10-9-10 Hopewell Platform Pipe-Micro Pics

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Platform pipes can be hard items to authenticate. First off, there seems to be 10 reproductions for every 1 ancient relic, at best.  Secondly, like alot of items made from slate or pipestone (as is the case here), the real ones tend to have been heavily cleaned over the years by their owners which makes the examination of the smooth surfaces more difficult.  

With that being said, when a friend of mine called to tell me he had just purchased an expensive Hopewell Platform Pipe from an "old collector", I was immediately nervous for him.  He asked if he could bring it right over and have me take a look at it to make sure it was legit.  I told him to drop on in and we would take a look, but as I hung up the phone I didnt have much confidence it would turn well, and expected that within the next few hours I would have to break some bad news to a good friend, a situation I always hate, but part of the job. Todd came in couple hours later, visibly excited about his new acquisition.  He related the story of the pipe and how he came to be able to purchase it.  I listened half-hearted as I have heard about every story imaginable on artifacts that later turned out to be fake, so as I have always written, I got the story - but I wanted to make sure the relic was authentic first. I dont care how good the story is .. it cannot make a fake real.

At first glance I was impressed, the pipe looked like it had some age, much better looking than most of the fake platform pipes that are floating around all over the place.  Something about old stone relics - they have a certain look and feel about them.  Of course, most artifakers know this and go to great lengths to try to replicate that look and feel, so I am skeptical of everything until they are under the microscope where a true examination can answer if it looks old because it is old - or if it looks old because of the skill the artifaker had in aging the item.
One of the areas I always like to check on effigy type items are the eyes.  While I was looking at the manufacture of the eyes, I noticed some really nice naturally accumulated mineral deposits which are always a good sign.  Fakers have done well the past 5 years or so trying to replicate mineral deposits, but they havent quite mastered it yet, and natural accumulations can still be identified from replicated deposits.  


An inspection of more of the surface continued to show mineral deposits and a look down the edges of the platform showed the correct use-wear that is normally seen on such pipes.





Todd was excited when I shifted over to our digital computer microscope and showed him on the big computer screen all the evidence this pipe still had on its surface.  Todd smiled and let out a big sigh of relief as we moved the pipe around looking at the correct manufacture, patina, wear and deposits.  


One of the areas I really enjoyed looking at was the bowl.  The inner top edge of the bowl showed good use wear, correct weathering patterns and the drilling inside the bowl was correct. Its rare for a pipe to retain this much evidence of age, and the fact that this pipe had not been over-cleaned was an important factor in being able to determine its authenticity, and thus I figured it would be a great study piece for a blog article.  Nice pipe Todd!

Jim Bennett
10-09-10