Eljay and Mike have the right idea about waiting until the
last 5 minutes or so to bid. That's how I usually manage
to get what I want as well as save money on Ebay. Example,
I managed to get a Pedersoli bayonet for a Brown Bess
shortland pattern musket for $52, including shipping,
brand new. The downside was I had to bid on two prior
ones from the same guy, but persistance eventually
paid off. You just have to watch and hope things work
out. What stinks is when people start tossing bids out
7 days before the auction ends, which of course eggs
others to bid as well. Kind of ruins it for the cheapskates
amongst us. :)

Alex

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm



I colect antique swords rather than replicas and have trawled round European antique arms & armour fairs since I was 11 years old with my grandfather. No comment on the seller, or his credentials. Purely a personal opinion : I'd give this one a wide berth. Seller's family collection ? Where ? Who? 'I don't know about the history''' - possibly genuine, possibly a way of covering himself in the event of a buyer questioning authenticity. That patina ? Looks more Victorian or more recent to me ( a bit red and fresh). The wire grip - has anyone seen a wire grip as opposed to leather or other on a sword of that style or period ? Let alone in that condition. Wrap looks wrong, patina looks wrong, blade itself I'm not convinced by and if it were genuine, as people above have said, it'll go for huge amounts of cash. None of the other items from this seller looked any more convincing.

Ditto to everything said about this piece up to now. I'll just add that the close shot of the maker's mark appears to show a nice, crisp mark atop a smooth-worn blade. Lots of other problems, as noted.

Fair enough on the possibility of a wire grip of the period but on a sword of that type and a wire grip of that style? Also looking as closely as I can at the wire, does that not have a slightly off-period feel to you? Also the pieces you mention are probably rather rare items, not $450 auction items. I respect the opinion greatly though, Chad. You have no doubt seen a thousand pieces I haven't seen. Each to his own. Personally, patina, style, grip, other pieces by the seller .........wouldn't part with cash for it.

The grip lacks the expected 500+ years of accumulated grime, for one thing, unless we're to believe that the previous owner left the overall patina intact but took a dental pick to the wire binding. Where's the filth?

Gentlemen,
My apologies if one of you has mentioned this already (I didn't see it anywhere, however). Did anyone else feel that, for the most part, the seller's offerings seem to exhibit similar patinas? All of his four swords seemed to me to share similar patinas and states of preservation. Not much diversity in that regard, which I might expect in an authentic collection of such varied forms?


Cheers,
Jesse

Sorry Chad, I know you were only pointing out that the wire grip alone doesn't settle he issue. Been looking at few early wire-grips last night - more around than I thought !

Agree with comments on wire gauge and patina. looking at the group as a whole, it's a funny set. One looks a bit like a 17-18 century cutlass but the handle's odd and overall it looks a bit like a film fantasy version of a cutlass. Same for the one lower down with the full guard. Bit like a cutlass, bit like a simple infantry sword but the blade suits neither.

Also as far as I can see the blades don't look like they're properly beveled or shaped to any kind of real cutting edge. And Victorian copies are often much better made than these. I wondered whether they might be a bunch of old film or stage props or something. Or early tourist souvenirs, maybe. They don't look very real in a funny kind of way.

Distance - that's exactly it. Thank you Howard, that what was nagging at my brain when i thought they might be props and noticed the inconsistency in the parts. They look sword-like from a distance but when you look at a close up of the photos it all seems out of place. Some parts may be genuine, some (the guards and blade on one ) made up from scrap. I think the prop scenario may be right. I think you also could be right about some genuine parts. I think the blade on the cutlass-infantry sword thingy with the full guard could be from a 19th century military sword. A strange brood of pieces at any rate.



Daniel

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsunnytampa

Interesting items, to say the least.

Viking sword

http://cgi.ebay.com/Spectacular-Rare-Original...dZViewItem

Hey Guy's those Eastern swords arn't realy my thing, but I ques maybe someone else would be interrested..

The direct url wound work so here is how you can get there...

first go to www.marktplaats.nl,
Then go to the upper right white field between "toppers" and The "zoek" button.
Type "zwaard" (dutch for sword), klick on the zoek (search) button and the second item will be your thing...

Hope it works Folkert :\

That's an Indian Talwar (or tulwar) similar to a shamshir apart from the hilt. I am into Oriental swords, however a talwar is about all I can afford, thanks for the info. This one looks like it could use some TLC though :).

Moderators, if this is in the wrong part of the forum, I'm very very sorry.

Auction Link


I'm not a big authority on baskethilts, I've only just started seriously studying them. So I'd rather not make any assumptions on something I not yet know enough about. But I figured some people here might be interested though.

The person running the auction on the basket hilt was kicked off of ebay twice in the past (why, I do not know). He operated under the name Labrynthintime and before that it was something else. I find his auctions to be quite pricey with claims about the source of the weapons that are vague and hard to prove (in my opinion). I would definitely do my research on that value of the item before parting with that kind of cash.

Here's a couple of decent late Georgian swords: 6561369532 and 6561365297. Also......

the Return of Goodgolfer! 6561240743, 6561239378, and a Sinclair type that I didn't get the number for.

--ElJay

Badly rusted Hungarian sword supposedly from the late Middle Ages:

http://cgi.ebay.com/EFTIS-Medieval-Hungarian-...dZViewItem