Albert Sack(1915-2011) was the most prominent antique furniture dealer of the 20th Century in the USA. He was our teacher and inspiration in the 80s and always generous with his vast knowledge, to all who had the desire to learn, although they were competitors of his; this way he felt that the level and quality of the entire field rose.
On the other hand Sack was very critical with antique dealers whose intention was to deceive the public for their own benefit. For this reason he would say: “if you do not understand antiques, get to know you antiques dealer” and don’t be misled by appearances, big words and eloquent statements that are not based in Knowledge.

Lately we have observed in some websites of competitor antiques dealers, that we are being copied, something that would normally flatter us; however we see that names of famous cabinetmakers and periods of their work are being used, in a way that we have used them. Such copying is definitely not flattering us because we see that they are mere attempts to deceive the public and appear that they are at the same level of knowledge as us. Furthermore, they quote dates of execution of these pieces that are totally erroneous and even worse they relate them to famous cabinetmakers, when these cabinetmakers were already dead.
To be somewhat specific, some english antique furniture is attributed to the famous cabinetmakers Gillows, and the dates of executions quoted for such pieces is 100 years earlier than their true date, which was the high period for Gillows.
We admit that ” Copying is the highest form of flattery” . But when one can not even copy well, it is the highest form of ignorance; and it lowers the level of our entire field….