What would you do?

Triton

Triton

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2000
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Most of us have this recurring fantasy of walking into some old hole in the wall
antique store/flea market and finding that genuine koto era katana / Oakeshott type
XI hidden in a bucket of old pool cues and making off with it for 20 dollars.

The question I have, is what would you do with it if you did? Would you keep it?
Would you donate it to a museum? Would you sell it? Why?

Personally I would sell it in a heartbeat, and by an armory of other swords...
 
Triton,

It is rare but it does happen.

Two years ago a Florida man walks into a local antique store and buys a small wooden door. He doesn't know what it is, but it looks old, and for $35.00 he figures he can't go wrong. As luck would have it the item is old and is eventually carbon dated to biblical times. Turns out it was part of an ancient Arc use to store religious documents about 3,000 years ago. Last I heard there were several museams after the item and the bidding was in excess of $US 250,000.00

I haven't found one of these yet, but if I did I would probably keep it.

 
Really? You would keep that thing it is only a door after all? That thing would go to Sotheby's so fast it would make your head spin if I got it. Next thing you know I would by buying everything that Arms and Armor stocks!
 
I think that we all would view a historic sword with some more respect than the "door", I would be torn with giving the door back, but I think that the money involved would convince me to sell it though, maybe get into a valuable antique sword collection

[This message has been edited by Zeke66 (edited 08-16-2000).]
 
I'm surprized to hear nobody of you good guys say "Hey, too expensive I'll pay just $10 for it" thing. Not a bad world we're living in!

------------------
Did you enjoy today?
\(^o^)/ Mizutani Satoshi \(^o^)/
 
Triton, it happens more than you think.

If I feel the sword is "me" that it's perfect for me, I will keep it as long as I can.
 
I have had something rather similar happen to me at a pawn shop in Las Vegas ( I was stationed there before here). The owner had a WWII officers Katana hanging on the wall. He was asking $40 for it and I went ahead and grabbed it. I took the blade to the Japanese cultural center and asked if they could appraise the blade. The blade turned out to be much older and had been rehandled. They said that the blade was unsigned and showed me how to identify a true hamon line. Ok so its not an Oakshot or William Wallaces actual Claymore, but it was still a good find. If I ran across something like that I think I would have to sell it depending on the price. I would love to use the money to expand my armory.

The most important weapon is the open mind

------------------
SSgt Christopher Wardlow
USAF Security Forces
425th ABS Izmir Turkey
 
Depends on the sword I find.

I'd probably sell it to a museum or a GOOD collector if it were not Japanese

and if it WERE Japanese, I would still likely have it polished and sell it, unless it were from a big name smith, and it had everything I wanted. So most likely, I'd sell it.

However if my financial situation was on the opposite end of the spectrum, I would not be compelled to sell so badly.

Shinryû.
 
Hey Robert,

I agree with you about the need to sell a genuine artifact to a responsible collector/museum so it will be preserved for posterity. Oddly even if I was ridiculously rich I would still not own an antique. There is way to much responsibility there for me. What if someone broke into my house and made off with an irreplaceable antique? What if the house caught fire? Besides, I like my swords to be usable even if I never use them at all. An antique even if it is functionally usable is completely unusable for intrinsic reasons of value and history. Do you know how horrible I would feel if I bent a Koto era katana during cutting practice? Or worse yet broke it because of a bad cut?
 
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