THE BOOKMAN

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 56, 7 March 1914, Page 13

THE BOOKMAN

THE ART AND SCIENCE OP COLLECTING. PROSPECTS IN~NEW ZEALAND.

About Collecting." By Sir James Yoaall, M.P. Lortdon : Stanley Paul. This is a -volume supplementary to the author's "ABC About Collecting." The reason for its appearance, Sir James Yoxall states, is that "since the publication of my 'ABC About Collecting/ changes in the collecting world have taken place which require mention in a book like this." Also, ■"prices have risen. ' It is no longer practicable to obtain curios for next tonothing, and to sell them for two or three shillings each. Forgeries, counterfeits, and frauds have come into existence in almost unlimited number, and these are sold at dearer prices than the real things used to fetch." To begin collecting, no matter whether it be butterflies or postage stamps, beetles or Benares • ware, is really a very serious matter. No one thinks so at tho outset. The fact is only impressed upon the minds of those who have been in the Lac-coon-like toils of collecting themselves and have escaped, or have pityingly beheld the struggles of the victims. In all humans there seems to be developed in greater or lesser degree an acquisitiveness that expresses itself in the accumu» lation of one kind of thing— postage stamps with one man, Nanking ware with another, mezzotints with a third, Elzevirs with a fourth, old watches with a fifth, and so on. In making collections, say, of the mollusca of New Zealand, some scientific purpose may be served, and a collection t oi New Zealand minerals, soils, or timbers* may be of economic value ; bub as a general rule, collections for collectors have no other than an intellectual or sentimem tal value. Dealers, of course, go into the thing for money. MAN A BOtlN COLLECTOR. ' The dog is a collector of bones, which lie thriftily buries in the prettiest part of the garden for preference, but then he has sound reason for what he does. "Where the dog goes wrong is in his neglect to sufficiently protect his pungent treasures from other dogs. The squirrel, aga-in, is a collector of nuts from economic motives, laying in his winter supplies. The nearest approach to the human collector is the magpie or jackdaw; but here, _ again, the things acquired by corvine collectors may have been taken (be it spoon or i*ing) with the idea of decorating or strengthening the nest. \ Collecting began in , the quite early days of man, who then generally favoured collecting the head of his jpecies. The Dyaks of Borneo and the Papuans just collect human heads, because they like heads as men in other countries collect birds' eggs or old pewW; but even the Papuans and Dyaks, likewise the Maoris of one /tribe, could offer as a reason for their mania the v/holesome moral effect upon a hostile tribe of a fine collection of its skulls. litis idea may, too, have underlain the desire of the Pi*dskin for the scalp of /»« enemy. Not so with tlie collectors «v (Japanese netsukies or Battersea camels. All they can offer as justifica'Jpa for the _ time, money, and interest -i*ven to their hobbies is that they are interested in , such things. Without pressing they may put forth weightier reasons, but the elfect upon all but their fellow collectors of the same article will be the same. It will leave them cold, until they * themselves become infected, jfor example, the man who does not collect stamps cannot understand the en- I "^.usiasm of the philatelist. Numis natics, however, have a wider interest, because of the possibility of disposing • 5 coins more readily than Satsuma or " proofs before letters." Coin appeals to everyone, even the savage, nowadays, whereas a Corot or a David Cox would be desired by a comparatively limited -v. 'COLLECTING IN NEW ZEALAND. Sir James Yox&ll is delightfully clear hi liis latest- hints on collecting. He does not write for the expert few, bub rather for the inexpert many. He makes no attempt to appear erudite, and, wherever possible, he avoids technical language. tlf he uses x a technical term at all he is' careful to* explain what it* means. So many writers, particularly on art and music, write on the assumption that they are addressing only the cognisant. Sir James Jfoxali (no doubt witb full knowledge of the consequences) really attempts to entice people who do not already collect something to begin now. Much of what he has to say of the hunting grounds of tbe collector applies to London salerooms and shops; j nevertheless, even in this young country j his advice and counsel will be of great service to people who collect already or who may become afflicted with this infirmity— as some regard it. There are in New Zealand some book collectors who are so well informed that " More About Collecting" will read like a penny primer to them. Mr. Shaw, of Auckland, Mr. T. W. Leys, of the same city, Mr. Alex, Turnbull and Mr/ B. ' Coupiand Harding, of Wellington (on typography), and some other collectors of books, either as specialists in New Zealand bibliography or general collectors, ai'6 experts to whom Sir James Yoxall's collecting hints will not be new. In the volume under review, however, the writer professedly does not say all there is to be said about books or pictures. He just lightly refers to them. There are philatelists in New Zealand whose collections _ are _ well known to and whose opinion is highly valued by collectors of stamps in Great Britain and on the Con- , tinent. As for early books on New Zealand do they not always command a higher price in New Zealand salerooms than in any oilier market '( * SALEROOM AND WINDOWS. - The collector of ceramics, old furniture, or pictures who frequents the salerooms of New Zealand will have to spend much weary time in waiting for something to turn up. , As for the windows of the pawn-shops and second-hand shops, they yield most disappointing results, And yet in some New Zealand homes there must be many very rare things, biwgbt out in the early days, before gimcrack furniture, art muslin, and bamboo work displaced solid oak and mahogany in the British home-»many heirlooms^ of great interest, if not of great antiquity. #or instance, a gentleman brought to the Evening Post for inspection one day a beautiful gold watch by Breguet, of Paris, a large, elaboratelyengraved watch, made at the end of the 18th century, and a perfect time-keeper to-day, Then the late Mr,_ Alexander Hamilton used to show to his friends a fine collection of Blake's weird engravings and some Rembrandt etchings. Mr. M, Cable once exhibited at the Wellington Industrial Exhibition a most valuable collection of prints and pamphlets of the time of tho Commonwealth, and he had already begun a similar collection of the period of the French Revolution. In some private houses in New _ Zealand there are old paintings (some identified and some unknown). The Dominion Museum in Wellington contains many treasures that escapo notice by reason of the unsuitability of the building. The famous Grey collection in Auckland "Jis

yet to be capably catalogued — an undertaking that is only due to the memory of the great statesman who did so much and in so many ways for New Zealand. IN THE MUSEUM. With Sir James Yoxall's latest book in hand the intelligent visitor to New Zealand museums will learn much more than if he devoted an afternoon to all there is to be seen in them from Maori Carving to horn books, coming away in a state of mental dyspepsia through trying to assimilate everything seen. But he will need to remember what Sir James Yoxall here points out — ■"! have often urged readers to study the public collections, but the study of them may mislead, 'This is a museum piece, sir," a dealer will say as a variant upon 'This is a collector's piece,' but meaning Ihe same kind of thing. Yet a quite small and _ apparently insignificant item in a public collection may be better worth a collector's study than an item handsome and costly and impossible now to collect. . . . Magnificent and un* matchable 'museum .pieces' often daunt a would-be or, beginning collector. The true way for -people not^ wealthy to learn collecting and enjoy it is to look out for small typical pieces of ware which may still be found and purchased for a small price." FAKED ANTIQUES. Of a type of dealer Sir James says : —"He knew how to^crackle new ivories by boiling them like eggs ', how to cook new pictures in the oven ; how to smoke new prints ; how to green new bronzes with nitrate of potassium. It was so amusing to see the things age in a minute! He would bring a new earthenware dish out of the oven burning hot, and plunge it into iced oil ; result, con' traction, chill and the glaze all cracked into the wrinkles of premature age. And then he would rub the surface upon a dirty paving-stone, till signs of wear and tear appeared that might outwit anybody. "As for pictures it was easy to find an old canvas or old panel for a faker ; it was when the painter'p worlr was over that the real science and art began, First of all a wash oi varnish that had been coloured with sepia ; next. on the more raised portions, rubbings with hquorice-juice to attract the flies. He could even imitate flymarks with Indian ink, A needle deftly used would cover the picture with a network of ,cracks. And in quite a few minutes, by the Use of nitric acid, powdered sandstone, blows with a hammer, and whacks with a stick lie would transform a new Wooden chair into an old one." Sir James Yoxall's work does not pre>' tend to be exhaustive, it is rather in the form of a.n arm-chair talk ; illustrated with many half-tone ensmvihgs and some cuts— the latter apt so clear as they ought to be. It will interest readers who do not collect quite as much as those who do or aspire to do.