Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/145

Rh many years, the museum director is often able to find, tucked away in the attic of his museum, some admirable old frames which were taken off during the period when it was considered stylish for all the pictures in a museum to be framed alike. The falsification of frames is one of the most successful trades, and a fake frame is often so admirable in workmanship that even the greatest connoisseurs are deceived. For these, in many cases, old wood is used and the tricks of shooting buckshot into it to imitate worm holes and collecting dust to rub into the crevices are so cleverly used as to deceive even the expert. In the Brera in Milan are some excellent frames which look very old. In answer to a question as to whether they were expensive, the director said: "Oh no! I had those made in Florence last year, but I told the workman he could leave out the worm holes." Florence has one of the greatest manufactories of imitation old frames, and the market has been so thoroughly cleared of authentic originals that one may feel pretty skeptical as to whether any frames coming from Florence now can be really old. In Munich, in the Alte Pinakothek, are some very charming adaptations of old designs. These are simple, but set off the pictures far better than any modern frame could do. Nothing makes more difference in the