It is a bummer that when all those resources were pulled together that a better film couldn't have been made. The Disney animated film "Pocahontas", though as flawed as "The New World" historically, was at least entertaining and popular to movie goers. It's popularity garnered interest in Jamestown and there was a period where there was increased attendance at museums and it provided opportunities for teachers to discuss the inaccuracies with their students thus improving their awareness of what really happened. The warning signals for "New World" became apparent to me when their set dresser came to our shop to look over pottery, pewter, and other stuff and when he looked at the repro pottery he said "Oh, it's too shiny, 17th c. pottery wouldn't be that shiny." I showed him original pieces of 17th c. pottery that were shiny, then he dismissively said it wasn't appropriate to the "vision" of the film. Said the same thing about pewter which he later got from us through Period Designs. He acid bathed them to make them look 400 years old. He did buy a bunch of pottery that had not fired correctly and the glazed was all flat and nasty. I almost didn't sell it to him but figured he'd end up buying Pottery Factory stuff, which would have been worse. The set dresser then asked me where to buy sea shells. I told him to go to Virginia Beach to the oceanfront and go to any shop that advertised saltwater taffy. I said there were more shops like that down there than he could shake a stick at. I then noticed him writing down "Shake a Stick At" and he asked where that was. I knew then it was going to be grim. We supplied over 47 different types of items to "Master and Commander". Working with them was a dream. They wanted things right. They listened when they were told something they wanted was not correct to the period, and their whole way of working with us was very professional. You have to work hard to pick apart the material culture in that film. Regards, Tom A. http://www.tuckahoetradingco.com/ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html