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Spartancrest

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Everything posted by Spartancrest

  1. https://varshavskyco...collection/tsu-0315/ https://bushidojapan...Kiri_leaf_Motif.html https://iidakoendo.com/9315/ This last one has the same cut out in the nakago-ana and is described as by Nishigaki Kanshiro
  2. We have seen nakago-ana with a set design cut into it - certain Higo tsuru patterns.
  3. Non magnetic? The repeated pattern, mirror reverse on each side would suggest Sanmai but could be Ko-Kinkō. this side view of the hitsu looks like thin foil such as you find on sanmai but I can't see the typical three layers. Has the surface got any peeling? There look like area's where there is wear through the foil? If it is sanmai the outside rim is well joined, I can't see any seams. Interesting old piece - no modern fake for sure.
  4. I think this link could be added here - nice Mandarin duck and waves sanmai https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/48181-tsuba-help/
  5. Spartancrest

    Tsuba help

    Thanks Mark, the ura view gives me even more confidence the bird is a duck - short legs, upturned tail and wing tips. I wonder if other examples with this pattern will turn up? Maybe not this particular one [Hokusai might not be impressed!]
  6. I think once you have that guard in hand you will be very happy with the patina, photos can sometimes give a deceptive pale look - add my vote for original patina, well cared for and very old. If you want to compare artificial patina you can check out this auction site https://www.jauce.com/user/dj2hmyuc this guy's stock is made yesterday and has that oily black finish you will get using that "colour-enhancing rust preventive agent" found here. https://www.jauce.com/auction/l1126749580 Both the modern backyard tsuba and the artificial patina can be found on ebay as well. https://www.ebay.com/itm/386829157016 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386845822320 https://www.ebay.com/itm/254728433191 I would not recommend any of this stuff used on antique tsuba. By the way that same guard you are looking at for $133 USD is also selling over on Jauce https://www.jauce.com/auction/c1128842948 or Buyee https://buyee.jp/ite.../auction/c1128842948 at a starting price of $6.71 USD - it pays to shop around! Signed "Tetsujin" For comparison of the mei you might find something here? https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/12900-tsuba-mei/
  7. Spartancrest

    Tsuba help

    The bird reminds me more of a Mandarin duck. But what would a duck be doing at sea? I am not sure what this bird is, duck body, seagull head? Mark does your guard have a fukurin or is it all the same material with carved integral rim? Also is the opposite side the same design? Could it be Sanmai?
  8. Spartancrest

    Tsuba

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176207790259 This is the link to this image https://nahwalwatan.org/item/530644/goods But I can't open it. https://tw.daigobang...html?aID=g1096759934
  9. Spartancrest

    Tsuba

    Hi Murry, my first impression is that the guard is cast, the hitsu sizes are odd and the two oxen/bulls are ill defined. [Higher definition images would help but I am more than 90% sure it is very late 19th century cast work] There is a similar design in this thread but the two animals are much clearer and the sukashi areas are much finer as in this image https://www.agsa.sa....y-their-tails/36468/ https://www.liveauct...tsuba-with-two-oxen/ See also https://www.zacke.at...suba/?lot=14785&sd=1 https://www.invaluab...io-860a-c-16d4db6a57 [This one very likely a modern cast example thrown in with a mix of other copies] https://sbg-sword-st...rect-custom-options/
  10. https://www.liveauct...t-daimyo-procession/ https://art.thewalte...-wedding-procession/ kozuka https://collection.p...com.au/object/183028
  11. Spartancrest

    Giant Tsuba

    Decorative wall hanger, many are made as trivets as well. The design is not a million miles from this Chinese fake. This Kabuki actor's sword has a tsuba of at least six inches?
  12. The cold hammering - no - FAR TOO MUCH WORK FOR A CHEAP FAKE. The nunome - no. The fakes are usually either hand painted or these days they are "printed" with colour, it is rarely coloured correctly and though it might appear as 'gold' I strongly doubt any real gold is used. There are guards that use mercury gilding but they are antique and not to be confused with the modern fakes - mercury gilding probably won't work on some of the low temperature alloys they use on fake guards and it is also highly dangerous to your health. Chinese fakes, colours are all wrong. Paint gone astray on the antennae of this bug. These are very obvious faults, better fakes were made at the end of the Meiji period and into the early years of the twentieth century 'Gold' paint overflow on this common cast "butterflies" namban - most don't bother, too much trouble and often detracts from the finished item. Sorry, getting far
  13. Any idea what the sekigane is made of? Unusual colour match to the rest of the plate, copper with verdigris? Or just a trick of the light? The overall shape and the two sukashi reminds me of Kaneie style [ not sure he did spiderwebs (?)]
  14. I think the effect is the result of very good hammer work fine ishime, I thought for a moment it might have had silver foil at one time but the area on the omote with the silver nunome shows cut lines underneath as is usual so I can rule that out. I have seen a few guards with the part carved/part plain plate but tracking them down is the difficult part. Like a lot of pieces the more you study it, the more you discover, but there is always a little mystery still behind them. This looks like Shakudo but I can't find any information on it. Small image signed but I doubt we can read it, no information.
  15. What had me a little worried was the Tiger's head would be partly obscured when the tsuba was mounted - there are a "class" of guards like this that may have been intended as gifts or presentation pieces and not intended to be mounted though likely yours has. This totally different guard shows a Tiger with part of it's shoulder protruding into the seppa-dai and thus under any seppa once mounted. Your tsuba depicts Sennin Bukan Zenshi and his 'pet' Tiger, he was a monk who shocked other members of his sect by riding his Tiger around the grounds of the monastery. This auction site has a similar 'dug away' carved tsuba leaving part of the plate un-cut, the text says cast iron but I doubt it. It has some fine gold nunome but the characters faces are done rather poorly. https://www.invaluab...ze-9095-c-dc94101b62
  16. Well I have had to resort to an old 10.1 megapixel Cyber-shot camera from an Op-shop, my good camera just gave up one day. I am one of the increasingly rare and endangered persons who does not have a "smart phone" or indeed any phone - and yet I still live! [When they make it compulsory I presume they will give you a phone with your birth certificate? How else can they force you to have one? ] I am sorry the images are poor, does anyone else have a copy of the book?
  17. Yes sorry the book is small format and I am stuck with a poor camera- sorry about that, wish I had a scanner. Odd how I just got the book delivered in time for this thread - funny how the universe works! Try these images they are the best I can manage.
  18. Wow a big buyer's premium 30%! Is it just me being in the Southern hemisphere - or are the nakago-ana all the wrong way up in that auction? I hope you do well Grev
  19. Some extra data from a Japanese book - similar "shippo" guard. I can't get a translation but it might be somewhere to have a look. [I don't know why this example has the three holes through the plate (?) Perhaps some sort of 'O' seppa may have been fitted to reinforce the nakago-ana (?)]
  20. Mark S. That tsuba would fit in well with another thread dealing with tsuba designs on tsuba or other tosogu - I can't track that thread down as yet, maybe some one will remember where it is?
  21. thick metal, not like the thin metal often found on tobacco ornaments, but some wear on the oval hole as if it fits a clasp?
  22. I can't work out what this was for either? Tobacco pouch ornament? https://www.jauce.com/auction/p1126330745 35.8mm Wt: 7.1g
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