Pesh Kabz: what am I missing?
 

Just ended.
I thought I knew a little about Indian/Afghani blades but this one puzzles me: what is so special to justify the price of >$500? I must be missing something important. Any enlightment?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

You haven't missed a thing, Ariel. That is a new piece, or at best a 50 year old piece which has been reengraved. They are churning them out in Pakistan in profusion.
Too, that particular branch of the eBay family is an unusually shady one under which to lay one's trust.


Ham

Ariel and Ham.

Thank you both for confirming my own skepticism about this one. I think it would be helpful to our readers here if you could indicate why this is a recently made piece. With an apparent increase in the recently made Indo-Persian weapons being offered on eBay, some pointers might be useful.

Ian.

I saw this one and thought it looked a little off ,but it does look tempting.
Its a shame that more and more of these questionalbe pieces keep popping up.

There is an explosion of modern replicas on Middle Eastern and Asian markets, sorry to say. The collector who is familiar with form, embellishment and detail will not usually be taken in.
Specifically, the shape of the dagger is inconsistent with period examples as is the coarseness of the engraving. The armour-piercing tip is crude. Grips of cowhorn and a backedge are virtually never found in period examples, nor is a pommel cap.
One learns to spot these inconsistencies by studying as many period examples as possible. This informs the eye, and in order to sharpen it, one needs to examine the same pieces from time to time-- museums provide the best opportunity but good published photos will also do in a pinch. One of course wants to be sure that the reference work is up to par-- is the author of your chosen reference affiliated with an academic institution or museum? If not, a museum catalog is usually the safest choice.

Ham

I take it that this knife is in the same class as the one above,correct?:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

worth the money?
 

Justin,
The kard you show may not have any great age to it (it's hard to tell from the photos) and certainly it is not made with the richness of materials or decoration one commonly sees on kards but it does seem well and traditionally wrought for all of that. I may be wrong but I don't think you could get a modern made piece at a better price.
Sincerely,
RobT

I was questioning modern versus antique ,I dont think the price was bad either but I wanted to know how I was doing on telling the two apart.My collection is still lacking in the Indopersian department and I wasnt sure I could tell the difference,consequently.