It would of course be invidious and impossible to mention any dealers by name, but there are many in London and in the provinces who are as upright and honourable in their dealings as men can be found, who are willing to guarantee that every article they sell is as represented, and as invoiced, and if by chance any mistake should have been made, to set it right, even at a serious monetary loss to themselves. Unfortunately there are, of course, dealers who are not so scrupulous, and against whom one would like to warn the inexperienced amateur ; and there are also a great many who are really so ignorant that one is amazed at their utter want of knowledge of the business which they carry on.

Perhaps I may relate one of the most amusing instances of this ignorance. Some years ago I was acting as one of the arbitrators in a case of compensation for destruction by fire of some valuable furniture at Bristol. The Sun Fire Office retained my services, and a local valuer acted for the insured. As usual in these cases a member of the Bar sat as umpire. Both sides were represented by learned counsel and called witnesses. Amongst the articles claimed for, was a "fourteenth-century bureau," which was valued at £300. I pointed out that we might take it, without prejudice to value, that such an article as a fourteenth-century bureau was a contradiction in terms; what the insured probably meant to infer was a Louis XIV bureau, as there was no word in the English language to denote such an article of furniture before the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century. A witness for the insured, a certain dealer in "antique" furniture, gave his evidence as to value, and was then asked by the counsel for the "Sun" whether, having heard my explanation of the mistake in putting the century for the king in the schedule, that affected his view of the value? The answer, after thinking the matter well over, was, "Well, provided that both gentlemen lived about the same time, I don't see as it does." As a matter of fact, the bureau was evidently, from some charred remains, an old Dutch piece worth about £ l0 to £ l5.