Definition of the word "fake" - The different kinds of reproductions - Jacobean chairs - Old and new processes of polishing - Signs of age and comparison between old and new work - Glorification of plain pieces - Cinderella and the Fairy Princess - Description of the special enrichment of a suite of Louis XV furniture - Law of supply and demand - Legitimate restorations, and the reverse - Chippendale's mirror frames - Fret-cut ornament - Sheraton Marqueterie - The difference between genuine old and new inlaid furniture - Repainted satinwood.

WEBSTER'S Dictionary describes the word "to fake" as follows: "to manipulate fraudulently, so as to make an object appear better or other than it really is." I can find no other word which seems so fitting to describe the kind of furniture to which this chapter is devoted, and therefore have used an adjective to head these remarks, which is more useful than ornamental.

There is a marked difference between having to decide upon the genuineness of a specimen of pottery or porcelain, and that of a piece of furniture. In the case of the former the article is either that which it pretends to be or it is not; it is either the product of the ceramic factory the mark of which it bears, and to which it is accredited, or an imitation, but in the case of the piece of furniture it may be an imitation of several different kinds.

First of all it may be, like the ceramic forgery, a rank imitation in its entirety, the copy of some original specimen in a museum or private collection, more or less skilfully made to deceive the unwary collector. Secondly, it may be an old copy of an article made, not with any idea of deception when sold, but manufactured to order, some thirty or fifty, or perhaps a hundred years ago, for the purpose of completing a set of furniture which was insufficient for the owner's use and convenience. Imitations or reproductions of this description are in many cases exceedingly difficult to detect. The work may have been entrusted to a skilful maker and for a liberal patron, who did not grumble at the cost, then the years of constant use, the care and attention of trained servants, the dusting and rubbing, and what is termed "fair wear and tear,'" have, while preserving the article from destruction,, added to its appearance by giving it the tone of the original from which it was copied in the first place. Examples of this kind of reproduction frequently occur in sets of old chairs dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in pieces of supplementary furniture made to extend and enlarge the original purchase or acquisition of a small and incomplete set. Such reproductions I would term honest and straightforward, and yet in estimating the value and authenticity of a set of chairs or of a quantity of furniture used as a suite, it becomes necessary to separate the originals from the copies. In some cases, of course, this would be comparatively easy, if the newer work were inefficiently done, but I am assuming for the purpose of these notes that the reproductions have been well and skilfully made.

Let us imagine, for instance, that a set of old Jacobean oak dining-room chairs have to be critically examined for the purpose of deciding which are really of old seventeenth-century workmanship, and which are reproductions, made as I have suggested, not for the purpose of deception, but for the use of a former owner.

In the first place some points of difference will be noted between the methods used by the Jacobean joiner and those of his more modern representative. The oaken pegs which secure the tenons into the mortises will be evident in the old work and omitted from the new. Unless the reproductions have been made more than fifty or sixty years the mode of finishing and polishing will be different. The old process of polishing was effected by a coating of beeswax and turpentine, brought to a fine surface by hard and continuous rubbing. The old-fashioned term "elbow grease" perhaps colloquially explains the kind of friction required to give furniture that fine polish, which woodwork treated by the ancient process was capable of having produced upon its surface. The process called "French polishing" entails much less work, by filling up the grain of the wood with a preparation composed of shellac, methylated spirits and other ingredients, the result being much thinner and less lasting. An artificial surface is thus given to the wood, which is easily marked and dulls, and requires to be renewed by fresh applications of polish.

It may be remarked in passing that when French polish is intended to represent the older process, its glossy surface is dulled by rubbing in pumice powder, or by other artificial means, but never can the same effect be obtained, as by continual friction on the surface of wood treated by the older method. There will be a rich warm tone on the old work which the new will lack. It is difficult to describe exactly the difference between the appearance of the surface of really good old furniture, and that which is of much more recent manufacture, but those who know anything of old bronzes, and appreciate the tone which collectors term "patina," will understand my meaning. It is also a fact, well known to experts, that oak stained darker to match old work becomes lighter after a few years, it will therefore either show this lighter shade of colour, or, if restained, the effect of the fresh process will be apparent.

In the old chairs there will also be evidences of repairs rendered necessary by time and wear - a new rail, a repaired arm, a strengthened back, with the marks of splicing and fitting the new work into the original. More important, however, than all these differences we shall notice, if we examine critically, that the carving on the original chairs shows more of the mind of the craftsman, more of the "fancy" of the carver, and less of the purely mechanical skill of the workman who had to make "matches" or copies.