SA Birdshead Dagger

**operaman** · 02-15-2012, 11:11 PM

Hey guys go over to Craig Gottliebs site and take a look at this dagger,he calls it a SA Birdshead and I have never seen or heard of such a thing.By the way it is listed for 70 grand!!!!!!!! comments from the experts will be interesting.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 02-15-2012 11:11 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Adrian Stevenson** · 02-15-2012, 11:13 PM

I would not touch this with a bargepole.

For me and most other serious dagger collectors, it is a fantasy item. Regardless of how he says he got it.....

Cheers, Ade,

**Adrian** · 02-15-2012, 11:22 PM

Oooooo! The Infamous Birdshead Dagger! I've spent hours reading about that one, all the pros, con and arguments about it. As Ade says, leave it and any other like it well alone.
If memory serves me correctly it has been proven to be a post war creation yet the seller still has it for sale at the extrodinary price you mention.
The old saying 'buy the item, not the story' is made for items like this.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 02-15-2012, 11:25 PM

I know Adrian. If I were him, I would swallow my pride and take the hit on it. People would respect that. Leaving it up gives a very bad message. It just says money.......

Cheers, Ade.

**Adrian** · 02-15-2012, 11:31 PM

Unfortunately some people are not that way inclined Ade. Money clouds good sense and judgement in cases like this and can make them blind to the truth.

**operaman** · 02-15-2012, 11:48 PM

I a pretty sure that Fraud means the same in the US as it does in the UK.Some poor guy might shell out that much for a one of a kind.

**85ronnies** · 02-15-2012, 11:55 PM

You can buy my one for £1.000 if you want

**Adrian** · 02-15-2012, 11:56 PM

A fool and his money are easily parted. If someone is willing to lay down that amount of cash on an item and not do his research before hand then he/she can't really complain when the truth finally dawns on them.
I'm talking research on the seller as well as the item no matter who they are or what it is.

**BOB COLEMAN** · 02-16-2012, 12:34 AM

These were a creation of Jim Atwood. The first one showed up in a dealer's store in Chicago a few weeks before Atwood's dagger book came out. The owner gave me the "old lady brought it in" story. When the book came out, there was the same dagger! As we all know, the book was salted with many of Jim Atwood's fantasy and parts daggers. A collector/dealer that I know very well related to me how he helped assemble these daggers in Atwood's house. A respected collector that I know relates how he got one in a motel buy. However, although I do not doubt his word, it would be easy to pay an older gentleman to walk it in. There are no known period photographs of this piece in wear. Further, for such an important piece, no written period documentation exists regarding these daggers.

**Wagriff** · 02-16-2012, 12:50 AM

Jim Atwood always did love self-promotion. It's a shame, as he really did have some very fine pieces in his book, but he had to ruin it with all the bogus nonsense as well. I don't know what is with Gottleib. He's been doing and saying some very odd things of late. Maybe he's not feeling well? As for this "dagger"-it's got to be as they said-just an unwillingness to admit he got burned and skinned out of 70K, but for him to continue to sell such a thing, he certainly does himself and his reputation a huge dis-service. I have never seen a legitimate dagger like this either and am fully with Ade here-I wouldn't touch one with a bargepole either. 70 grand? I'd rather pick up a Corvette...