Very odd Sudanese sword for discussion

[David R]

Ouch! This does not look good....

[A Senefelder]

That certainly looks like the Del Tin hilt dressed up with a few little extra knobs. The decorative motif is identicle.

[Lew]

I would say this is a composite sword. The scabbard has thin rings which indicates it was made post 1950 or so. The older scabbards had wide flattened rings. Looks like someone copied a Viking hilt and added some extra tidbits .

[Mefidk]

Wow - a good example of why its worth keeping tabs on all the modern sword catalogues!

I suppose this is at least a new variant on kaskara blades in medieval hilts

[Iain]

Thanks guys for all the comments and detective work. Certainly looks like Timo is spot on with the Del Tin hilt.

This is one of the reasons I wanted to post this here - something just felt off about it. I always get nervous when a one of a kind sword shows up that's supposedly genuine in a culture that stuck to a particular pattern pretty rigidly. I'd actually done a little photoshoped image without the knobs on this hilt to illustrate just how close, well now it appears identical, this was to a viking hilt. Obviously no need to post that now.

I guess this just goes to show the interest generated by thinking something is rare and unusual leads to some cloudy judgement and someone spending a lot of money for nothing - I am quite curious now where this ended up. The sad thing out of all this I think is that because Christie's sold it, it will probably knock around in the collecting world for quite a while longer as a genuine article.

[Martin Lubojacky]

Would Christies be able to admit a mistake (if the knew about it) ?

[Tim Simmons]

Inspiration?

[DAHenkel]

Originally Posted by Martin Lubojacky

Would Christies be able to admit a mistake (if the knew about it) ?

Even if you notified them Christie's is under no obligation to inform the buyer. Read the sales contract. The buyer meanwhile has 5 years to challenge the authenticity of the piece, after which it would be very difficult for them to get their money back.

The auction catalogues are full of things of questionable authenticity...indeed in their defense, its impossible for the people who do this to be completely sure about every piece in a sale as most auction houses process so much material...and of such variety they simply can't keep a specialist on staff who happens to be up on the latest Del Tin creations.

So the bottom line is still caveat emptor and bollocks to you if you get taken in mate