Jump to content

Rivkin

Members
  • Posts

    1,519
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    10

Rivkin last won the day on July 19 2022

Rivkin had the most liked content!

8 Followers

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location:
    USA

Profile Fields

  • Name
    Kirill R.

Recent Profile Visitors

4,137 profile views

Rivkin's Achievements

Mentor

Mentor (12/14)

  • Posting Machine Rare
  • Collaborator
  • First Post
  • Reacting Well
  • Conversation Starter

Recent Badges

1.5k

Reputation

  1. I admit to being old fashioned and more so, old and white, when it comes to my tastes. I don't care that much for who is nth generation polisher or who got promoted into some position. First reflects birth, second reflects loyalty. Even prizes have their limits - there are authors like Remarque or Tolstoy. And there are Pulitzer prize winners. Expert should earn the title. By predicting things or offering valid, well known, published arguments. In my book: I strongly value Brian Czernega as a general kantei expert as well as that on certain materials and techniques. Markus Sesko is the best when it comes to studies of old Japanese texts. Dmitry Pechalov is very good when it comes to researching certain genealogies and a relationship between the swords and the collecting community.
  2. I would find some polisher ready to confine/remove red rust for not a lot of money. This is not a blade which will pay off to repolish, but a shallow red rust can be helped (usually).
  3. It seems to be in ok polish and the spots can be addressed by a polisher individually. Jigane is nice and looks like shinshinto work.
  4. Every forum I've been to unfortunately has the same pattern - me being almost the solo voice who has some idea what the items presented are and a dozen or so people who daily post that its impossible to understand anything unless its presented to "experts". Such is life.
  5. I don't see here papers clearly stating its Nambokucho Masahiro. Maybe they are, maybe they are not. Its (highly) unusual for mumei attributions NBTHK mentioning exact era, especially Meitoku (short one) in Nanbokucho. One can get more general attribution to Nanbokucho though. On the other hand, dealers often write Meitoku to indicate the item is still Nanbokucho. Default attribution Masahiro is certainly Muromachi generations. Nanbokucho work is actually quite rare.
  6. They seem to be most fairly late and more expensive pieces are probably Meiji, some executed in accordance to better known motifs, but the hand is different from the originals. Some signed ones are a bit eff... Seems to be one person's taste clearly governing the collection. Very nice and very representative of Meiji style.
  7. Think kasane, work consistent... However its quite possibly Muromachi generation. First generation has very fine and prominent masame, nice jigane.
  8. Yes, late Muromachi does come to mind.
  9. After the war started for a while there were absolutely no direct flights from most EU countries and I had to receive and ship probably a dozen packages for various collectors. Most countries had to use a connect flight through Dubai or something of the sort, sometimes with a stop in Thailand or alike. If one has to fly over Emirates or Thailand one might as well stop on the way, the economics of fly through all the way till Tokyo makes sense only for a very major route... Even today I suspect unless you are using one of the largest European airports there are no direct flights and shipping anything interesting has its issues. I don't know about weapons side of it, knowing Japanese sensitivities it might be an issue, but then again - many EU collectors do suffer or suffered. Which helps us the US sellers! Weapons-related are things like limits imposed on shipping to Poland of large quantities of things like Chinese drones or certain chemicals.
  10. That looks like shinshinto. For whatever reason Suishinshi Masahide rendered Hosho style in this way with drastically different steel layers and everyone else in shinshinto seemed to follow. It reacts well to white light (directly from above), reacts well to sidelight, its relatively insensitive to all conditions. Challenges begin when its Kamakura, complex utsuri, nioi based hamon with plenty of ashi.
  11. Don't know about the signature but horimono looks too crude. One can try using one of NTHK shinsa in the US or have someone submit it to NBTHK in Japan.
  12. Not really except no other sources of light within 4m from the blade. It helps with contrast a lot. Ashi on shinshinto are capturable with side light, you might put it a bit towards the mune though, but still directing it at the blade.
  13. Depends on a blade. Generally shinto and shinshinto are simple, do not need angled blade, they just need a decent source of light from a side and a camera looking down below. Light source the main quality is its size. When you inspect a blade sometimes very point based light like a flashlight does very well, but for photography a tube usually does ok. P.S. its seldom acknowledged that just how a blade reacts to light from a side or a difference of how it looks from a side versus from above - its enough to date the blade with very good precision. Nie forms very differently in Edo period and Muromachi also has its "thing".
  14. Personal opinion: It does look like an old attribution to Mitsuhiro who is a relatively recognized name, made in a bit unusual fashion on osuriage blade. This is koto, and quite possibly can be a Bizen blade. There is not much to see on such photographs but nothing seen contradicts Bizen. The big question is whether this is (early) Muromachi with a real attribution like say the last of Omiya school (for example) or its Nambokucho and possibly to a bigger name. Statistically one has to be conservative. To make a determination though really good photos are need, or to see it in hands etc.. Its not clear how much its out of polish. If you are thinking of parting with it, I would be interested in buying.
  15. You can ask Polish collectors (there are a few) but generally it can be: 1. Japanese are always afraid of something and use any possible excuse to not do something because "its absolutely forbidden". Often its not. 2. For postal service you need a direct flight from Poland. As I think there are none over Russia, I don't think they exist at all. Closest country with a direct flight is probably Germany or Netherlands. Without direct flights swords are problematic. 3. FEdex and UPS can carry swords but only if a dealer has a special contract with them.
×
×
  • Create New...