The Collectors: Being Cases mostly under the Ninth and Tenth Commandments

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Project Gutenberg Beginners Projects,
Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Being Cases mostly under the Ninth and Tenth Commandments
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.
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 son Peintre. My story was written in the winter of 1907, and it was not until the summer of 1911 that M. Bourget's delightful tale came under my eye. Clearly the same incident has served us both as raw material, and the noteworthy differences between the two versions should sufficiently advise the reader how little either is to be taken as a literal record of facts or estimate of personalities.