Two Good Wrought-iron Hackbut Barrels, Late 15th Century - Sold for Record Prices!

[Swordfish]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

One more close up of the first barrel, and images of the second, which is very similar to the first.

Even the high probability that they originally came from the very same workshop, and were kept together for five centuries, does in my eyes not account for such a price.

The second one even went considerably higher than the first - a phenomenom I have often noticed in auctions when two almost identical items turn up in succession.


m

Sorry to say, but if these barrels are no fakes, then I'm going crazy. The surface shows not the slightest patination as 500 years old iron should have.
No socket or loops for a tiller, the hook of unusual shape, but similar to that of Bronze barrels, both with exactly the same surface with a bit of fresh dirt.
It is not the first time that after an item has reached a good price at auction, (in this case a real hackbut barrrel sold at 30.11.11 at the Dorotheum) similar fakes appear at auction a half year later.
In my non expert opinion these two barrels are really ridiculous fakes.

Best