It is not meant by this that all auction rooms are infested by brigands, who leave no chance for fair-play, and that all who ever enter them come out regretting the attempt to buy by a system that appeals to the public for its square dealing. Not at all, the best artistic investments are often made at public sales, but rarely, alas, by the inexperienced novice who has but a limited knowledge of art, and is besides wholly unfamiliar with the ways of auction rooms. This double form of ignorance needs the warning that there are traps, so that coolness and wisdom may enter the brain of the enthusiastic beginner, two necessary items in gaining experience at a reasonable price. PART III THE FAKED ARTICLE CHAPTER XIX THE MAKE-UP OF FAKED ANTIQUES Paintings, drawings, etchings, etc.--How the art of faking necessarily borrows technique and experience from the restorer-- Old and modern ways of imitating the technique of painting--New pictures on old canvases and old paintings repainted and doctored --Suggestions for imitating the preparation of panel or canvas --Imitating characteristic paintings in impasto--Veiling and varnishing--Imitating the cracking of varnish--Old drawings --Technique of the proper abuse to give an appearance of age to drawings--Etchings--Fresh margins to old prints, etc. Opinions as to the restoration of objects of art are of a most varied character; more especially in the case of painting, an art of rather complex technique. The various opinions about the restoration of paintings may, however, be classified into three distinct categories. One might be said to be entirely in favour of the process, one entirely discountenancing it, and between them one which is permissible as it has to do only with mechanical methods calculated to reinforce pigment, or the canvas or panel, and is not concerned with what might be called the artistic side of the art, such as retouching or filling in the missing parts of a painting. Speaking of certain restorations of his time, even Vasari remarks in the Life of Luca Signorelli, that “it would be far better for a masterpiece to remain ruined by time than to have it ruined by retouching by an inferior hand.” Baldinucci tells us how Guido Reni objected to the retouching of old paintings, more especially the work of good masters, and that he invariably refused to do it himself, no matter how much a client was disposed to offer for the work. Milizia, the architect and writer, says that to retouch an old painting, particularly a fine work of art, is to pave the way for future and wider destruction, as in the course of time the retouching will show itself and then another act of barbarity will have to be perpetrated.