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he was intent on forming had attained a European | be continued, during the years which must elapse reputation. But the desire of acquisition had be- ere the remaining 11,000 or 12,000 pictures can de come a chronic disease, ever gaining force in its disposed of by partial sales, the curiosity and inroads upon his means. Not long before he died patience of the public must fail, and the auction he negotiated with one Roman picture-dealer to rooms be deserted indeed, persons experienced pay for some indifferent pictures with his service in such matters already estimate the probable of Sêvres china, representing the battles of Napo-produce of the whole collection at a sum not exleon, sets of which were made only for the empe- ceeding what has been refused for 500 of its princiror's nearest relations. To another he gave a set pal works. of silver plate by a similar transaction, and at The sale of the Fesch gallery now in progress length death itself snatched away the octogenarian is a sufficient answer to the very frequent remark from some uncompleted bargains. But his craving of picture-dealers north of the Alps, that there are for canvass was not to be satiated even by whole- no longer works of merit to be purchased in Italy, sale dealings, which at once added hundreds to his although their assertion has a certain plausibility, pictorial investments. There was an understand- if the actual state of the market there be compared ing in his household, that for every picture offered with the immense supplies it has sent forth within at his palace, however execrable in merit or con- the last forty-five years. Since the revival of art, dition, four pauls (about twenty-one pence) were that country has been the great cradle or school to be at once given. To clean and patch up these, of painters for Europe, and a vast proportion of he gave permanent employment to several young the pictures required for religious or ornamental restorers, and many were the guesses as to what decoration, has emanated from her studios, galbecame of the bargains, after emerging from their hands. During the residence of his nephew, Joseph Bonaparte, in America, it was a common belief that they were shipped to the new world, and there converted into cash. When, on the cardinal's death, the mystery was revealed, endless repositories of pictures were discovered, the exact number of which has not been, and perhaps could not be, ascertained, but it is estimated at 16,000 or 18,000.

The inconvenience of such an inheritance was much felt by those intrusted with the payment of his eminence's testamentary bequests. His capital was not only unproductive, but it was sunk in a commodity costly to keep in order, of most fluctuating or even fanciful value, and liable to great depreciation if hastily realized. A portion, said to amount to above 3000, and composed chiefly of copies, was left to a college at Ajaccio, in Corsica; the remainder was to be sold. The executors very wisely resolved, in the first instance, to attempt disposing of them in the mass, demanding for the whole above 200,0007. After some time an offer was made approaching to half that sum, and another overture was received, of about 45,000 guineas for 500 pictures, to be selected by the purchasers from the collection, but excluding the Dutch, Flemish, and French schools. The parties to these offers were French dealers, and both were declined. Two years having been thus lost, it was resolved to disperse the whole by auction, and Mr. George, of Paris, who was called in to arrange it, undertook to finish a complete descriptive catalogue within a stated time, under a heavy penalty. But whilst his herculean task was in progress, two public sales went on of above 1000 pictures, the lists of which are prefixed to this article. The newspapers of Europe were employed to puff and advertise the auctions, in terms which inferred, that the whole, or at least the gems of the collection, were on each occasion to be brought forward; and in this belief amateurs and agents flocked to Rome. But on both occasions the works produced were only an average of the mass, set off by some twenty or thirty good pictures. The sales, accordingly, gave little satisfaction, no order being observed in the exposure of the articles, and the bidding-up system being largely resorted to. Notwithstanding much dissatisfaction about 70001. were realized, and the prices, especially on the tformer occasion, were such as only the cardinal's name could account for. But should these tactics

leries, or churches. From thence came the gems which Charles I. contrived to accumulate, notwithstanding the difficulties of an empty treasury and a troubled reign. There did the stately Arundel, the earliest English virtuoso, resort. France and Spain, for three hundred years; England, Germany, and South America, during the last century, have been working the same mine. After the disastrous occupation of Italy by the French, in 1798, and the subsequent convulsions of that illfated land, the sword of France and the gold of England, combined to cull from her temples and palaces all that was most choice in this branch of art. Since the peace the drain has been continued, and though fewer pieces are now sent out for devotional uses, a new demand of amateurship has arisen from Russia and the United States; nations till then unknown in the market, while England is annually glutted by traffickers in old canvass and cracked panels. Yet the competition of these rival purchasers may, with a little dexterity, be accommodated, as their principles of choice, do not by any means clash. The Russian taste in pictures, as in equipages and jewelry, is regulated rather by a semi-barbarous magnificence, than by refinement, and their expenditure is in proportion to their colossal fortunes. Provided a picture have the name of a great master, and a corresponding price, the wily Italian owner may also calculate upon transferring it in the course of the season to some Russian prince, although the subject be forbidding, the treatment mean, the restorations illdisguised, or even the authenticity questionable. As to our countrymen, few having sufficient reliance on their own judgment to deal with foreign venders, whom they in general look upon as limbs of Satan; they usually prefer making their purchases from their own countrymen, content to presume them the honester of the two. Nowhere can an undisputed and uninjured chef-d'œuvre of a great name command the same ransom as in England but whenever it is a question of schoolcopies of such, however fine, or of second or lower class Italian productions, or names less trite in the limited abecedario, with which most English amateurs are conversant, these gentlemen button up their pockets or higgle at a sum which a Russian would readily quadruple. Of the class of pictures now largely exported to the United States, it may be sufficient to mention, that a commercial traveller in that line, who came to Rome in 1837, had a commission to buy up any painting of whatever

subject, or whatever substance, and in whatever | inexhaustible fund of talent displayed by the old state, not exceeding the price of sixteen pence! masters. Akin to this is a variety of British Colonial emigration, which may be new to our readers. Chancing to visit lately at the close of the season, the ware-rooms of an obscure London picturedealer, we found them encumbered with the refuse of various auction rooms which had evidently been bought up on this Yankee principle. Whilst gazing in astonishment at the rare conglomerate, we were informed that they were a speculation for Botany Bay!

Fine old pictures are even now ever turning up, and it would be endless to give instances. One, however, of the details whereof we happen to be cognizant, may be taken as a specimen. Marsuppini, secretary of the Florentine Republic, who, by a combination of talent, frequent in the fifteenth century, rare in our degenerate days, was at once a philosopher, a poet, and a politician, testified his devotion by founding a chapel in his native Arezzo, and commissioned for it an altar-piece from Fra Filippo Lippi. This picture, stolen during the French occupation, came by inheritance to an ignorant woman, of whom one Ugo Baldi, a dealer from Florence, bought it some two years since for seventy crowns. He soon after handed over his bargain to Baldeschi, a Roman dealer, for 801; and from him it was bought for the gallery now forming in the Lateran palace, nearly 3007. being paid by the papal government; a handsome profit, but a moderate price, for the intrinsic merit of the work is enhanced by the historical interest of the donor's and his brother's portraits, introduced as subordinate figures. A very different fate has befallen a contemporary production, painted by Sandro Boticelli, at the dictation of Matteo Palmieri of Florence, and included in the denunciation of heresy against the latter, which is one of the most remarkable pictures of the age. Having been seized by the French, it was deposited in the gallery of the Belle Arti in that capital; but was eventually reclaimed as family property. A few hundred dol

There is a consideration suggested by the incredible number of paintings produced in Italy during the last five centuries, which ought not to be lost upon our money-getting generation. The sums which during that long period have been and still are sent there, in payment of exported pictures, have af forded incalculable national wealth. Let not this be forgotten by penny-wise legislatures, who would measure the beautiful by the scale of utility, and estimate genius and its highest productions by the returns of the outlay on their raw material. Let them remember that trifling sums now doled out for the improvement of public taste, and the encouragement of art, are surely and profitably invested; and that nothing but the inadequacy of their amount can prevent them rapidly yielding an almost usurious interest. Could our own school of painting be raised to the perfection attained by those of Italy in the sixteenth, and Flanders in the seventeenth centuries, what need were there to send abroad our annual thousands for the purchase of their works? Or, were our designs as tasteful as the French, why should our neigh-lars would at that time have secured its remaining bors export their fashions and fancy goods, to eclipse ours wherever civilization has penetrated? These matters are now beginning to be understood among us; much still remains to be known, and far more to be done; but it is well to have at length entered upon the right path :-sero, let it be serio.

there; but this the Tuscan government foolishly grudged, and the picture having been cleaned and talked of, has now gradually attained the price of about 10007.

Verily if there be tricks in all trades, that of picture-dealing is not the purest yet great allowances must be made ere we bring sweeping accuAnother inference from the superabundance of sations. No other commodity is equally liable to old pictures in Italy is, that amongst so many, the fluctuations of whim and caprice. Its genumuch that is good may still be gleaned. From ineness, when doubted, becomes matter of conBologna alone, thousands have annually been ex-flicting evidence, without the possibility of satisported, since the end of the war, and yet the town seems full of them. After spending three days among the sale galleries there a few years ago, unless the number was grossly exaggerated, we must have had nearly 10,000 pieces in our offer. Indeed, one man estimated his stock at half that number! Add the quantity scattered among private houses in town and country, where every artisan and tradesman have their quadretti di divozione, as with us they have their Bible and prayerbook; recollect that there nearly everything may be bought; and judge whether there is not still plenty to be had beyond the Alps. The acquisition of really excellent pictures there, is, however, a matter of increasing difficulty. Most of the few rich galleries that remain intact are secured by entail, or by the wealth and pride of their owners. From time to time indeed, such barriers give way, and some fine collection is dispersed, yielding prices not to be obtained in other countries. Now and then too, the death or exigencies of a collector, who knew how to profit by the chances of revolutionary times, sets free a few brilliant bits. These opportunities are, however, insufficient to account for the number of good works in the trade, which is one of the most conclusive testimonies to the

factory demonstration: its intrinsic value is just what it will fetch in the market. It is a speculation in which there is nothing positive but realized profit, and the best knowledge is that of selling to advantage. Hence the prevailing ignorance of art, in an extended sense, among most of the tribe who trade in it, and whose gross blunders are frequently ascribed to knavery. Even those of them who have an educated eye, seldom aim at anything higher than the experience of what is vendible. It has often been contested, whether most reliance should be placed upon the judgment in pictures of a painter or a connoisseur; the former, although more familiar with the mechanical part of the subject, being thought liable to be warped by narrow views of art. So far as our own observation goes, we should award a preference to those painters who have taken to dealing extensively in the old masters, and to restorers who have passed a great variety of superior works through their hands, such persons on the continent having a more extended experience than with us.

It is not our intention to supply such as wish to invest a portion of their wealth in the most rational as well as attractive of ornamental furni

selves by selecting the very worst specimen from such a lot, to ask "How much?" when at once some hundred crowns would be named, for what, at a stall, would scarcely bring a dollar. The smile which it was impossible to repress, would be answered by, "Who knows but it may be worth as many thousands? My father once sold, for five crowns, a Madonna, for which five hundred have been refused by the fortunate purchaser." Many similar anecdotes might be mentioned; one may suffice. A Scottish baronet, whose purse was presumed to outweigh his connoisseurship, and who was consequently beset by importunate venders, at last condescended to look at some daub brought to him at Milan, and even to ask the price. The Italian's eye kindled with joyful anticipation, and in a voice trembling with ecstacy he exclaimed, "Cento mille scudi!"-3 hundred thousand crowns, being the highest amount to which his arithmetic could carry him. To almost equal ignorance, another class of amateur sellers add an immoderate share of impu

ture, with a defence for their credulity and their | pockets, out of the somewhat extensive acquaintance which we have chanced to form, abroad and at home, with those whose vocation it is to administer to that appetite. A few hints may not, however, be out of place. The best general rule for a collector to avoid buying experience at a high rate is, of course, to study the most important schools of painting, and the best masters, both through books and their most authentic works, and also to examine and "price" many pictures ere he begin to buy, either on his own judgment or that of any one else. To those who acquire pictures as a matter of fashion, or as mere ornaments, without caring much for their price, no plan can be better than that of commissioning a respectable and skilled dealer or artist to find for him such as he wishes. But this is necessarily a costly plan, for the agent's ten per cent. on his outlay cannot quicken his zeal to buy at a low figure, nor will many true amateurs transfer to another, what is, after all, the chief interest and gratification of their pursuit, the pleasure of seek-dence spiced with cunning. If, on entering a ing out their purchases.

Setting aside the more difficult question of its authenticity, there are certain faults and qualities which ought to secure the rejection of a picture by amateurs of taste and feeling, besides the merely technical ones of bad execution and defective preservation. Among these may be mentioned, a subject in itself painful, or treated in a manner revolting or mean; a picture unpleasing in shape or effect, in whose ensemble there is some obvious defect, such as the shadows darkened by time acting upon a bad ground. Unfinished pictures, though often of infinite value to the student, are seldom satisfactory additions to a select cabinet, and over-painted ones are speculations to be touched with caution. On the continent, fine old or school copies of chefs-d'œuvre are much prized, and are certainly far more deserving of attention than careless originals bearing good names : in England, however, the epithet copy is, in the slang of ignorant connoisseurship, a stain confounding all degrees of merit, and which no intrinsic excellence can efface. It is scarcely necessary to say, that no collection can become choice without occasional weeding, when opportunities of substituting better specimens occur.

house, you are assailed by multiplied expositions of the vast advantage of buying from private owners, (Signori, of course,) with frequent protestations that your present company are such, and no dealers, you may look for imposition so barefaced, and prices so preposterous, as to defeat the object in view, and leave your purse scathless.

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Upon the whole, it would seem that one can buy on better terms and with equal safety from dealers, though in such affairs the hundred eyes of Argus would be far from superfluous. The varieties of their fraud, from the random assumption of a great master's name, to the elaborate fabrication of a fine old picture, were an endless theme. Many tricks, such as ascribing the work to some noted gallery, the solemn asseveration that no one else has yet been permitted to see the treasure, or the casual hint that Lord Some-one has come down with a handsome offer for it, have been generally discarded as too transparent for our sharp-witted generation. There are, however, three artful dodges" in especial favor among Italians, to whose dexterity of resource and effrontery of falsehood, every other people must yield the palm. These we shall distinguish Those who find amusement in collecting pic-as the " dodge candid," the "dodge confidential," tures, will do well to remember that the price and that by coup-de-main, and shall shortly illusdemanded has usually but a remote analogy with trate each. the sum that would be gladly accepted, whether When you ask an Italian the price of any comby dealers or private parties. It is especially so modity which he is pressing upon you, he is in in Italy, where almost every family has something most cases at once struck dumb, puts on the air of of art which they are anxious to turn into cash, a man totally unconscious of your question, and and where a class of small agents of very ques- waits until you repeat it. He then, probably, tionable reputation, are always ready to lead a resumes his interminable laudation of his wares, stranger through rooms of rubbish dignified with without vouchsafing you an answer. The proper the title of galleries, or to exhibit to them, under way to treat such a fellow is to walk quietly a cloud of mystery, a pretended Raffaelle. Pur- away; but if you have patience once more to chasing out of private houses is, indeed, seldom make the inquiry which he so anxiously evades, pleasant. Apart from feelings of delicacy, in you will perhaps only have your words reëchoed, most instances misplaced, one has to contend with and followed by another pause. Now the purthe natural tendency of the seller to over-estimate pose of all this by-play is to gain time for estia perhaps favorite object, which is usually exag-mating the utmost limit to which he may venture gerated by his thorough ignorance of its real upon your ignorance, credulity, and purse. When value. No doubt that from such people, when you have gone through such preliminaries with pressed for money, a prize is occasionally ob- the "candid" picture-dealer, and fairly brought tained at an utterly inadequate price, but it is him to bay, he assumes his most insinuating frankmuch more common to find in their hands worth-ness of manner, and solemnly says, "Hear me ! less trash treasured, in roguery or ignorance, as that picture cost me a hundred crowns.' As you chefs-d'œuvre. We have sometimes amused our- have by this time probably made up your opinion

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Among the cleverest of the Roman picture-dealers is Signor A., a most fair-spoken fellow and facetious withal, who, conscious of his own talent, is ever ready to adduce some instance of its happy exercise. 'Tis but a year or two since he made a wholesale transaction, which in a short half-hour, transferred to a young Irish peer the accumulated rubbish of his magazine. At the lucky moment of milor's visit, there arrived a liveried servant with an official-looking missive, which A. apologized for opening, and after glancing at it, said

that it is worth scarcely half that sum, you pass | ambits, the mysterious gems of art are displayed, on and dismiss the matter from your mind. Not they prove chiefly remarkable for tinsel frames and so Candidus, who, much crest-fallen at finding his ransom prices. studied frankness in telling what you have no right to know has failed to hook his gudgeon, recalls your eyes to the picture, and hesitatingly asks what you will give. Having no wish to insult the man by supposing he will take less than a fair profit upon an outlay already beyond what you would have given, you waive the subject and beat a retreat. But now a new energy inspires Candidus, who presses you so hard for an offer, and says so much of his wish to sell, that, to get rid of his importunities, you name sixty crowns, in the conviction that you are quite safe. He" Very good, but I have no time now to look at staggers, sighs, and at length mutters è poco, "that's little." With these words your fate is sealed; for, even after you have bowed yourself out, he follows to say the picture is yours. You begin to doubt your low estimate of its worth, and take it home half triumphing in your bargain. Could you see the debtor and creditor aspect of the transaction, it might stand nominally thus :

Dr.

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Guido, to cost thereof, viz., By value of the CleoA landscape, supposed patra,

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your pictures; come again." The servant hesitated, and to the inquiries of the stranger, A. said it was only the particulars of a lot of pictures which had been sent to him for sale, the heritage of an old Bolognese family, but that he had never had leisure to open the boxes, which must stand over till he could attend to the matter. On his lordship pressing to have a sight of them, A. reluctantly opened the cases, protesting that it was of no use, as it would take much time to clean and arrange and value this collection, before 100 0 which, of course, the pictures were not for sale. The list exhibited Guidos, Domenichinos, Caraccis, Carlo Dolces-in short, just that class of names which impose upon an Anglican amateurand the dingy canvasses were freely acknowledged to be so completely obscured by dirt and old varnish, that their merits were undistinguishable. The more the dealer seemed anxious to divert his customer to the brightly varnished ornaments of his own walls, the less willing was he to lose sight of this singular chance of procuring "a genuine gallery ready made," and ere the parties separated, a transfer was made to the peer of a mass of trash which scarcely merited the outlay of cleaning, in exchange for a thousand louis-d'or. A still bolder coup-de-main was successfully played off by the same worthy some years before, at the expense of an experienced purchaser and acknowledged connoisseur. He persuaded the late Mr. Coesvelt to look at a picture of high pretensions and of some merit in his house. Whilst they were discussing it, the jingle of posting bells was heard in the street, and the prolonged crack of a courier's whip echoed in the doorway. A. started, rushed out, and beheld an express, booted, spurred, and splashed, who handed him a letter. The dodge confidential" assumes as many Tearing it open, he appeared struck with conforms as Proteus, but they are all shrouded in fusion, and exclaimed, 'Well, here is a fine mystery. Certain pictures are casually alluded to scrape I have got into." "What is the matter?" as attainable by a dealer or amateur broker, (a" Why I am talking about selling you this piccount, perhaps,) who seems suddenly to recall ture, and here is the courier sent back from Ancohis words, and changes the subject. From curi- na to buy, it, by a Russian gentleman to whom I osity or otherwise, you return to it, and his voice offered it last week, for such a sum. The price immediately sinks; he whispers unintelligible allu- was a large one, and Mr. Coesvelt would not sions to certain objects of extraordinary value never have thought of giving it for the picture, which previously in the market, and which from peculiar did not interest him much; but so cleverly did A. circumstances cannot now be shown there; hints contrive to transfer to it the interest of this dramadistinctly at property withdrawn, under the rose, tic scene, that, in the excitement of the moment, from the fetters of immemorial entail, to meet the a bargain was struck; and our countryman went wants of a princely house, or talks wildly about off delighted at the idea of having done the Rusplundered convents, or even mutters something as sian-the latter being an imaginary personage, to royalty raising the wind. When you propose and his courier a Roman postboy, hired to gallop to look at the treasures many difficulties are made; up in the nick of time! a certainty is thrown out of the sale being stopped by government if even suspected; and, finally, an appointment is made under seal of secrecy. It is scarcely necessary to say that when, after long

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to have been refused for a "Madonna" by Francesco Francia, whose real years had assuredly not reached their teens: on second thoughts, the proprietor sent to resign the prize for that sum, but our countryman had meanwhile become shy, or had elsewhere satisfied his craving, and so declined the barbed seduction.

there. Thus, in Bologna, the imitations are chiefly of the Caracci and their followers, as well as of Carlo Dolce and Sassoferrata; at Venice of Titian and Giorgione. In Milan and Ferrara, the fabrications after the schools of Luini and Garofalo are especially successful, as well as those of Morone's beautiful portraits. Old and ruined panels are chosen, and either restored on the The Chevalier Michele Micheli of Florence original design, or, if that has been obliterated, claims to have discovered the vehicle used in disthey are prepared and painted afresh. Sometimes temper-painting previous to the adoption of an oil the portions which have suffered least are allowed medium. He keeps the secret, but exercises it in to remain, and new bits of varied composition are producing small pictures on old panels, to which ingeniously dovetailed into the piece, which is then he gives the surface of antiquity by baking them beplastered with varnish, the better to puzzle too in a powerful sun, or by artificial heat, and when curious observers. In all these cases, the treat- thus cooked they have deceived many supposed ment of some famed master is so exactly imitated connoisseurs. He usually prefers following the as often to baffle detection, even where suspicion designs of old masters to bestowing his labor upon has been roused by the confused appearance of the original compositions, but his works are close imiwork; and the dissimilarity of surface often tations rather than copies. He boasts that many escapes minute criticism out of respect to the Raffaelles from his easel have brought handsome worm-channels visible behind. The forgeries thus prices at Philips' and Christie's; and we have executed are issued by a class of Italian dealers, seen in his studio and elsewhere, others not unwho, sometimes in the disguise of gentlemen, lend worthy of that honor. He gave a friend of ours themselves to the imposition, and share its profits. the finest specimen he had executed in this style, Many of them are also sent abroad, probably to to show Sir Thomas Lawrence the perfection to bona fide retailers. Against such productions, which it might be carried, but he accompanied the especially of the schools we have mentioned, it is sale with a condition that his name and seal should impossible to be too guarded, as even the best appear at the back, to secure him the credit of a judges are sometimes duped. Rules are utterly work which might be ascribed to Ghirlandajo. It useless against a species of villany which only has since hung among choice bits by the Gaddi, great practice can detect it is, however, well to Beato Angelico, and similar masters, and has not look with suspicion on all that class of pictures, been questioned by more than two or three conwhen of high pretensions, and offered at compara-noisseurs. In various towns of Italy his works are tively low prices, especially if recently and very thickly varnished.

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Few of the picture-forgers approach the talent of Guizzardi of Bologna, who, to a competent knowledge of design, adds an extraordinary dexterity in imitating the surface of the old masters, from Francia to Guido. His weak point being composition, he prefers repainting destroyed old works of a good artist or school, to the production of original ones, and the triumph of skill is thus the greater, as the new surface is often brought into close contrast with the old crust.

offered as those of Fra Bartolomeo, Pinturicchio, and Andrea del Sarto, and the veracity of the following little history is unquestioned.

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M. Kerschoff, a Russian amateur, was invited to accompany some Florentine gentlemen on a shooting party into the Maremma. Whilst they pursued their sport, he, disgusted by ill-success, returned to wait for them at a cottage where their horses were put up. Having got into conversation with its occupant, the latter inquired if his guest was fond of pictures, as he had something curious that might inte.st him. After a long In 1842, we were carried to see, at the house story how his father had, on his death-bed, conof a Roman count, a lot of pictures with which fided to him the secret, that a picture concealed in Guizzardi had probably an intimate acquaintance. the house was of value sufficient to make the forThere were about a dozen of them, including two tune of all his family, but that having been felonilarge Raffaelles, one Francesco, and two Giacomo ously obtained, it would, if ever shown or sold in Francias, a Leonardo, a Luini, a Bellini, a Cor- that neighborhood, certainly bring him into trouble reggio, a Claude, and a Ghirlandajo: some were the rustic produced a very pleasing Madonna palpable copies, one an unfinished work, (a fre- and Child in a very antique carved frame, which quent device of the forgers, which saves trouble the Russian cordially admired, and being asked to and disarms criticism,) several evidently retouched, guess the artist, named Raffaelle. "That," said but perhaps not one which a thorough connoisseur, the peasant, was, I do believe, the very one my if not aware of the extent to which the art of coun- father mentioned, but you can see if it was so, as terfeit can now be carried, would not have pro- he gave me this bit of paper with the name writnounced a production of the school to which it was ten in it." On the dirty shred there was in fact attributed. These pictures were bolstered up by scrawled "Raffaello Sanzi ;" and its possessor all the aids of mystery; they were stated to be the went on to hint that, being anxious to realize what gems of a princely gallery which the head of an he knew to be most valuable property, and seeing old family wished to convert into a more liberal no great chance of then disposing of it safely, he provision for his younger children; but as, on the would accept from him, as a foreigner, a price far slightest suspicion of his design, their alienation below its value. The negotiation thus opened, would be interdicted at the instance of his heir, ended in the Russian offering 35,000 francs, or and their exportation arrested by the government, 1,4007., which after due hesitation was accepted. the most perfect secrecy was made a condition of The prize was huddled into a clothes-bag, and its being admitted to a sight of these master-pieces. new master, without waiting to take leave of his So well baited was the hook that several milors friends, started for Florence, and thence hurried had already nibbled, and one fine gudgeon, in the on to Rome, lest it should be stopped by the Tusguise of a rich London porter-brewer, had escaped can government. There he boasted of his acquialmost by a miracle. His offer of 1000l. was said | sition, and showed it to several connoisseurs, who

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