gb0551ms-33-3

Transcription

[Page] 3
[continued from page 2]

me to select anything I took a fancy to
for the museum to be transferred at once or at
his death. With a certain amount of delicacy
I indicated one or two objects and a few days
after my friend arrived in the office with
a large square based glass goblet, a smaller
one etched with fluoric acid, of a very rare
character, two spiral stemmed glasses, two
very nice punch ladles and a quaint brown
jug!
An incident occurred last winter which
caused me much annoyance. A man
from West Linton who occasionally brought
objects for sale produced a jet necklace
the terminal plates of which he had sold
previously to Dr [Doctor] Anderson. The necklace
was left and he agreed to the price of £2.
subject to the approval of the Council. If
the article was genuine the offer was too
small. Before the council met he asked
to be allowed to take the necklace away
to show to a friend and the next we heard
was that a man had arrived in a car
and given him £16 for it. Evidence soon
came to light which convinced me that
the fortunate purchases was none other

than Mr B-p. a voracious collector with a
long purse, at that time & now a member of
the Council! Recently the trader came back
to the museum & offered us four stone
axes and two polished discs of jet or carmel
coal. I never liked their appearance but
could not persuade myself that they were
“fakes” – so we gave £5.5/- for the lot. Having
more leisure after my return from Dumfries
I examined the objects more closely when we
observed on the discs the ripple marks
caused by the play of a tool on a lathe,
and the application of some chloroform
removed the colour from one of the axes.
An examination of the plates of the
necklace satisfied me that it was a fabri:
:cation so I have ceased to grudge its ac:
:quisition to the West Country collector!
Although we had paid for the axes we
wrote to the seller & said we did not think
it advisable to submit them to the
council. The result was a bank draft by
return and the annexed specimen of
calligraphy.
[continued on page 4]