Viking Spearhead - Real?

Hi all - new poster here.

I've recently taken an interest in Viking antiquities and have acquired three items so far. Two are from a local, reputable dealer and one is from Timeline Auctions.

I wish I had done a little more research before buying anything - I didn't realise the scale of the number of fakes in the market and I also assumed that Timeline Auctions would be reputable; being a big, well established auctioneer but I am seeing lots of stories about them selling fakes.

Anyway, the object I bought from Timeline is a socketted spearhead, allegedly Viking 9th-11th century.

When it arrived, the item seemed very well preserved (a little too well preserved?) even from my very limited knowledge and I am now questioning its authenticity.

From the reading I've done, it looks like most of the fake antiquities are rings and jewellery etc, but are fake spearheads etc common? I may be worried about absolutely nothing but please let me know if this looks like an obvious fake in any way.

Here are some pictures of the item.

Thanks

 

Yeah, not an expert in antiquities (I'd love to be, but its hard to find genuine dealers!) but yes, I'd be suspicious of anything from timeline auctions since they seem to sell a lot of fakes, which is bizarre because they're well known. You'd think an auction house which consistently sold fakes would quickly go out of business but apparently not

 

We can't see the photos here and a lot of people don't click links. There are instructions on the board for doing it because it doesn't like large photos. That said, I once got a Persian arrowhead by mistake; it was a freebie. A friend got it for Christmas.

 

Whoops… I’ve now edited the original post. I’ve had to compress the image but hopefully you can still see it clearly.

 

It is not hard to post photos; you can just reply to this thread, use the upload image function; if too large; there are several graphics programs that will resize, or you can email them to yourself, selecting medium-size. When posting images, select the "full-size" option.
You'll get the hang of it.

 

I’m really absolutely no expert at all and have very little knowledge. But as the saying goes: ‘I will eat my hat” if that’s from the 9-11th century!

 

Thanks Boland.
I was given some feedback from somebody else who suggested that the item could be genuine but has been ground down to the bare metal then ‘repaired’ with further corrosion subsequently developing, which could explain the unusually good condition (sort of) and the smoothness of the edges etc. But he could be wrong!

 

I would think it had to have spent about 90% of the time in a museum between Vikings and now in order to be that undamaged.