THE “OLD LADY’S” PICTURES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143767, 16 April 1912, Page 7

THE “OLD LADY’S” PICTURES.

ADVENTURE OF AN ART COLLECTOR.

A clever “old picture” fraud, which has been attempted on a well-known amateur art collector of South Kensington, was reported last month. To a representatitivc of the Daily Mail the collector said; “A few days ago 1 went to a curio dealer in the Kingston neighbourhood with whom I deal sometimes, and he said that a man had told him of a collection of old pictures at Clapton. They belonged tq an old ladv, who was obliged to sell them after they had been in her possession a lifetime, because some of her income had been cut off- “ The dealer told me h’e had seen them and thought 1 might like to look at them. 1 arranged to go down with him to Clapton. We found there an oldfashioned little house, and a shabbygenteel old lady, with shiny black dross, grey curls, and a cap, showed us the pictures. She was stout and rather red-faced, wore a respirator, apparently being asthmatic. Some of the pictures were not bad, and I asked her how much she would take for one of them. But she wanted to sell the lot, for which she would take £4O. “J took down the best picture to examine it. and noticed that the brassheaded nail to which it hung was quite new and bright. The wall-paper also was just the same dirty colour underneath as over the rest of the wall, and there was no dust on the back of the picture. Finally, 1 discovered part of an auctioneer’s number on the frame. Becoming suspicious, I asked the dealer what his informant was like, and, as he was describing him, 1 lifted the picture to hang it up again. In reaching up I accidentally hit the old lady’s head, and turning round at an exclamation from the dealer, found to my amazement that her cap and wig had come off. She was the man who had ‘put us'up’ to coming over to see the pictures. “The man blustered a bit, but finally I. made him give me the best picture, which 1 valued at £5, for £2, and we went off. Ido not suppose the lot were worth £20.”