Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
Perhaps I'd roll this observation back about an order of magnitude, to 99%. On a couple of occasions I have had experienced museum curators confide to me that more than a few of the most iconic (and beloved) medieval swords in some very well regarded museum collections are, at the very best, 19th century enhancements and composites. (Technical examination has also raised concerns about some examples in my own collection with earlier reliable provenance.)
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Lee you are 99,9% right
on the other hand, a university study costs money.
The mistakes that every collector and researcher makes in his career also cost money. I have a separate exhibition bucket for this and classify it under the heading of learning money, and of course use it as explanation material for fellow collectors
Concerning the %, 99.9% might be a bit high.
but by this % I mean mainly the excavated swords and daggers. its value was relatively low in the 20th century that counterfeiting was of little use here. Now after +- 2000 that is unfortunately no longer the case.
There are now so many counterfeits in excavated swords on offer that the majority of collectors no longer know what a real excavated sword should look like. A verifiable provenance for 2000 gives a little more support.
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