A museum visitor's question made me rethink how I date pottery

I volunteer at the small local history museum in Tulsa, and last month a lady asked me why we labeled a broken bowl as 'probably 1300s' when the glaze looked like something from a 1970s craft fair. At first I got defensive, but then I actually looked closer at the piece and noticed the clay had modern grog mixed in, which means it was likely a recent replica someone donated by mistake. That single question pushed me to start checking paste composition and firing marks instead of just trusting the original catalog notes. Now I cross-reference every ceramic find with the museum's old acquisition ledger, and we've already pulled 11 mislabeled items off the display shelves. Has anyone else caught a bad date just because a random visitor said something offhand? I feel like those knee-jerk reactions hide the real mistakes.

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