Fraud, Fakery and False Business Rethinking the Shrager versus Dighton 'Old Furniture Case'

In 1922 Adolph Shrager, having made his fortune during the First World War, decided to furnish a newly purchased house and, not being an expert on furniture himself, he was directed to the London furniture dealer Basil Dighton who sold him about 500 items. Shortly afterwards Shrager was horrified to discover that one of his 'collector's pieces' was judged to be a fake. On consultation, Herbert Cescinsky, a cabinet maker and author, endorsed this view, and a writ was issued against Dighton, citing the furniture as 'altered and made up and spurious'. The trial, heard at, the Official Referee's Court in January and February 1923, and the subsequent appeal in July, has become a cause célèbre in furniture history, featuring on one side Shrager and Cescinsky, and on the other Dighton and his expert, the furniture historian Percy MacQuoid.

Abigail Harrison Moore is the Deputy Head of the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds, UK. Her previous books include (with Dorothy Rowe) Architecture and Design in Europe and America, 1550-2000.