Caveat emptor!!!

ariel · 22nd May 2006, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ALEX

Remember, AssadUllah means "God's Lion", so ANY sword with Persian Lion stamp IS AssadUllah. It's not a person, it's a school.
I just saw a real AL blade (with old AL name stamp as a person, not a school, just like in the Fiegel catalogue) just for $4K. BUT how do you tell who put the stamp on

I have to repectfully disagree: Assad Ullah was a real person, just like Masamune in Japan, Andrea Ferrara in Italy and Geurk Elizarashvili in Georgia.
Collectors and museums pay high prices for their individual works and much lesser prices for their imitators.
A painting by "Van Gogh's contemporary" is unlikely to fetch $30 million

That is why some people collect just autographs: the hand of a famous person made it.
Any sword with a Persian Lion? Well, then a 40 yo Iranian Army sword with a Pahlavi stamp would qualify

And as for a blade with Assad Ullah's stamp going for $4K... the seller must have known what he was selling.... But, if true, the $18,000 price for one of the swords in question would be even harder to justify, isn't it?

ALEX · 23rd May 2006, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ariel

I have to repectfully disagree: Assad Ullah was a real person,
...
And as for a blade with Assad Ullah's stamp going for $4K... the seller must have known what he was selling.... But, if true, the $18,000 price for one of the swords in question would be even harder to justify, isn't it?

Ariel,

Yes, AL was a Real Person, but would a Ford car sticker indicate Henry Ford built it himself?

Once again, Al was a school, and I think many AL-name-stamps were used by his students. Just in the past month alone I saw at least 20 AL-NAME stamps, all are genuine old, authentically carved or coftgaried. Have I seen 10% of all AL-made blades already

Please look at this post:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...0275#post20275

The top stamp reads "Made by AL of Isfahan". The bottom is "Yakadia al-Hajad"/"O Fulfiller of Needs". The first, by the way, is a NEW stamp (I know the maker). And it fulled many. If it'd stamped 100 years ago, noone would know

B.I · 23rd May 2006, 11:46 AM

surely a blade is judged in value according to other factors.
a signature must be taken as right, unless other factors tell you its wrong (otherwise you are entering a never ending debate). blades with assad allah inscriptions are as common as andrea ferraras, so there is no way of telling whether all are accurate. all you can do is judge the age and the quality.
i have a fantastic sword which is 17th and made by master craftsman. it has the assad signature inlaid by a very good hand. whether its is 'real' or not is meaningless. his signature, and that of his son were copied even in the 17thC.
so, my sword is a 'good 17thC shamshir blade with an inlaid assad allah signature', and not a 'good 17thC shamshir blade made by assad allah'.
its value is comparative to a 'genuine' assad allah, as no one can prove either mine is right or the one called genuine is right. we can speculate they are of the right date and made by a master crafstman of the time.
to me that is plenty.
btw, the sword on ebay isnt 17thC and the signature is crude anyway.
as for value of either and all, that is down to the buyer. the internet and ebay has no way of judging value, as two collectors that desperately want the same piece will pay whatever to get it. 18k and much more has been paid for good blades, and i've seen the same paid for utter rubbish.
unfortunately money cant buy taste.

23rd May 2006, 11:46 AM	#3
B.I Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 485	surely a blade is judged in value according to other factors. a signature must be taken as right, unless other factors tell you its wrong (otherwise you are entering a never ending debate). blades with assad allah inscriptions are as common as andrea ferraras, so there is no way of telling whether all are accurate. all you can do is judge the age and the quality. i have a fantastic sword which is 17th and made by master craftsman. it has the assad signature inlaid by a very good hand. whether its is 'real' or not is meaningless. his signature, and that of his son were copied even in the 17thC. so, my sword is a 'good 17thC shamshir blade with an inlaid assad allah signature', and not a 'good 17thC shamshir blade made by assad allah'. its value is comparative to a 'genuine' assad allah, as no one can prove either mine is right or the one called genuine is right. we can speculate they are of the right date and made by a master crafstman of the time. to me that is plenty. btw, the sword on ebay isnt 17thC and the signature is crude anyway. as for value of either and all, that is down to the buyer. the internet and ebay has no way of judging value, as two collectors that desperately want the same piece will pay whatever to get it. 18k and much more has been paid for good blades, and i've seen the same paid for utter rubbish. unfortunately money cant buy taste.