CAVEAT VENDITOR.
Is the tradesman to be bound to tell the truth under pain punishment at the criminal law ? The attempt to enforce sue:a-- rule would appear to be not only an inversion of the old standing rule "caveat ernptor" and of the many decisions founded on that principle, but a striking innovation on our social usages. Cane it out to its legitimate extent and the inmate of any house in Bel: grave Square might be placed before Mr. Arnold or Mr. Paynter for instructing the servant to say he was " not at home." remarkable decision at Liverpool in the case of Scott versus Diem has been followed by a police prosecution which seems designed se push the principle of that decision to the end that we have indi- cated. The proceedings, indeed, have only been developed in very inconvenient way before a tribunal in the first instance- but they are so curious in their nature that they must inevitably at- tract observation from all who take interest in the relations of law to social development.
The proceedings appear to be instituted in the name of Mr. Robert Herries Peter, who is said to be acting on "the advice of friends,"—interposed rather too late. The complaint is that he has been induced in sonic way to spend 16,000/. on a collection of pictures and other works of art which are not worth any consider- able fraction of that money. His own lawyer has stated on his behalf that he is "a gentleman of very weak intellect," and that he has been "drawn in" ; and as the commencement of a series of prosecutions, a respectable dealer in pictures and other objects of " vertu " was summoned before the magistrates at the Guildhall on a charge of obtaining 2000/. or 3000/. from the dilettante. It seems that Mr. Peter went to the shop, was shown a picture or two, and admired ; but he was principally attracted by the fact that the works in question were said to have been comprised in a collection belonging to "a cousin of the Duke of Newcastle," a widow who was anxious to sell her property. Did not this look like a collection with a warranty ? Mr. Peter purchased the pictures first offered, and subsequently purchased more ; then some mem- bers of the picture-dealer's family went to the customer's house with further specimens, which he also bought ; until at last, his liberality in absorbing the collection of the widow, "cousin of the Duke," so touched that lady that she presented to him a hand- some silver gilt cup as from a "dear and beloved friend." It would appear that Mr. Peter's property, though it may be con- siderable, is not unbounded ; for in the course of these disburse- ments he gave an acceptance for 10001.; which he was not prepared to meet, and in that remarkable epoch of his life it is discovered that he is "a gentleman of very weak intellect," and that the pictures in his collection are not by the great masters to whose names they have been ascribed. His friends are indignant; he has legal advice ; and under these circumstances he enters the police court.
As usual the stories differ. Mr. Peter says that the pictures were represented as having belonged to a cousin of the Duke of Newcastle ; that the picture-dealer's family came to his house without any invitation ; and that he did not invite Mrs. Barnes to look at his collection. On the other hand, it is repre- sented that the pictures were described as belonging to a cousin of the Duchess of Newcastle ; that Mr. Peter really invited Mrs. Barnes to his house ; and in short that he acted much more 1»"01»'i0 2110t14 than he remembers. The earliest inquiry turned especially upon two of the pictures,—one, a "Satyr carrying fruit," by "Rubens," and the other, " Plough- ing with Cattle in the South of France," by "Rosa Bonheur.." It has been found that these two pictures were sold at an auction by Messrs. Christie and Manson. The Rosa Bonheur was one of the pictures in a lot for which Mr. Peter gave 10001.; it was sold by Messrs Christie and Manson for 17/. 6s. 6d. It had been de- signated in that catalogue as being "after Rosa Bonhenr." The "Satyr carrying fruit," stood in their catalogue with the name of "Rubens against" it; not, said Mr. Manson, who had been summoned as a witness in court, because it was considered to be by Rubens, but to intimate that it was of the school of Rubens or that it might be by Rubens. Now there is an immense sale in pictures of which the origin is exceedingly obscure, and it must be remembered that it is impossible for the auctioneer or picture dealer to give a warranty for many of the works that pass through his hands. He has not the means ; he is called in to sell a col- lection by a gentleman of property, or possibly the furniture of a house which comprises a few pictures. The pictures may or may not be of value, but they may be ascribed to great names ; and the auctioneer will better perform his duty to his cheat by e.x- hibiting them for sale in an auction of pictures than in one of me discriminate furniture, if only for the reason that an assemblage of picture-purchasers is likely to attend the one and not the other. In such an assemblage as that collected at Messrs. Christie and Manson's there are often good judges of pic- tures. Wanting that time which is necessary for deliberate examination, the auctioneers must receive the description of
the goods as they reach them ; they may sometimes amend that description, but not always for the better. And let us see how these collections are formed by persons of more or less taste7by amateurs sometimes possessing great discrimination, sometimes
ll. Many a picture is brought from Italy with the most
none at a
imposing attestations of its genuineness, such as Commissioners of she National Gallery would accept. On the other hand, the most beautiful works of art stray through obscure hands into com- paratively humble houses. You may see on the walls of a private gentleman who makes no show before the world, a beautiful speci- men of an old master ; while you may have seen on the walls of the National Gallery a " Holbein " that would disgrace the pen- cil of an Owen or even a Bird. In that same house of Christie and Manson, we believe, was sold for 67/. a Mantegna that was afterwards discovered, by its internal evidence—by the beauty of the design the majesty of the chief figure, the lines of the hair, the mouldings of the features the treatment of the anatomy, the analogy of the figures to several in other works, and ultimately by the study for the same painting—to be by the hand of Ra- phael, worth not 67/. but some thousands. And if the auctioneer
occasionally puts the name of Mantegna for Raphael, he v naturally take a copy of Rubens by some of the many students who are constantly multiplying such repetitions, to be by the master himself. An auctioneer will at times lose by the want of deliberate examination which is inseparable from his profession, i now and then he may gain by it. It s a chance ; but the room of the auctioneer is a species of dicebox within which the gamblers stand, the game of chance being spiced by a modicum insight. All auctions are attended by a class of dealers who "pick up"
the most catching articles, or those which go cheapest, and turn them to a profit by a more permanent exhibition in their own varied collections. Is it wonderful if in the transfer from the auction room under the public opinion of the dilettante West-end, the picture has become a little magnified in its merchantable quali- ties; if it should appear to be by "Rosa Bonheur " instead of " alter Rosa Bonheur ' ; and if the Rubens's pedigree be accepted as indubitable ? How should the dealer know any better ? He may be a person of great intelligence and discrimination, and he may not; at all events it is not his place to set himself against higher judges of art, to disparage his own goods, and open his shop for the express purpose of crying stinking fish."
It would be an exceedingly good thing if we could establish the rule of truth in trade ; but the fact is that the trade in falsehood, so far as it exists at all, is begotten by the usual commercial im- pulse,—the supply follows the demand. The customer tyranni- cally insists upon "cheap" articles, and he will leave the honest tradesman for any man who will give him things" cheap." As he dishonestly insists upon goods below their real price, the trader can only copy his dishonesty by supplying him goods with the price he gives, but not meriting the name by which he buys them. The collector of pictures often knows little about the works them- selves ; he is chiefly anxious to indulge his vanity by exhibiting on his walls a collection with great names attached to it ; and he wishes to have it "cheap." But the complicity of the great is sometimes more direct. There is reason to believe that many a gentleman has employed a young artist to copy a picture by Rubens or Titian, or any other painter, whose comparatively lax style of handling has afforded the greatest opportunity for counterfeits, and that the employer has afterwards exhibited that copy as genuine. And many a. picture, thus painted by an honest student, has been converted by a dishonest gentleman, of "high station," into a forgery ; making its way through the auction room and to the dealer's shop with the name forged by the very class who are afterwards entrapped by the tradesman. If the tradesman subsequently carried his complaint to The Westend mansion probably the footman would be instructed to tell him, that the gentleman was " not at home."
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