| Craig Peters wrote: |
| It seems to be truncating the article when I open it now, for some reason. The axe cost £1195, before shipping.
By the way Jeff, thank you very much for posting the information that you did. It will help me a lot in getting a refund. What is the value of an antique barte? It's possible that my haft is the original haft; it certainly looks like the wooden hafts seen on 17th century polearms. I'm curious what a complete, original specimen is worth. |
I was able to read it as dial up let the text load before the sign up pop up. A bit from that to consider in hindsight.
The steel “bearded” axe is thought to have belonged to a Scots foot soldier who may have used it the previous year to help win the Battle of Stirling Bridge before dying on the battlefield at Falkirk.
His axe was found centuries later and hung on the wall of a noble’s mansion until it found its way to Lanes Armoury in Brighton, East Sussex.
There is no real provenance offered in that article. What it is mostly is a story. Even when buying an item without considering the stories or listings, one can still be fooled or something may not be as it seems. I have a feeling that both the article and any listing left enough unsaid to let a person see what they want to see. It is often the case that someone then just passes the story along. I don't know the Mr. Hawkins from Lanes but even the best can make a mistake. However, that an item sits at a "wow" price for a long time usually says something right there.
As to value, it is unfortunately a buyer that actually sets the price.
The Higgins just sold some more "off" stuff on the Skinner's auction list over the weekend.
http://www.skinnerinc.com/index.php
I almost added that to the Ebay watch thread but it might have turned into a discussion of why they were being sold off. They probably were culling off modern made recreations. Or not but that is likely.
Cheers
GC
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