“What is your price?” I asked.
“Thirty pounds,” he replied. “They are worth a hundred and fifty.”
I told him it was a lot of money. He shrugged his shoulders, and held up his hands as if to show me that he was positively giving them to me. Then I definitely declined to buy them.
And now, after thirteen years have passed, I hear that they were afterwards sold for the price of the gold plus a quarter for the antique design. Old Egyptian gold is 24 carat, and an English sovereign is 18 carat, so that the price came out at about the price of ordinary gold. And one of those implicated in the transaction has since admitted to me that the bracelets were forgeries.
Last year I was shown by a collector a small gold scarab. It was quite hollow and made of very thin gold, and it had the appearance of having been pressed out in a mould. I was asked to give an opinion on it, but was able to escape without committing myself. My opinion was that the scarab was not genuine, but as it was the first example of its kind that I had seen, I did not care to express too definite an opinion upon the subject. This year I have seen other gold ornaments bought at the same place, and I have no hesitation in saying that the scarab was an exceedingly well-made copy of a genuine one.
PLATE II.
NECKLACES AND A BRACELET.
1. A necklace composed of genuine old carnelian beads, with spurious gold bottles.
2. Part of a necklace made of silver-gilt filigree work, with coloured glass scarabs—bought in Algiers.
3. A bracelet made up of imitation scarabs set in gold of a low carat.
4. A string of genuine old carnelian and spurious gold beads.