A Mini Review of a "Book of Horrors"...is this thing for real???

[CharlesS]

I am just now recovering from one of the greatest mistakes of my collecting career, the purchase of a book that balances itself somewhere between laughable and absurd.

Captivated by the cover art of the book ANTIQUE SWORDS AND DAGGERS, whose cover photo was seemingly dedicated largely to legit ethnographic pieces, I made the plunge, paid the cost of an all-too-expensive book...and lived to regret it.

The book is authored/edited by Mircea Veleanu, who either has very little knowledge of blades, thinks 'research' is only a noun and never a verb, or has no idea of the value of a US dollar....or perhaps a combination of the three.

As I opened the book for a quick browse, the first page I came to was full of pics of TOURIST Dayak mandaus, described as original and 19th Cent., priced in the upper 100s and 1000s!!! Once I got my jaw to reattach after it had dropped to the floor, I realised that there was, indeed, page after page of such photos of tourist quality swords from various cultures appraised at ridiculous values.

Sadly, mixed in are some legitimately good pieces, those appraised at largely even more absurd prices, not even remotely close to what they would actually fetch on any knowledgable market. In some cases legit pieces are valued below those that we might call 'toys'.

The only good thing to be said of this book is the quality of some of the photos, especially of the legit pieces. Since I am no expert/collector of several types of swords visited in the book, I will not dare to say what percentage of the items photoed are of tourist quality or just out right fakes, but among ethnograghic pieces I would say that at least 50% or more are post 1900(that's being kind!) or are tourist pieces, mislabled, or just out right fakes.

I am amazed that this book was put together as a serious project and even more amazed that a publisher published it with apparently no content research, and/or knowledge, or care, of the correctness of the content.

Now, why does all of the concern me? Why do I sound even more pissy than usual so early in the morning? Well fellas, if this books comes into wide circulation as a sellers' price guide or, Allah-forbid, some collector's manual, then the field we all love so much will be horribly polluted, both in quality of goods offered by well intentioned(and maybe the not-so-well-intentioned) vendors selling tourist quality pieces as legit...and claiming he/she has a book to back them up, AND in perceived values of pieces whether good or bad! Even more sadly, imagine the beginning collector using this book as a 'starter's guide', getting all excited about his new hobby, and then bidding $1000 on a painted and shell-laden tourist toy Dayak mandau on Ebay!!

In the hands of even the best intentioned dealer or collector this book is dangerous and misleading beyond belief, especially if perceived as even remotely accurate. Let's hope we don't all pay the price for a poorly thought out and even more poorly researched "book of horrors".

[VVV]

Thanks for the warning Charles.
Maybe the mandau part of the book is sponsored by the eBay Sellers Association in "Cat-town"?
I assume that all the genuine mandau in the book had lots of dog teeth attached to the scabbard?

Michael

[CharlesS]

...ahhhh, you must have already seen the book!

[Ian]

Hi Chuck:

Vandoo had similar comments a few weeks ago.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3423

Ian.

[CharlesS]

Thanks Ian. Somehow I missed that thread....sure do regret missing it!!
That miss cost me about $80!!!

[Ian]

Commiserations. Could have been worse, Charles. When I think of a couple of the terrible mistakes I've made in the past whenh buying swords, $80 doesn't seem too bad for a lesson learned.

Every now and again I have to visit my "drawer of shame" to realise how dumb I can be sometimes. Very humbling

Ian.

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Thanks Ian. Somehow I missed that thread....sure do regret missing it!!
That miss cost me about $80!!!

[VANDOO]

I AM SURE SORRY YOU WASTED GOOD MONEY ON THE BOOK ALSO

I HOPE THIS BOOK AND ANY OTHER POORLY DONE MISLEADING BOOKS BY THIS PUBLISHER AUTHOR DO NOT SELL. THAT MAY KEEP THEM FROM CRANKING OUT LOTS OF SIMULAR TRASH IN OTHER FIELDS OF COLLECTING I UNDERSTAND HE HAS ONE OUT ON JADE AS WELL I WONDER HOW MUCH WRONG AND MISLEADING INFORMATION IS IN IT. I HAVEN'T HAD THE TIME TO GO THRU AND TALLEY WHAT PERCENT OF THE INFORMATION IS GOOD IN THE BOOK BUT CAN SAY THAT THE PRICES ARE WRONG ABOUT 100 % OF THE TIME THAT I CAN LIVE WITH BUT INCORRECT REFRENCE INFORMATION AND IDENTIFICATION I CAN'T

IN FUTURE PERHAPS ALL MEMBERS CAN LOOK AT THE SECOND COLUM FROM THE LEFT BY THE POSTS IT USUALLY HAS A GREEN ARROW OR SOMETHING ON MY POST THERE IS A RED THUMBS DOWN. I WOULD SUGGEST IT ONLY BE USED AS A WARNEING OF SOMETHING WE ALL NEED TO KNOW AND THAT EVERYONE SHOULD ALWAYS READ SUCH A POST.

NOT ONLY HAVE I WASTED $80.00 AND FEEL LIKE A SUCKER I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH MY FRIENDS HERE RAGGING ME ABOUT THE BOOK. OH WELL AT LEAST WE GET A LOT OF LAUGHS DOING THAT

[DaveS]

I bought this book at a show i was at last week. I sat down at my table and started to read, and i'm glad i was sitting down because i probably would have a heart attack. Within a few minutes i had seen at least a dozen tourist pieces with huge prices on them. Several of my collector friends saw the book and we were all laughing so hard the tears were falling everywhere. Bottom line is they all paid the $80.00 to get a copy. This guy is supposed to have been collecting for almost forty years. I just wonder where all his "collecting" was done. Must have been done in his dreams.......Dave

[Ann Feuerbach]

Thanks for the heads-up. A sad reminder that just because it is in print does not make it true!

[Lee]

...just because it is in print does not make it true

So very true. The emergence of the PC as a tool for inexpensive book pre-press production in the last decade has been both a boon and a curse. Even I have done a project on the same equipment used to generate much of this website. Many very worthwhile projects have been made possible in the last decade by these new processes (with incredibly more affordable color as well). However, with a much smaller financial commitment and risk being made by the publisher, there is less diligence by publishers in sorting out the chaff.

All in all, though, this new technology has benefitted us greatly, and even in the old days with higher barriers to entry in publishing, horrible trash did occasionally get past peer review and or publisher's cautions.