In conclusion, when you would buy old jewellery buy as if it were modern and pay the price of imitations, then if by some rare chance you are mistaken you will experience the unique pleasure of possessing a “find,” but never reverse the process, for if you buy an ancient piece of jewellery you will certainly realize in due time that it is really modern. CHAPTER XXIII MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Carved wood--Artistic furniture--Wood staining and patina-- The merits of elbow-grease--Painted and lacquered furniture --Veneer and inlaid work--Musical instruments--Imitations and fakers of musical instruments--Connoisseurship of musical instruments twofold--Attribution and labels--Some good imitators--The violin as example--The restoration and odd adventures of well-known musical instruments--Legends and anecdotes that help--Analysis of form and of sound--Rossini’s saying. The finest pieces of faked furniture are very rarely entirely new, sometimes they are old pieces to which rich ornaments have been added; at other times, and this is the most common occurrence, they are put together from fragments belonging to two, three, or even four different pieces, the parts and debris, in fact, of old broken furniture. There is also the entirely new fake imitating old furniture, but this is rarely as convincing as the other which is the really dangerous type even for an experienced collector. Impressed by the great amount of faked furniture glutting the Paris market, Paul Eudel says, “in principle there is no more such a thing as antique furniture. All that is sold is false or terribly repaired.”