Antique shops exert a peculiar fascination on a great many people. But people do not
dare to go into the more expensive kind of antique shops where rare objects are
beautifully displayed in gleaming glass cases. On the other hand, people are willing to go into the less pretentious kind of antique shops where a rarity will be expected to be
found among the piles of various junk that lie around the rooms. It is an accepted fact
that a rarity is not discovered by chance. Equipped with patience and encyclopedic
knowledge, a truly dedicated bargain hunter must be able to recognize a real rarity
when he sees it. Of course, he must be cheerful and confident that one day he will win a rarity. Take my old friend, Frank Halliday for example. He often does not need to
prompted to explain how he bought his precious picture painted by Correggio in a less pretentious antique shop for a mere ? 50. As a matter of fact, this unknown
masterpiece was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
