Collection donated to local museum

[Older The Better]

I recently helped a local museum with a collection of points. They were all donated by a single guy and I thought it may be worth sharing. There are lots of red flags that you t-netters will probably catch quick. I thought it may be a good spot to share some knowledge on identifying authentic points and what to look for and maybe you guys will catch things I missed. So have at it

 

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[uniface]

Quite a lot of stuff there. The eagle, the "dovetails" and the eccentrics (jaggedy-looking serrated ones) &c. are bogus. Most of the others are OK though. Just needs a good housecleaning.

 

[Relicgrubber]

Cool... I wounder if those exotics are Mack T's?

 

[Tdog]

Quite a lot of stuff there. The eagle, the "dovetails" and the eccentrics (jaggedy-looking serrated ones) &c. are bogus. Most of the others are OK though. Just needs a good housecleaning.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

Some collection, I'm envious...!
You show care and respect in the displays...professional-looking!
The Skill in the Flint-knapping is quite apparent in most,
and the Erratics are bizarre...!

 

[Garscale]

Other than the obvious moderns. ..that legit point labeled Scott's bluff dang sure isn't a Scotty.

 

[newnan man]

Some fakes for sure but most look ok.

 

[Tdog]

Other than the obvious moderns. ..that legit point labeled Scott's bluff dang sure isn't a Scotty.

I'm glad I'm not the one to point that out. Thank you!

 

[monsterrack]

The problem with this collection is that with all the fakes it throws doubt on everything. The first eccentric look to be a Mr.T style, the large blade with the hand for size I have my doubts about it due to the fake looking patina. I would like to get a good look at that club but I have my doubts about it due to the wrapping being in such good shape. Like it was said the Dovetails are reproduction even the large one.. I hate to say it but somebody got taken, if you notice the black looking patina is the same on a lot of the crazy items, looks like it came from the same fakerJMO

 

[Garscale]

The large leaf blade is made on a caddo design. Not sure how much caddo was where the rest came from. If it was in a Texas or Arkansas collection I would think it was good.

Now that eagle.... Man that's gotta be the real deal right there. Gotta be. Surely there were some flint fishhooks with it.

 

[Older The Better]

I think you guys got most of the the red flags, all the dove tails, the mix of good and modern, the Scotty I suspect is woodland, the club being in too good of shape, and the giant blade seems to have the same artificial treatment as the exotics, and the eagle is highly questionable although some stick to their guns on that point.
I can’t say what he did or didn’t pay for them or wether he was taken or maybe he just didn’t care about mixing his collection.

One thing that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is the extra large Cahokia looking point surrounded by the 4 ones that could be legitimate. I may be wrong but I don’t think they ever made that style that big.

Like some have said, the red flags raise doubt about even the ones that look good, I couldn’t post pics of every point from multiple angles but some show copper marks on the edges and some seem exceptionally clean for an artifact buried for a thousand years.

 

[Older The Better]

Two axes one is clearly just a rock


A dart point form but just a stone



Florence chert which is right for the area but it’s usually heat treated and it seems to have the exact stuff that is on the eccentrics.


This was odd to have a hafted scraper that size? I can’t imagine it’s heavy enough for a blunt point.

Then there’s some western style stuff



And even questionable scrimshaw

 

[Garscale]

I like the scrimshaw. Not likely very old but nice art.

 

[gunsil]

So many small local museums have fakes on display or items that were not worked by man displayed as NA artifacts. This then makes unknowing folks think what they have are real too, such a shame. I'd like to see the base of that "whale tooth", my bet is it is polymer, and if you've ever seen real antique scrimshaw you'd think the "art" on the posted one was crummy. Tons of fake whale teeth with scrimshaw has been turned out by places in the far east and permeate antique shows and flea markets.

 

[Older The Better]

So many small local museums have fakes on display or items that were not worked by man displayed as NA artifacts. This then makes unknowing folks think what they have are real too, such a shame. I'd like to see the base of that "whale tooth", my bet is it is polymer, and if you've ever seen real antique scrimshaw you'd think the "art" on the posted one was crummy. Tons of fake whale teeth with scrimshaw has been turned out by places in the far east and permeate antique shows and flea markets.

That’s what me and another guy are working with them on. We’ve told them to be clear what are fake and which are real so they can be represented correctly. The labels are from the guy that donated them and need to be checked or just removed. Unfortunately there is a board and some of the other members went ahead and displayed them before we could get them sorted out. I think you are right about the tooth it just doesn’t have the right patina, it’s a bit clean and a bit plastic looking

 

[Garscale]

So many small local museums have fakes on display or items that were not worked by man displayed as NA artifacts. This then makes unknowing folks think what they have are real too, such a shame. I'd like to see the base of that "whale tooth", my bet is it is polymer, and if you've ever seen real antique scrimshaw you'd think the "art" on the posted one was crummy. Tons of fake whale teeth with scrimshaw has been turned out by places in the far east and permeate antique shows and flea markets.

You notice I said the scrimshaw is not likely very old. I did not think it ancient. I disfigured the tooth legit but that's just a guess from one pic.

 

[gilmerman]

You're a better man than me, my relics will be on my wall and displayed in their frames until I die. My grandson is interested in them more each time we catalog a few, he doesn't realize how historic they are. He enjoys placing a dot on map where they were found. However at 10 years of age he has no concept of historical time. A hundred, a thousand, 30,000 means dinosaurs were alive. Ancient time was when we only had black and white tv. We enjoy being in my den, the Indiana Jones, room together.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

The problem with this collection is that with all the fakes it throws doubt on everything. The first eccentric look to be a Mr.T style, the large blade with the hand for size I have my doubts about it due to the fake looking patina. I would like to get a good look at that club but I have my doubts about it due to the wrapping being in such good shape. Like it was said the Dovetails are reproduction even the large one.. I hate to say it but somebody got taken, if you notice the black looking patina is the same on a lot of the crazy items, looks like it came from the same fakerJMO

My thoughts as well. It taints the rest of the pieces to leave those in there.

 

[scotto]

LOTS of fake patina over quite a few of those "artifacts."

Some are legit and quite nice, but yeah, it throws the whole lot into being suspect.