Islamic Icons
In such a heavily researched field, collectors are hard-pressed
to find relative bargains among Japanese pieces. But serious devotees agree that
one underappreciated area—and one of the best potential investments—is Islamic
swords. "They are hugely undervalued for what they are," says Los Angeles
collector and dealer Oliver Pinchot. "We all thought 9/11 would bring the
Islamic market crashing down around our ears. But it didn’t. It sent it through
the roof." Pinchot describes the best of these blades as wonderfully sinuous and
curved and ornamented with gems and gold. They can often be found inscribed
with prayers for the success of the owner or the name of a ruler at the time
they were forged. But unlike European blades, Islamic swords were not mass
produced, so collectors cannot date them by arsenal marks or from ordnance
records.
Islamic blades are famed for their Damascus steel. This
revolutionary sword-making process was first developed 10 centuries ago and
struck fear into the European knights during the Crusades. It was said that
Damask blades with their distinct "watering" patterns could shred lesser blades
like ribbons. Beautiful crescent-shaped shamshir from 18th-century India or
Turkish kilijes are wonderfully elaborate, yet woefully underappreciated.
They start at roughly $2,000.
Yet would-be collectors should beware of deals that seem too
good to be true. The sword market, particularly on eBay, is awash with fakes,
and a bogus manufacturing business continues to thrive. "It’s so easy to do,"
Withers says. "They’ll stick the sword in the ground, leave it there for six
months, smear it with horse dung, and then stick it on eBay and say it’s a
medieval sword."
Spotting an authentic sword from a replica can be almost
impossible, even for professionals. "Everyone from dealers to experts has had
his fingers burned at least once," Withers says. "A lot of fake rapiers were
made in the 19th century just for house decoration. Telling them from the real
thing can be very difficult." He counsels novices to build a relationship with a
dealer whom they trust, so that they stand a chance of receiving a refund if an
acquisition turns out to be a fake. Most collectors spend years gaining the
confidence to buy a sword without professional guidance.
But perhaps the best advice is to try to follow the example of
those whose investment in a sword was literally a life-or-death proposition,
according to Pinchot. "Pick it up, feel its form, feel how it sits in your hand.
Does it feel good to hold? And then try to imagine if you—like the previous
owner—would ride out and stake your life on it."
Photographs by Sotheby’s Hong Kong. Jonathan Green is a freelance writer based in New
York.
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