It is only after touching scores of genuine prints that the beginner acquires the instinct of "spotting" a faked one. Colour prints should always be regarded with strong suspicion, especially when they have "been in one family a hundred years." No colour print ever claims less pedigree than this. Margins are cut down and stains artfully introduced to simulate bad usage. Never buy any print behind glass is a golden rule, unless, of course, only a few shillings be given for it.
Never buy Dürer or Lucas van Leyden or Rembrandt, or any of the old German school of engravers, unless from your favourite printseller. Never give big prices for anything you do not understand. Avoid colour-prints altogether unless you are a man who has a large balance at his banker's lying idle. If you are a poor man do not speculate in mezzotints. The art of restoration deserves a separate volume to itself. A multitude of secret tricks are practised by the restorer who is an artist. He can add margins, he can convert a lettered proof into an early state, he can remove damp stains, he can touch up and brighten dull mezzotints, nor are holes and tears beyond his skill. Better men than you have been deceived by his handiwork—in a word, it is marvellous in its perfection of patient artistry.
Paper and watermarks are a safeguard, but not always, for many forgeries have been printed on old paper taken from the flyleaves of early volumes, and, failing this, watermarks have been worked into paper. But, as a general rule, these elaborations occur only in rare prints. If the beginner confines
