For Sale: Eva Peron Dagger Item was appraised by Antiques Roadshow. Asking $25,000

J

jtwoods

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Not sure if my pictures uploaded or not. Will try and post this and see if they show up. This dagger was left to me in my father's estate in 2007. I have not had the dagger on the market since it has been in my possession. What i know it's provenance is that my dad was a trader and was in the knife business many years ago. He traded for the knife and he got it from a man in Miami. My dad had it in a pawn shop in Alabama and the owner of the Pawn shop took it to the Antiques Roadshow. The Antiques Roadshow appraised the dagger at between $50,000 and $100,000. I am asking $25,000 for it. It is marked 18k. It has close to 3 ozs of 18k gold in it. The blade is marked Franz Wenk. I have documents that it came from Cuba by way of a museum. According to the documentation: These articles (I only have the knife) were confiscated by the Forces of the Free Revolution in 1955.

1. Dagger of gold for a woman, emeralds and diamonds encrusted with rubies with a plaque of silver: "To Evita my Beloved Companion", "Juan" It was a gift from the President Juan D. Peron to his wife Eva Duarte Peron.

2. This item #2 I do not have but it was an antique filigree silver with mark of the maker and a plaque with the name Eva D. Peron.

I have determined that this is referred to as a Gacho Knife.

If you are interested in my item please private message me. I have many pictures hoping the three that i uploaded posted to this attachment. If not i'll try again.IMG_0089.jpg
 
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yes it's on the back of the antiques roadshow card and it is signed by the appraiser.IMG_0096.jpg
 
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Specifically, how much detail do you have in the form of original documentation (written/typed/hand-signed/letterhead) do you have and will you provide copies to interested parties of it and anything else pertinent? Unfortunately, the appraiser from Antiques Roadshow is unavailable until mid January.

Best regards,

betzner

edit: and have you personally had the gold content tested on both the handle and sheath, with documentation available?
 
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The dagger is marked 18k. I was in the gold business so i know precious metals. There is no question that it is 18karat.
 
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Thanks, I'll try a couple of inquiries for more info, though some governments (including Argentina) tend to use and abuse their confiscatory powers when approached with what they might consider to be State property. Could be touchy. The question might be, "how did this piece exit the Museo de la Revolucion?

Will let you know what I encounter or find, if anything.
 
That's part of the mystery. These documents are all that i have. My dad passed in 2007. All the pawn shop owner that my dad consigned it to could tell me was that it was bought in the late 90's in miami. My dad traded for it. The ladies business card from the museum in Cuba is attached to the letter from the seller in argentina. The company in Argentina that the letterhead is on is Ramos Oromi & Company. It made it's way from Argentina to Cuba. I do know that in the file that i have there is a notation of Juan Peron's aide Mario Antonio Rotundo or Antonio Mario Rotundo. He was the personal aide to Juan Peron. I have no idea on how to contact him. Then there is the language barrier.
 
I looked over the link you posted but he is not in the us and definately not in Alabama. Peron's aide still lives in Argentina. Nothing on the web page you posted says anything about his being in the us. I have done a little research. I had seen the page you posted before.
 
It's my belief from further inquiry that he spent years in Florida under the same name, same age, same types of companies. Still checking. May have come to US under refugee status. Nothing really to do until contact can be made with appraiser.
 
Why is there need to contact the Antiques Roadshow appraiser ? Why not get an appraisal from an 'expert' whom you might know and trust ? I put 'expert' in quotation marks to imply that there are likely very few people knowledgeable enough to give a meaningful appraisal.
kj
 
I think the other member it was his idea to want to followup with the original appraiser. Maybe he wanted to verify the authenticity of the appraisal. I guess my question would be who is the appropriate expert? This is a very rare item my question has always been where would i go to. My idea was to take it to Pawn Stars in Las Vegas let them find the expert. But that involves traveling to Las Vegas which i'm not really wanting to go all the way out there from Florida. The dagger is old. I'm open to ideas. I had an low ball offer of 5k but i'm not going to take that.
 
would be rather beneficial to also see the knife itself outside of the sheath. Also, knife collectors are somewhat different from Antiques collectors particularly when the item is not something that knife collectors might relate to in terms of the maker etc whereas someone interested in Antiques looks for different parameters.
 
I would contact someone like Cristie's auction house. I am sure they have an expert that could authenticate and place a value on it.
 
shaving sharp said:
I would contact someone like Cristie's auction house. I am sure they have an expert that could authenticate and place a value on it.
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I was going to say the same thing after reading this very interesting post and replies. Perhaps this is an item better sold through a similar auction house...even with their hefty fees, they're more likely to attract the right buyers & get the "right" price for this....though there's a time issue involved with that too, and I know if this were mine, I'd be very tempted to see if a BF member would just take it off my hands now, as you're doing here. Very Cool - best of luck!
 
Murray, to be clear, what you are saying is that to a knife collector, the knife itself is important, independent of the embellishments ? Whereas to an antique collector it is o.k. if the knife blade & handle are but a place to mount the jewels ?

I think how it got out of Argentina, what were the circumstances ?, is important to know before handing over $25,000. Does some person, institute or government have a legitimate claim to this knife ?
kj
 
IMHO, the value has little to do with the object being a knife, or for that matter being so embellished, rather moreso the value derived from historical importance, if it can be proven through solid provenance that indeed it was a gift from Juan to Evita Peron. Without perfect provenance, and considering the history - or lack thereof - of the aide, it's purported route through time, etc, I think it's a very interesting example of a gaucho knife, but one that an auction house would probably not be able to sufficiently document - though he probably ought to give it a try.
 
You can be a prec. metals trader for two lifetimes, but the only way to test gold w/100% certainty is the acid test.
 
Yes I know all about testing gold put nitric acid on the metal and if it's not gold it will turn green and if you can make a file mark just in case it's gold plated but after being in the business you pretty much can tell.
 
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