Byron,
As you may recall back when you were a Texan, the Texas Antiquities
Committee (through its underwater archaeoligists) salvaged three Spanish
ships in Matagorda Bay.  The stuff, after a bunch of amusing legal
fights, formed the basis for a traveling exhibit produced by the
Institute of Texan Cultures.  Ultimately, the real stuff went to a Corpus
museum (Science and History, if I remember correctly) and the Institute
produced several copies of the show using repro artifacts.  The repros
were made by the marine archaeology lab at Texas A&M (after UT bowed out
of the marine archaeology biz).  My memory of the contact name fails at
the moment, but the repros were very good and included the earliest dated
astrolabe and other navigation stuff as well as gold bars, silver plates,
jewelry, spoons, and the like.  John Davis (then at ITC and now at UTSA)
made various non-metalic repros, such as a string quadrant and various
rope-splice items.  All of this, what with the passing 20 years, is a
little fuzzy, but if you need more info give me a shout and I'll see what
I can dig up.  Later.

Michaele and David Haynes