Hello tomahawk,
The reply does not surprise me as we are disscusing items although not very old are quite poorly documented. It does sound as if the museum people are hedging their bets. They may be comparing your piece against a known bank of better quallity items from a time when the manufacturing culture was stronger and more vibrant. That could mean your knife may be genuine but from the very earliy 20th century. The people on the NW were selling good quallity art pieces to sailors and the like in the 19th century but I would have thought that a large piece of copper like that would still of had some cultural value. Without Mr Museum saying yes it is an open verdict, but it could very well be what we all want it to be, just not worth a small fortune. Tim
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