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jlawson

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Everything posted by jlawson

  1. Ouch. I would say you are not starting off well as this appears to be a modern reproduction. I would take a step back possibly and do a little research before you continue buying. Some places that I would recommend for genuine Tosogu - www.nihonto.com, www.nihonto.us, http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com Sorry don't know anywhere in Spain that sells nihonto.
  2. Guido sorry if it looked like I was countering your "devils advocate" comments as that was not the case at all. Just giving some feedback on some of my experiences with getting restoration work done on tsuba and shinsa etc. I was actually pretty hesitant on posting that as I also don't want to be the reason that someone reads this post and decides to strip off the hundreds of years of age and history on that fantastic jingo tsuba that looks a little crusty. In regards to lacquer work and having it re-done I truly am a neophyte and have no idea how someone would be able to tell if it was older or not or a repair but clearly the nbthk does. I would think that your comment above about the lacquer just being restored but not new would not cause an issue for the nbthk but clearly thats not the case here. It would be interesting to find out what ultimately happened with that one. I also find it interesting in the new NBTHK shinsa standards that they mention for Momoyama koshirae that it is acceptable for some repairs and still get papers but they don't list what those repairs are. Also they don't mention this for other periods so does that possibly mean that anything that is repaired after momoyama would not be considered for papers? http://nihontocraft.com/2015_NBTHK_Nionto_Tosogu_Shinsa_Standards.html
  3. Yokoyama school unfortunately but you might find a match on the signature and give you a definite match as a shinshinto Tosho piece....
  4. Elliott has a nice example here http://www.shibuiswords.com/yasuri.htmof Tosho tsuba made by ShinShinto Yokoyama swordsmiths as well as some information on the school. Toko Taikan also has info on page 340. Not 100% sure that yours is the same group but seems likely and you might start there.... If it is, that is a pretty nice find and great companion piece to someone who has a sword signed similarly.
  5. Just another comment here about "cleanup" on fittings and corroboration on Fords comment about them getting papers afterwards. I can confirm also that there are several items that have been cleaned up and have gone through to get very high papers from the NBTHK. There is a delicate balance between cleaning up years of abuse than stripping down and removing all patina. I have always been told that there is no substitute for the original patina and that once that is gone that there is no way for it to be re-done. I can tell you that is not the case for all examples. There are some pieces that you can easily see that have been "messed with" and you will know it. However when done by a professional restorer you will never be able to tell. This is especially true for late edo soft metal works that after professional cleaning and restoration look as though they have been just very well taken care of. It is also amazing that after a gentle cleaning and in some cases a touch up that the metal itself can heal and become even better after sitting in the safe for a few months.
  6. As usual, I will be there Guido. I won't make the kantei session this year but will make the rest of the activities.
  7. Thanks Stephen. Try this one http://www.nihonto.com/rh494.html
  8. Jean if I am not mistaken I think the one that is on Fred Weisberg's site is the one that we saw at the kantei session last year. It certainly appears to me to be the same sword.
  9. Yes very nice. However if we are talking Yamato Shizu you guys should also take a look at the sword that Fred Posted on Nihonto.com. I saw this at San Francisco just before it went up on the site and I can tell you the Hada is stunning. It may be the most active I have ever seen for this school. Really a great sword. http://www.nihonto.com/rh494.html
  10. David I really don't understand why you need to continually stir the pot. This post had absolutely nothing to do with your disdain for some "professional tsuba makers" nor being bullied etc. You don't seem to be able to help yourself from causing problems. The way that Brian handled that smart assed comment from you was pretty nice and I gotta tell you if I was the admin I would have booted you for it. There is absolutely no need for you to act this way. BTW didn't you say you were done with this site a couple of months ago and wouldn't be posting again? http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/16293-higo-tsuba-肥後鍔-dandyism-expressed-through-iron/?p=170810 I hope you can figure out what it is like to participate in a civil way without constant getting your feelings hurt and throwing your comments around. If not why don't you make good on your threat to not post here anymore.
  11. Pete our lectures and displays are always informative but I also think we could do a better job of educating here in the USA. As you said this August will be the first time we have had a general membership meeting to discuss the club and its activities. In my opinion we have so many opportunities for education but we really don't capitalize on any of them outside of the shows and the monthly newsletter that comes from Japan. The internet could be used but today is not really at all.
  12. I am liking this term of "sea salvage". At the shows of late I have seen a lot of things I thought might be sea salvage, sounds so much nicer than what could be said. :-)
  13. Somewhat hard to say exactly what school made this. I would think this is late Edo period work but could fall into several different schools. It has seen better days in regards to condition and has been allowed to rust at some point that has degraded the metal making it possibly look older than it might look if not allowed to rust. Based on the motif you are probably looking at a choshu piece if I had to guess. The waves do remind me of some mito pieces that I have owned so maybe that could be a possibility as well.
  14. Thanks to all who participated. I've heard from most of you that got the book and it is jam packed with good info on the very large and prolific Choshu school. At this point I think we are done with this one so if you are interested in a translation of the book going forward you should get in contact with the translator - Markus Sesko at http://markussesko.com I don't know if it will be available to anyone outside of the original group but you can discuss it with Markus. BTW another nod to Markus who continues to translate things at such an incredible speed and has really made available some fantastic information in English.
  15. FYI the Sydney group never got back to me after they said they would investigate it. However I did email the folks I deal with in London and they were much more concerned about the lot. They did send an email back and confirmed that these were reproductions and that they had seen a few that were submitted to them and rejected in London apparently. The nice folks in London said they would make sure the Sydney folks knew.....
  16. jlawson

    Is This A Repro?

    Yes, Chinese and made last week.
  17. How would they Rob? And if they did who would put credence in their opinion? We've already established that they even have complete fake items in their auctions because of a lack of knowledge or review of the items. Determining whether something is Gimei requires much more knowledge.
  18. I don't think there is any malice in this just them not doing their homework when listing pieces. I would not hesitate to buy from them as they do stand behind their items if they are not what they appear to be. I do also agree though that they should have experts in each field reviewing their listings (at least at a basic level). I found the same issue when they list tsuba that are "made by" vs tsuba that are "signed as". The level of knowledge required to attribute whether or not something was made by the smith that bears its name is no small task and very few people are able to do do that with credibility.
  19. Still it is kind of ridiculous that they got in there in the first place. Curran I agree the New York group is much better however I also bought a tsuba a couple of years ago in a heat of the moment during an auction in 2012 and when I saw it in hand it was an obvious fake as well. Bonham's took it back and refunded the purchase but still, it must have passed some review and was in their auction.
  20. FYI Pete I had sent an email to them when I first saw the auction. The email I got back was "Thank you very much for alerting us regarding lot 156. I will have the pieces checked by our consultant."
  21. Just got an email for a new sale for Bonhams. Pretty sad state of affairs when Bohams lists 5 obvious fake Chinese tsuba as 19th century Japanese. http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22857/lot/156/ Not exactly sure who is curating these sales and validating the items but they need some education.
  22. Unfortunately you have to re-submit likely. It does not hurt to send them a letter with all the info and request another paper but Ive never heard of anyone being successful. Rather I know someone who had a very nice Daisho that lost the Tk Hozon papers and was unable to get replacements even though they had the scans of the originals and all the required info.
  23. FYI the translation is done and everyone should have gotten an email from Markus today with instructions. Please touch base with me or Markus if you did not get your email. Thanks for everyone's support on this project.
  24. Super nice guy that went out of his way to find great books. Sorry to hear of his passing.
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