Modern Antiquities

MODERN ANTIQUITIES.

The quest for things antique has led to systematic forgery and imitation on the part of dealers. Paris is the great center of this deceitful industry, says the Nation. There has been discovered in the suburbs a thriving factory fo the fabrication of Egyptian mummies cases and all. These are shipped to Egypt and in due time return as properly antiquated discoveries.

A funny story is now current about a collector of mediaeval things. A certain clever workman in stone made to the order of a dealer in mediaeval antiquities a Venetian chimneypiece of the fifteenth century and received for his work some two or three thousand francs. The dealer shipped the chimneypiece to Italy and had it set up in a palace near Venice, bringing back to Paris photographs of the palace and of the chimneypiece in situ. By means of these photographs he aroused the interest of a rich collector, who sent his secretary to Venice to make sure that the photographs did not lie, and on his favorable report bought the thing for 50,000 francs. On the arrival of the article at his house in Paris he sent for some workmen to open the cases. One of them appeared to him to go about the work rather carelessly, and he remonstrated with the man, who answered: "Have no fear, sir. I know just how it needs to be opened, for I packed it when it left Paris."