SCAMS AND FAKES

[cornelistromp]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

Hi Jasper,



I normally know what I'm talking about, and I never state facts that cannot be proven.

In as early as 1986, A.V.B. Norman, who also guided me around in the Wallace, published hic critical third volume on the Wallace A&A, European Arms & Armour Supplement, where he first tried to mention all things about their weapons that were not 'kosher' as far as the Wallace staff had learned from critical visitors like me.


Just leaf thru each item in there and look at the comments. Many fakes are uncommented because still unconcscious to them, just like A1135, the double wheellock Wender pistol dated 1554 that I posted here, with the inept lemon butt from a long pistol (ca. 80 cm) of ca. 1610, replacing the original straight grip that either terminated in a 'dagger' style or symmetrical 'fishtail' finial.
Nobody except me seems to have detected this phenomenon yet, and such is the case with many, many of their guns, swords, etc.! A great many of their seemingly 'fine' powder flasks are complete 19th c. fakes.

Next there is this vey curious, highly decorated wheellock blunderbuss (!), the long barrel with a hoizontally flattened muzzle shaped like a 'duck's bill', labeled 'late 16th c.' It is only when you realize that such muzzles had not existed before the 18th c. - and you got all the correct measurements readily in your mind - , that the scales fall from your very eyes and all of a sudden you grasp that this late-16th c. stock has been crudely mounted with the barrel of an Austrian cuirassiers blunderbuss of ca. 1760 (österreichisches Kürassiertromblon M 1759). From the outside, the bone inlay of the stock perfectly follows all the very unusual contours of the barrel. Somebody deliberately made a curiosity in the 19th century, ruining two original guns for his perverse idea!

Just one more example:
A1094, another seemingly highly decorated wheellock gun of the late 16th c.: the dog of the wheellock mechanism is an association of ca. 1680 - which is about 100 years later than the gun was actually made! The lock plate does not belong either and was cut down to fit, all the encrusting on the lock plate is 19th c. - and so on and so forth ... As I said: complete and part fakes!



Best,
m

Hi Michael,

yes, I can give you some more examples, but you talked about 33% of the collection, this very high 33% cannot been proven!

Tobias Capwell has revised most of the collection descriptions and published this in 2012 (digital memory stick) together the previous two descriptions, so you can see the difference insight over the last 100 years.
Do you have this publication? it is a beautiful piece of work with a loads of high resolution photo material, you can see the smallest details spots and cracks from all angles, it is an amazing reference work.
I highly recommend anyone to purchase this work.

best,

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by cornelistromp

Hi Michael,

yes, I can give you some more examples, but you talked about 33% of the collection, this very high 33% cannot been proven!

Tobias Capwell has revised most of the collection descriptions and published this in 2012 (digital memory stick) together the previous two descriptions, so you can see the difference insight over the last 100 years.
Do you have this publication? it is a beautiful piece of work with a loads of high resolution photo material, you can see the smallest details spots and cracks from all angles, it is an amazing reference work.
I highly recommend anyone to purchase this work.

best,

Hi Jasper,


I do have their latest publication. I was hoping you might have noticed that some images I posted here were taken from it, and I was one of the very first people worldwide to receive them, way before the publication was out. The book is not of the least use to me, with almost no firearms in it, the USB stick helped clarify just some very few things.

And: no! Single images are of a maximum resolution of about 2 MB which is definitely not enough to discern every single detail! In order to enable a third party to judge the real quality of their pieces they ought to have completely dismantled the lock mechanisms and shown their respective parts from various angles (!). After all, all it would mean is take out some screws.

And: yes, I have just proven that I do know a whole lot more on their pieces than they seem to.

I am both too old and sick to travel to London another time but I am open to any discussion on the grounds of the images published.


If you will kindly remember, I was the first to recommend their latest publication on the forum in a thread of its own; I would definitely do that no longer. The price they charge is way too high for the average user who is just interested in a few special details. People who are especially fond of armor and edged weapons may be much luckier with it though.



Best,
m

[Fernando K]

Hello:
Referring to blunderbuss wheel (wheelock), D. R. Baxter, in his "Blunnderbusses", page 11:
Fernando K

[Matchlock]

Thank you so much, Fernando, you're just great:



Yes, this is the one I was talking about!

And here is the original Österreichisches Kürassier-Tromblon M 1759, the very model that the barrel was taken from.
Barrel length 65.6 cm, bore at muzzle 44 mm, at tang 26 mm.

I hope that Tobias Capwell has fun taking the measurements of the barrel of the Wallace 'wheellock blunderbuss' ...
Scanned from Peter Krenn, Die Handfeuerwaffen des österreichischen Soldaten, Graz, 1985


I deaccessioned Baxter's Blunderbusses a few years ago from my library just because there was not one single honest and early piece in it.



Best,
Michael

[Marcus den toom]

I noticed that the double barrel pistol (.no. A1135 in the Wallace Collection) as described by Michael, shows that the lock isn't in its original place either.
There is a space between the wood en the lock and the place where the pancover slides does not line up with the wood (running horizontally to the barrel) either.
Is this because of aging, the wood shrinking or is there something else going on?

[Fernando K]

Marcus:

In any case, the difference may be due to a photo effect: the outer surface of the key is closer to the focus, and everything seems fallen behind.

Affectionately. Fernando K

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Marcus den toom

I noticed that the double barrel pistol (.no. A1135 in the Wallace Collection) as described by Michael, shows that the lock isn't in its original place either.
There is a space between the wood en the lock and the place where the pancover slides does not line up with the wood (running horizontally to the barrel) either.
Is this because of aging, the wood shrinking or is there something else going on?

Hi Marcus,


Very well observed!

I'm afraid I cannot solve that problem without handling and dismantling the piece.
Again, the single picture on the USB stick (screenshot attached) showing the lock recess, with the locks turned inside out, is not good enough and in too low resolution to discern that question.
Btw, that item was totally neglected in the book ...

I guess we also should understand the crucial position of the Wallace curators though, who must feel torn between two feelings and desires ...


Best,
Michael

[Marcus den toom]

Thank you Michael,
I uncovered my own Walllace (and gromit) USB stick and looked the pistol up.
The buttstock seems weird indeed, there where the bone begins. The wood surrounding the locks is bigger (wider) and all the sudden, when the bone "ring" starts, the wood has a very weird/steep rounding to it?



the green lines show how the stock, in my opnion, should have progressed (with of course some degree of curvatude). The red circle shows the area i am concerned about. The bone plaque of the trigger is also not smoothly lining up with the "ring" of bone.
And to be honest, i find the whole bone "ring" somewhat large? It doesn't look proportioned to all the other subtle ornaments and engravings. But i lake the knowledge to make a well founded argument (currently reading baxters superimposed loads firearms book though, so some knowledge should be sinking in)