Harvey Withers / Anglian Swords on eBay at it again

Self-professed expert and author of regurgitated nonsense Harvey Withers of Anglian Swords proves he and eBay sell nothing but fake tack. Expert Harvey can not even distinguish between a naval (kai gunto) and an army (shin gunto) sword now!!!!! Ha, ha, ha. But best yet, this shin gunto looks decidedly hookey; the tang, the fittings, the bindings. Less Tokyo and more Shenzhen Harvey! More duff swords being sold to idiot punters by knock off Harvey!

Harvey Withers can not tell a repro from a real sword??

Harvey Withers is at it again. Having been told a sword he was selling was a repro by a number of real experts (which Harvey is not), Harvey went ahead and sold the fake sword anyway! This time he was caught selling a reproduction WW2 Japanese NCO's shin gunto katana red handed. Mr. Withers was duly advised of the fact it was a cheap Pakistani made copy, yet he decided to go ahead and sell it to some poor idiot anyway.

Here is that nasty, ugly, fake NCO katana on his web site, duly marked as "sold". Just ask any WW2 militaria expert; what Harvey sold was a 1990's repro. Notice the sarute loop; wrong, wrong, wrong. Notice the painted fuchi; wrong, wrong, wrong. Notice the position of the bohi / fuller / groove; wrong, wrong, wrong. Nasty repro. Nasty Harvey Withers. I say Harvey Withers belongs in jail, that he is selling these things knowingly and deliberately.








OK, OK, anyone can make a mistake, even a self-alleged expert like Harvey Withers. So my offer to him is as always, Harvey; 1) Allow other collectors to point out and debate any alleged repros / misdescribed items you are selling, 2) Contact all the various people (such the person who bought the above katana) you have mis-sold to and give them an unreserved apology and unconditional refund (including shipping costs), and I will let the world know that you have done these things on this blog (and hopefully never have cause to report your antics ever again). Come on Harvey, step up, refund those who got less then they paid for and I will gladly report you have been honorable over this.

Harvey Withers, SWORD FRAUD, CON "MAN" or IDIOT?

Harvey Withers, the self-sold, self-professed expert on antique swords has been at it again, and we have caught him red handed!

Oh look, here is a screen grab of Harvey Wither's "British Military Swords", on which he sells krap, masquerading it as authentic or something it is not.

Here is a screen grab of a sword Harvey sold to some poor Australian schlep as a British Napoleonic Cavalry Sword. OK, first, if it were a cavalry edged weapon, with that curvature of blade it would be a sabre, not a sword Harvey, you dim whit; some expert. Second, hmmm, I can not seem to find that pattern of cavalry sword / sabre in any reference book Mr. Withers, although it does strongly resemble an infantry sabre of that period! Oh, and the fact it only has a 28 inch blade might, well, make it totally useless as a cavalry sabre, wouldn't you say??!! That's right, Harvey Withers the sword expert and sword reference book author (don't believe a word, he just copied material from other people) has got it very, very wrong.


But, what makes this really bad is a) Harvey was informed of his mistake before he sold this krap, and b) then refused to refund the buyer! Mr. Withers seems to exhibit all the traits of a dope addict rather than a respectable edged weapon militaria dealer and expert, wouldn't you say?

Harvey Withers sought by US Police

Is this the British sword "expert" and suspected reproduction edged weapon salesman Harvey Withers, wanted by the Florida Saint Cloud Police Department (see police wanted poster here)? The mug shot certainly bears a passing resemblance to Harvey Wither's own published photo (unfortunately copyrighted) but can be seen here (on his antique swords online dot con site), and there is concrete evidence Harvey has changed his appearance recently and now dyes his hair black. Editor's Notes: On the back of British Military Swords Book, Harvey looks well, sorry Mr. Withers, but like an aging, balding, alcohol induced red faced pumpkin! Now HW on his new Antique Swords Online site looks a much younger pumpkin with more hair and foundation cream!

Is Harvey Withers on the run from all those dodgy / repro swords it is alleged by more than 1 person he has sold around the world? Harvey's latest victim is in New Zealand. Dodgy swords, dodgy hair colouring, dodgy doggy Withers? See my previous blogs / advisories about Harvey here: Anglian Swords eBay Fraud and Harvey J S Withers - PLENTY of evidence against HW.

Harvey, please contact the Saint Cloud Police Department and give yourself up, or change your appearance again double pronto. In fact, change your appearance anyway as pumpkins have feelings too. Please also stop selling dodgy, weird and repro swords.

Disclaimer
Inmate 442700 is Harvey Withers, but it may not be British sword salesman Harvey Withers of 128 Penns Lane, Sutton Coldfield, B72 1BP, tel 0121 384 6174. In which case we would like to offer our sincerest apologies to Inmate 442700.

Update
The well established and widely respected New Zealander Harvey Withers tooled has published what happened on eBay!!!! Unfortunately eBay will likely remove this poor kiwi's (phillip_in_new_zealand's) public warning but I have taken the liberty of preserving it below :-)

Here is the text of Phillip in New Zealand's warning;

This listing is for PHOTOGRAPHS of a sword that I purchased from and promptly RETURNED (in disgust) TO the seller Harvey JS Withers also known as "Anglian Swords" and who trades under "Jupiter Enterprises"

This listing is for IMAGES of the horrendous DAMAGE that this sword had received WITHOUT being so-described by the CHARLATAN who sold it to me

That person has the EFFRONTERY to state on his home page the following..........

"I have endeavoured to provide clear and accurate photographs of all the items for sale and pride myself in answering customer queries quickly and honestly.

" I have been a dealer in antique edged weapons for many years and understand the importance of establishing longstanding relationships with my customers."

In my personal experience ? NOTHING could be FURTHER from the truth !!

Here is where the first lie is exposed.......

Hi Harvey, that's a nice looking sword, but what is that line I can see across the blade, it's not a crack is it ? I see the sword is also a Wilkinson make, so does it have a serial number ?

Response "No the line is just the light reflecting off the blade, there is no damage and the only serial # is a 13 which will be a military contract number"

..........SO SAID "Mr." Harvey Withers of "Anglian Swords"

BECAUSE I had been dealing with "Mr." withers for approx 5 years, and had bought MANY swords from him, as well as several of his coffee-table self-advertsing books, I BELIEVED him = A BIG MISTAKE !!!

FOOLISHLY I accepted his PROFESSIONAL OPINION that "there was NO DAMAGE", and that "There was NO serial number"

So I immediately PAID FOR the sword that you see the PHOTOGRAPHS OF

TRY to imagine my HORROR when after paying to COURIER this sword around 1/2 the PLANET and anxiously opening my new acquisition ??

Only to examine it to find FIRST a disgusting layer of CHROME PLATING................... that "Mr." Withers had entirely FORGOTTEN to mention.

The REASON this sword had been chrome plated ????

Was an amateurish ATTEMPT to HIDE the fact that it's BLADE had been completely SNAPPED IN TWO !

Can a sword collector imagine any type of "damage" that could be WORSE than being broken in two ??

I cannot !! ......How about YOU Harvey Withers ?? .......my faith in your judgment sure has WITHERED :-(

Then to my great surprise when examining the ricasso of the sword I noted that there WAS a serial number,

How STRANGE that after all the swords that "Mr." Withers has handled, purchased, pictured, & sold and given the fact that Wilkinson do serial number their fine products

Harvey the self-proclaimed sword EXPERT claimed he had entirely MISSED the serial number !! (Yeah RIGHT Harvey !)

So I wondered just HOW and WHY would he have "overlooked" this specifically requested detail ???

The REASON became CLEAR when I checked what sword the serial number belonged to.......IT WAS NOT the number of any Scottish Broadsword blade that Wilkinson had made.

The serial number 71239 **Sword no. 71239 was recorded as a cavalry sword made in 1953 and sold in the trade. ** and certainly DID NOT belong on a FATALLY FLAWED Scottish Sergeant's Sword

Being entirely DISGUSTED at the GROSSLY INACCURATE description provided by "Mr." Harvey Withers

I was absolutely HORRIFIED by what I had been induced to ship at great cost half way around the planet.

I truly expected that I was DUE an APOLOGY from this self-professed EXPERT

Harvey claimed that "He was only human and sometimes he made mistakes" !!!!

Well this fell a little short of the APOLOGY that I feel he OWES ME whether I was ONLY as a "first time VICTIM" or as a long-time loyal & multi-repeat customer that I once was

I specifically inquired just HOW MUCH were **HIS MISTAKES** likely to COST ME ?

Harvey offered to refund my purchase price ONLY despite being ADVISED that UK Distance-selling laws REQUIRED him to also refund my postage expenses

(Five WEEKS LATER he still HAS NOT REFUNDED my payment !!) AND he expected ME to cover the expense of shipping his grossly misdescribed sword back to him and for ME to cover all shipping costs both ways

TO DATE = many weeks after the sword was returned (and was SIGNED FOR by MS Withers) I have YET to receive a penny in refund

I strongly feel that Harvey Withers was DECEITFUL in his initial description, and was subsequently DISHONEST in his 2nd (personally requested) description-report,

AND that his subsequent conduct was HIGHLY UNETHICAL, UNPROFESSIONAL, and totally UNACCEPTABLE

I would be most interested TO HEAR FROM any other agreived E-bay members to learn if I am alone in my VERY UNHAPPY experience with this sword-dealing CHARLATAN

IF ONLY I had Googled "Harvey Withers" OR "Anglian Swords" BEFORE ??? Then I might have had some WARNING of the very dodgy character of this sleazy snake-oil salesman

SHOULD you choose to DO SO ? You will soon learn that I have NOT been ALONE in being UTTERLY RIPPED-OFF by this conscienceless individual

I was truly astounded that a man who makes such a *song and dance* about his own "expertise", and who has published SO MANY coffee table books ??

Could POSSIBLY have MISSED these EXACT FLAWS ?? That I had SPECIFICALLY INQUIRED about ??

And that was only minutes before making my ill-fated purchase from Harvey Withers the self-alleged "Sword Expert"

I immediately contacted "Mr." Withers and advised him that the sword was entirely unsatisfactory, that the blade had been snapped in two and that it DID HAVE a serial number

........Harvey Withers continued to INSIST the serial number was not there ??

Well HERE IT IS AGAIN Harvey......... to refresh your somewhat SELECTIVE memory :-(

Harvey Withers (Anglian / British Military Swords)

Harvey Withers, nothing but an obsessive, nasty, cheating sword salesman? Author of "British Military Swords" with his own web site by the same name and on eBay as "Anglian Swords", selling edged weapons from around the world, Harvey J. S. Withers clearly needs to make a buck from swords, which is not a bad thing, but I believe this puts his status of expert in question. Other sword experts and published sword reference book authors such as Robert Wilkinson-Latham and Michel Petard for example, do not sell swords. I believe there is a conflict of interest in Harvey Withers being on the one hand a self-professed sword reference book author, and on the other hand actually selling swords. What makes matters worse is I was ripped off by Harvey Withers (early on in my collecting) plus I have caught Mr. British Military Swords selling reproductions as genuine on eBay; even when I submitted the facts to him, he just let his auctions continue anyway. Withers is, in my sword book, a fraud and a cheat.

Update: Harvey Withers gets it wrong, and wrong, again! 
Wrong again Harvey!
And Again!
And Again!
And Again!

Honest seller? Expert?

Harvey complains about this blog; he now has his own complaint blog! The thing is, I substantiate my gripes with you Mr. Withers. And, I have given you every chance to resolve the issues of your getting sword identifications wrong and selling somewhat dogdy swords at times. Rather than moan and groan and claim I am publishing defamations (falsehoods) about you, put things right. If you want, choose a neutral public / transparent forum and we can discuss the issues!

I actually bought several swords from Harvey Withers when I first started acquiring my collection in 2004; in retrospect this was a bad move. Not only do I feel I got bad value generally, based on paying more for swords coming from someone with such perceived standing (when I sold them on, they sold for a lot less), but I also believe I was cheated by Mr. Withers. You see, amongst the swords I bought from him was an 1828 Pattern Basket hilted Scottish highland officer's broadsword. I did not have the knowledge at the time I received this sword, but 3 years later when I came to sell it on (because I had a better replacement), I noticed the proof slug had been gouged with a screwdriver. When I confronted Harvey with this fact, he never denied it but did not justify it nor offer any appeasement / apology.

Why would this sword have it's copper proof slug gouged and more importantly, why didn't Harvey Withers disclose this? One of the most likely reasons, given the sword in question was not maker marked, was that a well known reproduction of the time gave itself away with a proof slug containing the letter "P" crucially followed by a period / full stop; like this "P.". It seems genuine swords were made with a "P" proof mark letter but only later Indian made reproductions were marked "P." These Indian made repros were exceptionally convincing, but they are not authentic Scottish basket hilts of course. So if you were to sell a reproduction highland broadsword as genuine, what you would need to do to is remove the "P." evidence! Hmmmmmm.

Harvey Withers still claims this sword is genuine but does not address the gouged proof slug or why he did not disclose it, although he clearly remembers the fact. Whether this is a genuine 1828 P or not, you can not escape from the facts that when I sold it on, I disclosed the gouged proof slug, when Mr. Withers sold this sword to me, he did not. Given there are no maker marks on this sword, given the event of reproduction swords, any sword expert will tell you the proof slug against this backcloth suddenly becomes very important indeed. Harvey knew of the repros as he published this in his book "British Military Swords, 1786 - 1912 the regulation patterns", yet he sold this sword in the above condition to a then naive collector. At the very least, the non-disclosure aspect was not a very nice thing to do, was it? But there is more that draws H. J. S. Withers "good" name into question.

What prompted me a few years on into raising the issue of the above basket hilt with Mr. Withers was another sword he was selling on eBay, a Model 1840 US Cavalry Sword stamped simply "GA" to shoe drag of the scabbard and ricasso of the blade. Harvey described this sword as an American Civil War sword, but I don't believe it likely is / was; I think it more likely is a repro. You see, I wondered how this sword was in such good condition (given all the others I had seen) and had so few markings. Although the M 1840 was imported in many cases, these normally would have maker and inspector marks on them; critically on the pommel. Harvey's sword had none of these and yet he was selling the sword, which likely had never been in the USA, as an American Civil War sword. Harvey Withers was quick to apply his vast knowledge to his defense saying that indeed a number of imported swords did not have many or in some cases any markings, but still, these were in the minority it seems and does not bode well when you consider Harvey's sword was in the UK and looked, well, quite new. At the very least you would expect Harvey Withers to concede the sword could be a repro, but Harvey would not do that, oh no. Instead he started hurling insults my way including accusing me of being a weirdo; shame he does not look at his own photo on his own book I say!

Since that time Harvey Withers has listed a number of items on eBay as authentic which I am certain were reproductions, such as a "Russian Shaska" he once tried to sell. In the case of the shaska it had western not Cyrillic letters and badly marked to the sword, plus one too many hanging rings; a well known flaw with most repros. I admit we all can get caught out but when you, or Harvey in this case, are presented with the facts by reference to respected books on the subject, if you have any decency you bite the bullet and remove the item from sale right? Not Harvey Withers though, oh no; he kept on selling a reproduction as authentic even after the facts were put to him.

Even if Harvey Withers sells a genuine authentic sword 100% accurately and fully described, it seems he gets more for it as "an expert" than other sellers might, and yet this perceived extra value of buying from British Military Swords is I say unjustified, and even risky. I bought from Harvey because I thought I would be getting something better, instead I got something worse, even fraudulent. Maybe Harvey Withers is right, maybe the 1828 P he sold me is genuine, but it does not change the fact he did not disclose the gouged proof slug to me nor explain why it was gouged in the first place, huh Mr. Withers?!

Harvey now emails me with threats and insults, claiming I have libeled him yet not explaining how (libel = written falsehoods without public value), plus calling me a sad little man with mental health problems. Perhaps therefore you would be intrigued to know that Harvey has researched my past life and even my future plans to buy houses in various countries. I do not give a toss where Harvey lives, wants to live and what his past is yet I am the one with mental health problems and somehow little? So, if I am so little Harvey, why do such a thorough job of researching me? I say it is you with the screw loose and a stature problem pal!

Harvey keeps on threatening legal action for my words yet I receive nothing from his apparently imaginary lawyer. His threats are strange though as all Harvey Withers has to do is apologize for selling me a fake at worse, a damaged and highly devalued sword at best (recompensing me what I subsequently lost on that sword would also be nice), plus stop selling repro swords as authentic; surely, not too much to ask is it Mr. Withers?