Alan Cook does the Timonium show and I have spoken to him on a few occasions at shows in the US and I find him a very nice person willing to talk shop with you. However, I also had a very negative experience with him through Ebay that, in addition to Lew's experience, throws up a slight red flag. I bought a Chinese sword from him through Ebay that he had described as 19th century. While the pictures were not great, I took him at his word as an experienced dealer that should know what he is selling. When it arrived I was extremely dissapointed to find out it was a late 20th century reproduction and very clearly not 19th century. In my correspondance with Alan he stated he had purchased it at an auction house and their description was 19th century so he assumed it was 19th century. I made a list of all the features of the sword that clearly indicated it was a reproduction and mentioned how many reproductions were coming out of China. His response was the he did not know fakes were being made in China. That was quite a dissapointing response from a guy that has been dealing for quite some time. While I am not trying to portray Alan negatively because as I said he was a nice chap in person, we do have a trend here that I think it important to share so that at the least we all learn to ask a few more questions and get a few more pictures if we decide to have further transactions with him.
|