Shoppers can spend days scouring flea markets for vintage upholstery and drapery fabrics - or they can buy inexpensive reproductions of 20th-century patterns from the Reprodepot Web site.

Fun, presumably, is to be found elsewhere - far from the hordes foolishly aiming their cameras at masterpieces instead of buying infinitely superior reproductions on 50-cent postcards.

As for old master drawings, he took to buying reproductions in the early 1920's.

Today, it is easy to buy reproductions of old French wallpapers.

Some design professionals buy authentic reproductions only.

But now the Irish can buy reproductions of Georgian furniture by Kindel, an American furniture company in Grand Rapids, Mich.

They compromised by buying reproductions of American antiques.

It was cheaper for them to buy reproductions than to restore the old ones.

Now, the Metropolitan Museum and most other museums across the country send out several catalogues a year because people are buying good reproductions for their homes.

For less than $10 each, we bought several reproductions of considerably higher quality than what we found in markets.