Engravings and Their Value
by John Herbert Slater (9781459044463)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV.. THE EXAMINATION AND PURCHASE OF PRINTS. Early and Good Impressions.?We now approach a branch of the subject which can only be thoroughly learned by actual experience, extending probably over many years. There are, however, a number of universally accepted rules regulating the examination and purchase of prints which may be read with advantage, and these we purpose analysing, although it will of course be readily understood that no amount of theoretical knowledge can possibly compensate for a deficiency in practical skill. The " vamping " of prints, as any fraudulent alteration of their actual condition is sometimes called, is unfortunately so common that the greatest care is required on the part of even an experienced collector, if he would avoid being deceived: a novice would most assuredly be taken in; and it will be advisable, therefore, either for such a person to procure the assistance of a competent friend when making his purchases, or else to deal only with houses of established reputation. When every precaution is taken occasional mistakes are unavoidable, and all that can be done is to reduce the risk of deception to a minimum. The primary rule to learn is this: If a print offered for sale is found to be " vamped" in one particular, the probability is that it has been tampered with in others, and as the detection of artfully-concealed defects is at the beet of times a matter of difficulty, it is always better to put the print on one side, and to refuse to have anything further to do with it, no matter how tempting the offer may seem. The reader must remember that the skill employed by unscrupulous persons in the restoration, and even forging, of prints, would be worthy of the greatest admiration were not the motive so thoroughly debased. What look...

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