How do I tell if my bird stone is real?

[Maureen52]

New to this forum, so "hello" and thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

My husband & I are avid garage sale hunters. Yesterday my hubby & I were at an estate sale & saw a box of arrowheads that had already been purchased, so we knew the person was a collector. In a box of unrelated items, my husband found an arrowhead & this little funny-looking little "animal". We are not really into artifacts, but this thing piqued his interest, so he bought it. When I searched on line, I discovered that it is called a pop-eyed bird stone, but I also discovered that there are apparently a lot of reproductions out there. Any way to tell from my pictures whether this is likely to be an authentic artifact?

 

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[Hot diggity]

To me that looks like it was an awesome broken stone pipe! Your right. There are a lot of reproduction out there. Yours looks good. Does that hole (choke) go right through?

 

[willjo]

I am not sure where you are from but there should be some arrowhead shows near you and that would be a good place to see people that would know about something like that. It would be hard to tell where it is real or not. most I have seen and that is in books are made out of slate. Prehistoric America published a birdstone book and I am not sure where it is now but I don't think I saw any in that book made from that type stone. I am no expert so I would have it checked out further.

 

[kingskid1611]

First off Welcome to the forum. I don't know much but its hard to tell from the pic. I would take the suggestions and find a local expert. Even so it was a great buy. Congrats!

 

[theviking]

Interesting buy. I can't help with authenticity, but I have seen other authentic artifacts made from Porphyry type material. Google Porphyry Bird stone and you will see many, though most do look like repros. Good luck, welcome to T-net.

 

[Hot diggity]

Looks like it broke off right before the hump (the bowl). Show a pic of the broken end.

 

[Cachefind09]

It would be very hard to tell from just photos whether your birdstone is authentic or not. Porphyry birdstones are rare and to think that you bought an authentic one at a garage sale sounds too good to be true but I guess it is always possible. You could send it off to a reputable artifact authenticator or find an experienced collector in your area to look at it. Someone with years of experience would have knowledge of things to look for to determine authenticity. It's just to hard to determine authenticity without extremely high quality photos and even that might not be enough to tell whether it's real or not.

 

[Mark Todd]

I agree that it's impossible to tell from photos if it's authentic or a reproduction, at least in this case. It does not appear to be broken, at least from what I can see in the photos. Even an expert may not be able to confirm it 100% , your best and first interest in my opinion would be to go back and talk to the sellers and find out as much as possible, that would be the most likely way to establish its provenance. It's actually much more likely to be to be authentic if purchased at a yard sale for a few dollars than on eBay for hundreds or thousands. If authentic it's a beauty! Good Luck in your quest.

 

[rock]

any chance of seeing the arrowhead that was with it?

 

[Hot diggity]

Maybe I'm using too much imagination & its not a pipe or legit. Stingy angles so far. But I know more valuable items are found at garage sales every weekend somewhere in North America. Antique road show. Most of us have a better chance finding something like that garage sale hunting than looking in the woods. Garage sales are usually cheap & I wouldn't waste my time reproducing that to rip somebody off $10 or $20. He probably has a monstrous collection & his old lady's been telling him to slim down.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Looks like it broke off right before the hump (the bowl). Show a pic of the broken end.

Please Google Birdstones and study up on them. They are not and never were Pipes.

As for this one, to be found at a garage sale and for more than likely not much money my guess would be bogus. There might be a .0000000001% chance it is authentic but I highly doubt it. One of that caliber of that material would bring at least 5 figures and maybe 6.

 

[Hot diggity]

Like I said I could very well be wrong, but not all answers to the "is it real" questions should be pay an expert to authenticate it either or there is no point to asking in the 1st place. If someone just wants to sell it, then yeah get a certificate.