hi,
i agree with a lot of what andrew says, although i think 'solid provenance' could be asking too much. maybe a more convincing arguement is what is needed.
i seem to recall a relatively recent thread on artificially aged keris (i think). i found this fascinating as i know virtually nothing about this culture, and the forum members here posted a few generic examples which had been aged to decieve, and so it was very informative. all of these examples had this greyish patina from the acid used.
in my ignorance of the subject, this seems to have a similar patina.
i dont have a problem with whether 'ancient' or antique weapons were reproduced, even unknown forms such as this apparantly is.
with the advent of the internet, weapon collecting has become more popular and easier to aquire (not only do you not need to leave your country, but you dont even have to leave your armchair anymore). so much so, there has been a steady increase of fakes and forgeries and a photograph can hide a multitude of lies. there is no point making a fake that is well known and will be spotted straight away, a point that seems to have gone past certain chinese ebay sellers.
i am not saying that this is the case here, but it seems that because of this increase in fraudulant pieces, the ability to assume has now gone and the pressure is on to prove authenticity past a personal opinion.
i hope that doecon will take up the 'challenge' to substantiate his claims, as it will be a good learning curve for us involved in other cultures (you know, the ones quite low down on the recent poll!
)
however, we are a suspicious lot and it will have to be more convincing than what's already been stated
