DESTROYING AN INHERITANCE. A somewhat eccentric old lady died near Bristol in 1876, leaving a considerable amount of property, including a very valuable collection of studies from the nude by well-known artists. A married niece in the house at the time of the old lady's death considered the pictures highly improper, and as soon as the breath was out of her aunt's body, consigned them to the flames. Imagine her chagrin when, on the will being read, it was found that these very pictures were all that her relative had bequeathed to her and her children. They were worth several thousands of pounds. Pictures Forged and Pictures Every year seems to add to the number of forgers of pictures, who, as soon as an artist has become famous, produce all manner of spurious copies of his works, adding his signature, in due course, and these they smuggle into the market by various recondite channels. There is scarcely one of our well-known painters who is not made the victim of this swindling trade, and it is only by chance that they come across proof of the fraud. The injury done to artists of established reputation by this traffic is very great indeed. The annual amount of work they can produce may be regarded as pretty much a fixed quantity; whereas in a rich country like England, the number of people becoming able to purchase pictures is continually and rapidly on the increase. Many persons are quite incapable of telling a good picture from a worthless daub, but they must have pictures, because other people have pictures. We need hardly look for a suppression of this fraudulent system to any increase of caution on the part of the buyer, for the simple reason, as we have shown elsewhere, that skilful copyists can produce facsimiles which can, and frequently do, deceive any ordinary person. Many stories, indeed, are told of artists themselves having been deceived by copies of their own works; so that it is not at all likely that the unprofessional purchaser should be able to detect a skilfully manufactured copy. As matters stand at present, his only safety lies in going to a respectable dealer, or to a sale the publicity of which throws a white light on frauds and snares. The ignorant purchaser who adopts either of these courses, or who deals directly with the artist, is in less danger of being deceived than the purchaser who fancies he knows something about pictures, and is always on the outlook for chance "finds in obscure corners. As an illustration of the treatment to which well-known artists are subjected at the hands of the unscrupulous forger, we reprint the following advertisement, which appeared in the daily papers in 1874:— SPURIOUS Mo "ONE HUNDRED POUNDS REWARD. DERN PICTURES.-Copies of the following pictures have been recently sold at large prices as the original works of Mr. John Linnell, sen.: The Mountain Shepherds,' size 39 by 28, date 1870; 'The Timber Waggon,' 39 by 28, date 1870; 'The Piping Shepherd,' 39 by 28, date 1872; 'The Fisherman,' about 10 by 8, date 1872. Mr. John Linnell has seen the above and pronounced them to be spurious, and his signature forged on them. Mr. Edward F. White, who, as the chief purchaser and largest holder of Mr. Linnell's later works, is greatly interested in preserving their integrity, hereby offers a reward of £50 on his own part, and a further reward of £50 on the part of one of the victims of these frauds, payable on conviction of the party who forged Mr. Linnell's signature on the copies. The vendors are known. Information to be addressed to Mr. E. F. White, Art Galleries, 13 King Street, St. James's." This advertisement drew forth numerous letters in the public journals from artists narrating their own experiences, as well as much editorial comment, but no conviction has ever followed. As regards one of the spurious pictures above mentioned, "The Piping Shepherd," it was bought by a gentleman in Glasgow, who found himself swindled by its purchase to the tune of £800. It is in the country where this mode of rascality flourishes, for the reason that so many persons, otherwise sane, firmly believe that a "find" may be dropped on in almost any provincial town. "Oh, I'll tell you where I got that: I picked it up when I was down at Greenhorn," is the kind of phrase one hears from scores of persons, who, as it turns out, have paid quite as much for their "bargain" as it was worth, and often a great deal more than it was worth. No doubt "finds" have been made in obscure corners, but of late years, at any rate, they have become few and far between indeed, and a man would have to take a very long day's journey before he picked up, for the usual "old song," an undoubted example of any prominent painter. Here is one mode of palming off copies of works of art for the originals. A certain dealer went to a Midland town and opened an auction. In his otherwise worthless collection were one or two original works by good artists, J. B. Pyne among others. Of each of these originals there were some half-dozen copies very fairly executed. At the sale the undoubted picture was put up, and of course guaranteed. It was duly knocked down, laid behind the auctioneer's rostrum until the sale was over, and then the spurious work was sent home to the purchaser. In travelling from town to town, never remaining long in one, this knavish dealer made a good thing of it, since he got rid of all the forged pictures, and still retained the original ones Another ingenious dodge resorted to by this class H |