Dangers of Producing replica ethnographic weapons and art

[Dajak]

I just thought I would say what is on my mind with regards to making replica or reproduction ethnographic art and or weapons i.e. : of the same size as the originals .Why I think its dangerous is that if the object in question is made by a modern artist then that object, take a sword for instance is made with all the materials as the original picture used say from museum catalogue or an auction catalogue. Though its is signed by the maker and is offered for sale even though the maker had no intention of passing it off as authentic tribal ethnographic weapon.If the sword ends up being traded or sold who is to say 3-4 people down the line one person the current owner might want to remove the signature of the maker or the makers initials so he can then try to pass it off as the real thing for big money thus polluting the authentic ethnographic weapons and tribal art field .Thus this creates a problem in the collecting world of these objects .It diminishes it. The idea of collecting if your like me I want the best examples of real authentic tribal's /ethnographic weapons which means the objects were made by a specific ethnic group to be used in a tribal way by those people, example: Dayak Mandau 19th c sword would been used for head hunting .The whole concept of collecting is to get the real authentic objects that were used long ago not some facsimile or shadow that was made yesterday. Because if a person makes even fantastic examples of a sword and makes it too look old in my book its a fake no matter how you look at it and it should never be considered ethnographic weapon or never be considered as art. What's even more dangerous to authentic ethnographic collecting if a object i.e.:weapon is a put together piece from old parts of another weapon this creates even more of a problem .

I would also say there were only so many authentic examples ever made such as Pakayun, Mandau, Moro sword ect ect the real swords were not made after a certain time depending on the culture .If a person decides to make same size examples of these it disrupts the field of collecting .There are people out there that just want to make money and do not care if they pass off a fake . A rare type sword or dagger if newly made then made to look old, its easy to see how problems can occur.Its difficult enough trying to find the best examples of authentic swords ect why make it more difficult.

I also would like to say making miniatures of swords and art. I have no problem with that since since based on there size they would never be passed off as authentic thus would never be offered for sale in the field of authentic ethnographic weapons or art thus never polluting the field .

Fakes are being made from all cultures all over the world and all types of art and weapons why contribute to that even though a persons original intention was never to do such a thing but as I pointed out its easy for that to happen.


Ben