THE advice given in the following paragraphs falls naturally into two divisions - advice to buyers and collectors of antiques, and advice to the purchasers of reproductions. In either case, however, the selection of the object to be acquired ought assuredly to be based on certain fundamental considerations that are practically the same for both antiques and reproductions.

First of all, the piece under discussion, whatever it may be, should have the merit of utility. It might be added, however, that ingenuity can adapt many old articles to legitimate new uses. It is unwise to cumber one's house with objects that can never be of any practical service and must be regarded merely in the light of curios. Such injudicious buying makes one's abode a museum and not a home. In the next place, it is of vital importance that the piece purchased possess some intrinsic grace and beauty to recommend it. Not all of our furniture by any means is- endowed with this alluring charm, while a great deal of the so-called reproduced work is uncompromisingly hideous.

It is easy, therefore, to see the justification for the last given bit of advice. By way of example, some of the chairs produced by the lesser Georgian makers, or perhaps by country joiners, are positively graceless and clumsy, and it would be foolish to acquire such objects. They had better be consigned to oblivion, and the sooner the better, despite whatever claim of antiquity they may have. To cherish them is simply to encourage a false taste for something that is artistically bad. In cases of this sort the general design, or perhaps, under the circumstances, we had better say "scheme," may be the same as one sometimes used most successfully by Chippendale, but the proportions are faulty and ungainly, without balance and weak both structurally and from considerations of design. These misshapen objects are snares for the unwary enthusiast who, blinded by veneration for mere antiquity - a thing that ought to be guarded against - may lack the saving qualities of discrimination and artistic judgment.

The purchaser of antiques cannot be too critical and wary and a goodly degree of skepticism is to be reckoned a valuable asset, for it will often prevent rash purchases that would surely cause regret afterward.

The last of the fundamental considerations to keep well in mind, when buying furniture, either old or reproduced, is its fitness for the position it must occupy and its congruity with its future surroundings. The best effect of a great deal of good furniture is destroyed because it is inherently unfit for the place in which it has been put or the place is unfit for it. Before buying a piece of antique furniture, stop and deliberate maturely, and then deliberate some more. When the collecting fever once gets into the blood it is the hardest thing in the world to resist the appeal made by whatever may be the particular object of admiration at the moment. Question yourself sharply to find out whether you really wish it as much as you think you do and whether you would not be just as well off without it. If possible, go away and let a day or two elapse and then go and look at it again. At all events, do nothing hastily. If you once recklessly give way to the collector's acquisitive impulse, your house will soon be as crowded as a junk shop and all the delightful elegance that comes from a seemly complement of appropriate old furniture, well kept and properly used, will be lost.

A very good and dependable criterion to apply in making the ultimate decision whether to purchase or not is the possibility or desirability of putting the piece in question to some definite use or of making it fulfil some specific purpose in the decorative treatment of your house.

In all intelligent purchases of antique furniture, a buyer possessed of the requisite knowledge will do well to observe certain principles of buying. In the first place, he will exercise the keenest scrutiny of every detail and mentally compare the piece with other pieces of similar style and period that he may have met with previously. It is absolutely essential to have the powers of observation and comparison trained to a high degree of efficiency. Of course it ought to go without saying that a careful study of the subject will have preceded the making of purchases. How best to pursue that study and acquire a thorough acquaintance with characteristic detail and contour, in short, how to become capable of forming an expert and authoritative judgment, will presently appear.

In the meantime it will be advisable to state why one must survey every antique offered for purchase with such lynx-eyed scrutiny. The wiles of the antique faker are so many and his skill so great, that even dealers are occasionally deceived. It is plainly necessary, therefore, to subject every object to a searching examination and in this examination the chiefest and most reliable aids will be a knowledge of furniture history (with special reference to contour and detail), common-sense and sharp eyes. People can and should acquire the habit of close observation, which is invaluable in a thousand and one ways, but especially in antique buying. It simply means using your eyes to their full powers, realising what you see and putting two and two together.

Close examination and comparison, along with a fair idea of mobiliary history and development, are the bases of thorough critical and authoritative knowledge that will stand the possessor in good stead when called upon to make a judgment. Besides reading and examining what you chance to meet, go, if possible, to museums and study such furniture details as decorative types and processes, contour, character of carving or inlay, methods of structure and joinery, the colour of woods and the kinds of finish. In other words, lose no opportunity to cultivate and strengthen a critical habit. It is only at the price of such mental and optical exercise that we shall ever attain an accurate and trustworthy acquaintance with the subject involved that will make our opinion worth considering. The recompense for this exertion will come in the many lines of fascinating and absorbing interest it will open up.