HOW THE PICTURE-DEALER SCORED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 173, 14 August 1909, Page 3

HOW THE PICTURE-DEALER SCORED.

Of SI. C'hauchard, the great Frencii picture-collector who died recently, a good story is_told. He was always "add rag to his pictures, and the higher thf price the more anxious he was to secure the painting. A dealer one day offered him the fr Vacbe Blanche," by Tryon. 11. Cbauchard was told he could have it for sixteen hundred pounds. _ "It must be an imitation," he said. "Take it away." The dealer told some of his colleagues, and they promised to get him eight thousand pounds for the same picture if he would split the difference with them.

''Go ahead," he replied. A few days dater a Russian prince (?) visited M. Chauchard's galleries, and remarked on leaving that he was delighted, but it was a pity the collection did not include an example of Tryon's work;

M. Chauchard, whose vanity waj wounded by the remark, wrote to the dealer, "Bring me the "Vache Blanche.' " The reply wa3 it was too late; it had been sold to a collector. The millionaire eonnoisscur Baiil he must have it at any price. He finished by securing it, but it cost him ten thousand pounds. Needless to add, the picture had never left the dealer's shop. But it is frauds of this kind that should put many a curio-dealer into prison.