The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Collectors, by Frank Jewett Mather

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Title: The Collectors

Author: Frank Jewett Mather

Release Date: August 4, 2004 [eBook #13114]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLLECTORS***

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THE COLLECTORS

Being Cases mostly under the Ninth and Tenth Commandments

by

FRANK JEWETT MATHER, Junr.

1912

Comprising a _Ballade_, wherein the Wrongfulness of Art Collecting is
conceded, and as well Certain Stories: _Campbell Corot_, which recounts
the career of an able and candid Picture Forger. _The del Puente
Giorgione_, which tells of an artful Great Lady and an Artless Expert.
_The Lombard Runes_, a mere interlude, but revealing a certain duplicity
in Professional Seekers for Truth. _Their Cross_, so called from an
inanimate Object of Price which wrought Woe to a well meaning New York
Couple. _The Missing St Michael_, a tale of Italianate Americans which is
full of Vanities and, though alluring to the Sophisticated, quite unfit
for the Simple Reader. _The Lustred Pots_, again a mere interlude, but of
a grim sort, as it grazes the Sixth Commandment and _The Balaklava
Coronal_, which, notwithstanding its exotic title, is mostly of our own
People, showing the Triumph of a resourceful Dealer over two Critics and
a Captain of Industry. To which seven stories are added some _Reflections
upon Art Collecting_, setting forth Excuses and Palliations for a
Practice usually regarded as Pernicious.

FOREWORD

Of the seven stories of art collecting that make up this book "Campbell
Corot" and the "Missing St. Michael" first appeared under the pseudonym
of Francis Cotton, in "Scribner's Magazine," and are now reprinted by its
courteous permission. Similar acknowledgment is due the "Nation" for
allowing the sketch on art collecting to be republished. Many readers
will note the similarity between the story "The del Puente Giorgione" and
Paul Bourget's brilliant novelette, "La Dame qui a perdu