Chinese Bronze Age dagger

[adrian]

Hi Gents, thank you for responding & especially to Chris for his detailed reply.
Certainly the idea that the dagger is a fake was not previously entertained by me.

The swelling of what appears to be an underlying metal is odd, a magnet does not detect iron.
Chris with your knowledge of reproductions can you please suggest how it might have been made as I'm intrigued as to why it has bent over the years since it was acquired - supposedly this has happened since it was "excavated" & whilst I can imagine that happening I cannot so readily imagine it happening to a new item.

I have contacted the owner, supposedly this object came from a new dam site in China. Apparently objects found in excavations & discovered in buried caves etc that were to be flooded were given first to museums, the choice pieces, & the rest to workers etc to keep. Perhaps this is a familiar story does anyone know?
He theorises that the markings Chris points out are from cleaning the encrustation from the most attractive parts of the object - this does seem perfectly logical & can explain such marks.

Fernando perhaps its best to post in the correct section of the forum (my apologies for not doing so initially) & lets see if experts there can clarify the pedigree - or lack thereof - of this dagger.
Adrian