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A genuine antique sword. Despite the reduced condition, the quality of manufacture can still be seen.

It's a common saying that you aren't a real collector until you've unwittingly bought a fake but that provides little comfort to those that have lost perhaps thousands of pounds in bad deals. With the hope of helping to save some of my fellow collectors and researchers from making costly errors I have penned this brief article regarding the most commonly found fakes on the antiques market.

It must be said from the beginning that there is a big difference between a replica and a fake. Replicas are fantastic, fill an important need in the market and they can give people a chance to experience a sword and historical era that they might never have been able to afford otherwise (just don’t hit anything with the cheaper ones). The problem comes when sellers intentionally corrode one of these replicas in order to make them look antique and then sell them on with an increased price tag. Of course, Hanlon's Razor applies, too, and while some sellers really don't care about ethical considerations there are plenty of others whose mistakes are honest and would be mortified but eager to know they have misidentified an item for sale or study. Below are the most commonly found replicas that cause problems for buyers of antiques.

Indian Souvenir Swords

Almost as common as the real things, these swords appear daily on forums and groups, often accompanied by valuation requests. They come in a variety of forms and none of them are 'proper' swords, instead being manufactured cheaply for tourists to buy in South Asia, and, though there are different hilt-forms, they clearly come from the same prolific manufacturer as all of the blades are made with the same style and tropes. Occasionally, they are described as wedding swords - to be worn by grooms on the big day but I feel that this isn’t always accurate as they lack the richness of decoration of true wedding swords. Regardless of function, most of them have India or Made in India etched into the blades in English, Devanagari or Punjabi script. Although some can now be considered vintage they have little value when compared to their antique counterparts and £20 seems to be the market price for the UK in 2020. Three main forms can be encountered: the three-bar, the animal-head and the tulwar.

The three-bar has a thin iron guard, often bent, an iron back-strap, a black cylindrical grip and a pommel that is finished with a nut.
The animal-head has a brass handle with a pommel that is usually in the shape of a horse's or tiger’s head, topped by a brass nut. The guard is thin regardless of the number of knuckle-bows and the blade can be found in smaller sizes.
The tulwar has the same shape of disc pommel that is found on real antiques, a brass hilt, spatulate quillons and, usually, a knuckle-bow. They can also be found in smaller sizes.

The 1845 Pattern Infantry Officer’s Sword

Sadly, this sword, actually a genuine replica made by the bona fide company Universal Swords, can be found listed as an antique in some, less informed places online, with many collectors having fallen foul of it. The cartouche has a rather flat-looking VRI royal cypher (standing for Victoria Regina Imperatrix), the straight blade’s etching isn't terrible but it lacks the finesse and authenticity of genuine examples and the grip is made from leather instead of grey shagreen. The proof disc shows: PROVED above a T. and the leather washer usually omits the age that genuine counterparts eagerly accrue.

The 1796 Pattern Heavy Cavalry Sword

Due to the Richard Sharpe series of books by Bernard Cornwell, this sword-type is much desired with buyers willing to pay thousands of pounds for a good example. This value is pushed up by the fact that, being a troopers’ sword that would have been owned by the government, not many of them have survived to this day. Luckily, one of the most commonly found replicas that unscrupulous sellers artificially age is made by the company Universal Swords and this has certain differences to the real thing. It is very heavy with no nimbleness at all (having owned one I can say that it feels like a bar of lead when held in the hand whereas the real sword feels lighter and wieldable), the langets that extend over the blade are flanged and the grip is made from a rather plastic faux leather. They are also always engraved with JJ Runkel on the spine (a genuine maker of the era).

Joseph Rodgers Knives

Knives aren’t swords but collecting antiques leads you into other areas and many sword lovers drift helplessley into other facets of hoplology. Joseph Rodgers & Sons of Sheffield was one of the most celebrated cutlers of the Victorian age and its products graced the dining tables and hunting belts of aficionados worldwide. Antique Rodgers folding and Boiwe knives are highly sought after on the market today as a result and their values can be eye-wateringly substantial. The folding knife pictured here is a fairly good replica of a common Rodgers model and it catches people out as it carries many of the markings of the real ones. They are spotted as being modern, however, through the lack of high standards of manufacture expected of Joseph Rodgers. There are other subtle indicators too but I won’t list those here.

Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Daggers

Antique examples of the famous Fairbairn-Sykes dagger are highly sought after by collectors and their values can reach four figures. Sadly, there are many replicas that can be found online or at militaria fairs that are not described accurately. The example shown here is one of the ‘classics’ and it has “been fooling collectors since the 1980s”. The handle is too long, the pommel nut is too large and the guard is too thick. The etched panel on the blade’s ricasso section lacks a hyphen between the F and the S. The blades are always over 7 inches long, and some are etched on both sides while others only on one. Thank you very much to Ivan Gamsby of First Pattern Militaria and to Trev Henville for their help with this entry.

The 1907 Pattern ‘Hooked Quillon’ Bayonet

The early 1907 Pattern Bayonet to accompany the famous Short Magazine Lee Enfield Rifle had what’s known as a hooked quillon: an arcing bar that formed the bayonet’s guard and curled up to almost meet the blade. This was a feature deemed unnecessary during wartime and it was deleted for later models in order to streamline weapons manufacture.

Very few of these early models were made while millions of the later, short-quilloned bayonets were created to accompany the Lee Enfields that armed the vast British and Commonwealth armies during the World Wars. This has made the ‘hooked quillon’ 1907 Pattern much more expensive to buy today and enticing to some unscrupulous sellers that have been known to weld nails onto later 1907s or artificially age a replica to affect a fake.

The main replica of the 1907 Pattern Bayonet has large stamped numbers and letters on its ricasso that are far bigger and ‘aesthetically clumsier’ than the original inspection stamps and markings were, and it has a too ‘defined’ fuller in its blade.

The Lion’s-Head Kukri Dagger

Kukris are popular with collectors as they span several historical eras, were used in many wars, and are still in military use today, generally by elite troops.

Hailing from Nepal, there are many well-made and antique examples on the market that the collector or researcher might happen across. Possibly the most common, though, is the fabled ‘lion-headed kukri’ - and this can be found in antiques shops and auctions all over Europe, but particularly in the United Kingdom due to its strong armed forces connection with Nepal and India.

This iteration almost always has a lion’s head on the pommel (often poorly cast), dotted decorations and words (like ‘Nepal’ or ‘India’) on the blade, and silver-coloured pins in the handle. The blades are made from low-quality steel and are usually plated, possibly with chromium, this coating being thin enough that the vast majority of them show pitting, bubbling and rust (see illustrations).

The tangs are thin and are peened, with varying levels of care, through the lion’s head.

For these reasons, it is highly recommended that owners do not hit anything with these kukris as they are liable to break, possibly leading to injury. While their origin isn’t clear to me, they are almost certainly sold as souvenirs through the tourist trade and are not usable as robust tools, unlike the authentic kukri daggers that Nepalese people might choose to use themselves. Age is difficult to determine but I would hazard a guess at the 1970s as a starting decade for their production.

In closing, it is important to state that these examples are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fakes. Alongside the genuine sales of replicas, there are many artificially aged bronze swords and daggers made in China that are flooding international markets as supposed antiques and Indian makers still produce traditional swords and daggers in great quantity that can then be aged by others to add value. Disreputable dealers, including some who have produced books or decry others on their online shops, regularly sell fakes which, I must admit, makes me angry and sad. Other dealers simply don’t know the subject or care to find out. Even the presence of wootz steel is no longer an indication of veracity. Vigilance, a strong knowledge of what makes a genuine example genuine, and being friendly with several reliable experts can pay you dividends.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. (Please note: none of the sources used for this article were selling these items as fakes.)

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Spotting a Fake Antique Weapon