OOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!

[Montino Bourbon]

"Unbridled lust..."

ebay # 130191730549

Dinn't have QUITE enough in week-end petty cash....

[Rick]

Very nice, but at that price I would want it to have the scabbard too .

[Tim Simmons]

A solid gold scabbard. What is so good about these and other daggers just because there is a bit of ivory, especially as they are so very common.

[CourseEight]

Seller had three other drool-worthy items up as well. May have gotten an off-ebay offer on them:

http://search-completed.ebay.com/sea...&fsop=1&fsoo=1

Beautiful stuff, all.

[ariel]

This one was a stuff of my dreams..
http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-DAGGER-P...QQcmdZViewItem
But it was a " no longer available " one
This is the one I asked Montino about.
Gr-r-r-r-r-r-r!

[TVV]

Originally Posted by ariel

This one was a stuff of my dreams..
http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-DAGGER-P...QQcmdZViewItem
But it was a " no longer available " one
This is the one I asked Montino about.
Gr-r-r-r-r-r-r!

Because of the number of rivets?

[Rick]

So similar to this one .

[ariel]

Guys, am I so transparent?

[Montino Bourbon]

When my birthday comes around I feel like Auda Abu Tayi in "Lawrence of Arabia"

He wanders around at one point muttering:

" MUST find something worthy!..."

Oh, and mine didn't have a sheath either. I made one, and now need some worthy silver work on it.

[A. G. Maisey]

Mughal jade.

[Jens Nordlunde]

Ok, I do agree that, for once, the seller did make good pictures, but I fail to see why you all almost faint seeing the pictures – please explain.

[Tabarzin]

I'm with you on this one Jens. I also failed to see why this dagger aroused so much interest. This new fascination with wootz amongst collectors is getting out of hand.

Here are some better pics of the dagger.

http://www.oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=1907

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by CourseEight

Seller had three other drool-worthy items up as well. May have gotten an off-ebay offer on them:

http://search-completed.ebay.com/sea...&fsop=1&fsoo=1

Beautiful stuff, all.

Interesting. The Seller is in the small hometown of one of our forum members. Wonder if they know each other? Doubt it is the same person.

[Montino Bourbon]

And I really liked the lines of it; so ergonomic! So adapted exactly to what it's for... and it ain't cutting pizza!

Of course, Jens, I am a bit of a newbie to higher-end Indian and Persian stuff...would you be so kind as to show me what you feel is a good example, or even a superb example, of this type of dagger?

Cm'on, share! I'm all eyes, as it were, and I can't think of anybody I'd rather learn about such things from, although there are other worthy masters on this forum. I am just curious...

[CourseEight]

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

Ok, I do agree that, for once, the seller did make good pictures, but I fail to see why you all almost faint seeing the pictures – please explain.

As for me, its an issue of the relative distance between my average piece and these. Not to mention that if prices continue as they have I'll have tenure before I'll get a wootz piece...

--Radleigh

[Jens Nordlunde]

Montino, forget about the newbie stuff, as we are all here to learn, so there is no reason to be so modest.

Radleigh, I am afraid the prices will go on rising, and many collectors have, over the years, strained their economy to make their collection grow, which has been a good investment – but it is not easy.

[Montino Bourbon]

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Cm'on... let's see an example!

For instance, I treated myself (It's my birthday) to this, and now I have to make a sheath. Another example of Artzi's good taste.

[A. G. Maisey]

Jens, Indo-Persian weaponry, and many other types of collectables are lower priced now than they were 15 and 20 years ago, and in adjusted terms very much lower priced than they were 30 and 40 years ago.

When ebay rationalised the collectables market, the prices of Indo-Persian weaponry in particular, simply fell through the floor. If you want to see "expensive", go back and have a look at the catalogues of UK dealers in exotic weaponry from the 1960's, '70's, '80's.Then factor in what wages were at that time.

Another comparison:- get a quote from a current custom knifemaker who is capable of reproducing these Indo-Persian daggers and see what he might think he can make you one for.

Measured in real terms, I was paying more in the 1950's for keris from antique dealers in Australia and the UK than keris have sold for during the last 15 years or so.

Even though world population has increased , the population of collectors of things such as daggers and swords has decreased. This is a flow on effect of education policies, museum policies, and government policies in general, as well as community attitudes. A further factor is disposable income:- if you consider the percentage of the average annual wage required to service a mortgage, and the real cost of many other factors required to maintain an acceptable standard of living, people simply do not have as much spare money as they had not all that long ago.

There are very much fewer new collectors developing than there were a few years ago. Even as recently as the mid 1980's you could go to a gun show, or an exhibition of weaponry, and there would be many children and families present.There was an active interest by the general public in the exotic. No longer is this the case. Go to a gunshow in this country (Australia) now and 99% of the people through the door are geriatics---like myself.

Yes, the prices of some collectable items may be creeping upwards a little, but they are creeping upwards from a base that was created by ebay.The current prices are nowhere near what they were before ebay and e-commerce came on the scene.

Back around 1980-90 many financial advisors were recommending to their clients that part of a well constructed portfolio of investment should contain not only real estate and blue-chip shares, but that it should also contain collectables, and one of the most highly recommended collectables was premium quality weaponry. From memory, I think they were quoting an average increase in value of something like 7% PA over a 25 year period.I do not think you will find many financial advisors telling their clients to get out there and buy Indo-Persian weaponry at the moment. But they were 20 years ago.

At the moment I can see prices of collectable edged weaponry at a lower level in real terms than at any time since I started to collect, more than 50 years ago.

[spiral]

Actualy chaps despite all the great conjectures that auctions been canceled due to a Hijacked account.

Seeing isnt believing on ebay.

Fake bidding, Hijacked Accounts, shill bidders, make it more complex.

Spiral

[A. G. Maisey]

Yep, as is the case in any auction situation.

I don't know how old you are Spiral, but if you were around in the 1970's, you would be very aware of the activities of the "ring" that operated in the UK. It was absolutely notorious. By comparison, ebay is squeaky clean.

In live auctions I have seen auctioneers pulling bids off the wall, especially when the auctioneers themselves owned the goods being auctioned.

I love live auctions, but the catalogue of dirty tricks that is part and parcel of any auction, live or electronic, is enough to dampen the enthusiasm of many people.