Benets Antiquities new book

by hopenscope Fri Dec 11, 2015 5:58 pm

I was lucky enough to get this for my recent birthday (not telling) and with 800 plus pages it looks from the outside to be a 'winner'. However when you get into it you see a lot of the same artefacts repeated with very little variation. Items vary in size from as little as 2mm and this can make for repetitive reading. There are pages of seals and horse pendants...as we know they are all unique so the values are neither here nor there. In my opinion there should be just two grades, and two common sizes of each piece. That is all the average searcher will need and then maybe some other more unusual items could be featured. Though the chance of turning up something similar would be remarkably slim!
There is a massive section of bronze roman figures and Viking artefacts too...and without seeing them in my hand, with a tight provenance I would be very dubious in parting with my money for such pieces. You only have to look on Ebay to see fakes of the highest standard from eastern Europe with the most authentic looking patinas... But as with everything, buyer beware is good advice!