Luristan bronze sword
 

Acquired this recently, described as a Luristan bronze sword. It has a grip with a face on the pommel and on the bolster. Fairly thin, prominant raised central rib, not sharp.

I suspect it may not be original, but i'd like confirmation one way or another.

id say that's a fake one for sure.

I will flip through a few books I have and see if I find any similar forms - it doesn't bring up any memories. The patina can provide some clues: pale green and "powdery" is suspicious; darker green and crystalline supports hopefulness.

Here is the surface of a 3000 year old Luristan bronze dagger that clearly has seen some cleaning:

The sword seems to have a mix of colours, the grip is mostly a worn shiny black, especially on the side opposite the faces. Parts of the blade you can see the bronze colour under the start of a shined brownish oxidation, there are ares that look like chrome polish was used to clean it, white residue.

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The formation of the masks on the hilt is quite different in style and orientation from examples I could find in my limited library. I had thought the very narrow midrib and its termination unlikely, but I found a very similar, though better executed, example on a long dagger in Khorasani's massive tome on Iranian arms. Worrisome that the patina stays the same over areas of the midrib that appear deeply scraped.