting, transformed, 168
Paintings, restoring, 225
Palazzo, Riccardi, the, 75
Palissy, 251
Palladium, Niccoli’s, 97
Paolo Veronese, 102
Paris, art sales in, 128
Parvenu collector, the, 82
Pascal and Newton, 201
Pasiteles, 21
Pastels and water colours, 232
Patinæ, 51;
bronze, 238;
marble, 241
Paul Potter, 232
Paullus, 32
Pausias, 42
Perenzolo, 69
Peristyle, the, 48
Perronet de Granvelle, 39
Pertinax, public auction by, 212
Peruvian pottery, 246, 248
“Peter Funk,” 222
Petrarch, 71
Petronius’ collection of Murrhines, 54
Petronius and art, 20, 26
Phœdrus, on faking, 59
Phidias, 20
Philippe-Egalité, 129
Photographing pseudo-masterpieces, 169
Pietà, Zampini’s, 185
Pinacotheca of the Acropolis, the, 49, 71
Piot, 140
_Plaquettes_, 88, 91, 93
Plato, portrait of, 91
Plautus (“Menœchme”), 28
Pliny, 18;
Gegania and Clesippus, 29;
candelabra, 30;
Nonius, 38;
the “Young Philippian,” 40;
Polygnotus and Pausias, 42;
Scaurus, 46;
Corinthian bronze, 51;
patina, 51;
Murrhines, 52;
_citrus_ tables, 54;
as a connoisseur in bronze, 57;
counterfeit Sardonyx, 58;
Evander Aulanius, 60;
Pliny, the younger, on faking, 59
Plutarch, “Sulla’s private travelling god,” 36
Police of Louis XIV, 128
Polish of faked furniture, the, 280
Politiano, 79
Pollaiodo, Antonio, 88
Polycletus, 24;
bronzes, 30;
cameo, 73
Polygnotus, 42
Pompey, a generous collector, 41
Pontchartrain, 128
Pope Leo X, portrait of, 99
Pope Sixtus IV and the Medicis, 80
Pottery, faked, 247, 253, 254
Pourquet, M., 295
Poustales collection, the, 89
_Præco_, the, 28, 213
Prado of Madrid, the, 87, 92
Praxiteles, 46
Precious stones, imitation of, 58
Prices and values, 147
Prints and drawings, faking old, 231
“Prioristi,” Florentine, 209
Private collections at Rome, beginning of, 22
Procopius, 62
Promenade of Pompey, 42
Propertius and Cynthia, 42
Protective laws, 105, 172
Psychology of collectors, the, 203
Ptolemy’s cup, 66
Public auctions in Rome, 28
Public sales, 211
Quattrocento imitations, 87;
velvets, 289
Quintilian, 24
Racine’s works, 294
Radegond, St., 65
Raester, Olga, 285
Rameses, the forged, 203
Renaissance fakers of art, 68
Restorers and fakers, 59, 165
Restorers’ workshops in Rome, 60
Restoring paintings, 226
Retouching, 225
Reville’s _Promptuarium_, 92
Revolution, ceramics of the French, 252
Revolution, French, influence of the, 132
Rhodes’ pottery, 248
Riccio, bronzes of, 87, 101
Richelieu as a collector, 115
_Ricordi_ of Lorenzo Medici, 78
Ridolfi, Prof., 178
Rienzi, 71
Rinuccini, 78
Rochefort, Henri, 162, 214
Rolland, Mme., 150
Roman busts, imitations of, 90
Roman house, the, 48, 49
Roman, the, not a lover of art, 18
Romano, Giulio, 111
Rome: the home of the collectors, 18;
development of art, 21;
beginnings of private collection, 22;
fictitious art and fraud, 24;
freakish prices, 25;
_septæ_, 28;
public auctions, 28;
an emporium of art, 44;
Roman house, 48;
faking and copying, 59;
artistic life, 60
Rosary, Mazarin’s valuable, 119
Rossini, 286
Rothschilds, the, 152, 235, 260, 269
Rovertet, 107
Rugs, Oriental, 293
_Sacrarium_, the, 49
St. Martin de Tours, monk of, 66
Saitaphernes, tiara of, 277
Sales of art collections, 128
Sales and auctions, 208
_Salle Lebrun_, the, 132
Salting collection, the, 191
Sanson, Charles, the executioner, a collector, 116
Sansovino, Jacopo, 89
Sardonyx, counterfeited, 58
Satire, on collecting, 125
_Satyricon_, the, 47
Sauval, 110
Savonarola, 83
_Sbullettare_, 186n.
Scaling of terra-cotta, 186
Scarampi, Cardinal, 73, 74
Scaurus, 45;
his atrium, 49
Scientific and artistic pursuits, 137
Scopas, 46
Seneca and art, 20;
collectors, 32;
bibliomaniacs, 50;
veneered furniture, 55
_Septæ_, the, 28, 29
Servilia, 47
Servilius, 46
Sèvres, museum at, 248
Shaw, Bernard, 142
Shaw, Quincy, 31, 141
Shields, story of the three, 271
Siena imitators, 191
_Sigillaria_, the, 31
Signatures and monograms, 193, 208, 231
Signorili, _Descriptio urbia Romæ_ of, 69
Silver, artistic, during the French Revolution, 275
Silver, colour and tone of, 276
Silver marks, 276
Silver work, 274
Silver, wrought, rage for, in Rome, 25
Sisinande, 56
Sixteenth-century art, 101
Slang, art dealers’, 159
Sleeping Cupid, the, 89
Smuggler, the, 171
Sogliani, 111
Solvents used in restoring pictures, 227
Specialist, the, 138
Spoon, Jacob, 127
_Sposalizio_, Correggio’s, 118
Squarcione, Francesco, 71
Staedel Museum, the, 96
Stamp-collecting, 299
Stanley, H. M., 142
Statues, 35, 36, 37
_Stemmata_, 49
Strongylion, bronze by, 40
Strozzi, Filippo, 101
_Stucco duro_ imitations, 237
Suetonius, 29;
Cæsar, 43, 212
Suggestion, influence of, 177
Sulla, 22, 31, 36
Supino, Prof., 178
Symbolic art, 63
_Tabulæ auctionariæ_, 213
Tanagras, faked, 235
Tane’s _Philosophie de l’Art_, 304
Tapestries, 49, 291
Tardieu and Sanson, 116
“Tazza Famese,” the, 80
Tedesco, Piero di Giovanni, 84
Tempera, use of, in restoring, 228
Temples as museums of art treasures, 18
Textile material, antique and modern, 288
Theophrastus, 18
Thibaudau, _Trésor de la Curiosité_, 128
Tiberius, II, 65
Timonacus, 43
Tintoretto, 102
Titian, 102, 120
Tongilius, the important collector, 34
Tortoise-shell as veneer, 55
Touchard, 248
Tourists in ancient Rome, 61
Trade and art, 150
_Traité des plus belles bibliothèques_, 115
Transferring bookbindings, 297
Trevoux, 136
Trimalcho, 26
_Triclinia_, 49
Trouillebert, 170
Tuscany, protective laws in, 106
Uffizi Gallery, the, 90
_Ulysses Belgico-Gallico_, Golnitz’s, 115
Urban VIII and the Coliseum, 105
Vaillant, 114
Valentino, Duke, 90
Valerius Maximus, 20
Varnish, imitating old and cracked, 229
Vasari, 86, 88, 89, 99, 225
Vedius Pollio and Augustus, 52
Vellano, bronzes of, 87, 88
Vellano, Vasari’s life of, 100
Velleius Paterculus, 19
Velvets, quattrocento and cinquecento, 289
Veneering in Rome, 55
Venetian works, effect of cleaning on, 217
Venus Anadyomene of Apelles, 60
Verres, the greedy collector, 22, 30, 31, 37
Verrocchio, Andrea del, 88-92
“Verrocchio and Co.,” 190
Vicentino, Valerio, 143
Victoria and Albert Museum, 96, 185, 188
Vindex, the real connoisseur, 35, 37
Virgil, 101
Vitruvius, 20;
private palaces, 45
Volpi, Elia, Prof., 178
Voltaire, 130
_Voyage pour l’Instruction_, Verdier’s, 115
_Voyage de Lister_, 115
_Voyage de Montaigne_, 108
Vrain-Lucas, 199
Vulteius Medas, 28
“Wall breakers” at Athens, 18
Walters, H., 141
Warton, 110
Weapons, faked, 267
Wax work, 244
“Way for Asses, The,” 161
White, Stanford, 141, 304
Winckelmann, 36, 53, 58
Wood carving, colouring, 243
Worm-holes in furniture, imitation, 281
“Young Philippian,” the, 40
Zampini, Ferrante, 182, 185, 198
Zenodonis, a copyist, 59
Printed in Great Britain at
_The Mayflower Press, Plymouth_. William Brendon & Son, Ltd.
1921
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not
changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
The spelling and accent marks in non-English text were not checked for
accuracy.
Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.
Page 26: Missing opening quotation marks added before “Think of it!”
and before “Well, it belonged to”.
Page 110: “Duke d’Aumule” is listed on page 313 of the Index as
“d’Aunale, Duc”. The common spelling today is “d’Aumale”.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Gentle Art of Faking, by Riccardo Nobili