Tsuba gardener

Hi Jono, I don't have experience with nihonto but I do with fittings and jitte (edo period police batons). The issue I've experienced is that of incourier customs, (in otherwords the courier deals with customs processing rather than HMRC as a separate team). I do know there has been recent changes to legislation. AOI Art Japan has information on their website. I've had longer delays mainly due to needing to provide accurate details of age and materials. I once purchased a job lot of kozuka (knife handles without blades) from an abroad auction and customs held them back temporarily because they thought they contained blades. Commodity codes are also required but if the dealer is experienced they should take most of the pressure. I personally would consider 3rd party dealers in the UK such as the Japanese Gallery, Kensington, London (I have no affiliation with them). They hold regular online auctions. Another is the Lanes Armoury in Brighton (again no affiliation) but its best to visit rather than buy online. Neil

Hi Ian, l apologise for the delay. So the tsuba l referenced don't have numbers in the nakago ana however the kaga gourd sukashi tsuba recently (2024) purchased from Sotheby's does have an auction tag with the following details: Cabinet Portier (a French auction house), 65; 13772; 4646/98.

Hi Dale, Thanks for the additional information. Yes l think so. I saw these but unfortunately out of my price range. Interesting this auction includes 3 featured in Gunther Heckman's Tsuba book. Neil

Hi Dale further to my succinct message this morning, on contacting Bonham's after the auction l was told Princly related to a late Qutari Prince. No name was given but a prominent collector of tsuba was the late Saoud bin Mohammed Ali Al-Thani who died in 2012.

Many thanks for researching Dale, l appreciate your time and effort. From my research the "Princely" aspect may relate to the collection of a Saudi Prince who died. I will post details later.

Hi Dale please find the 3 tsuba as requested. The auction l acquired them from was Bonham's Samurai Snow Spectacle, 7/11/24. Best regards, Neil.

Hi Spartan Quest, (Dale), sorry for the delay, (l mentioned l was going to post my 2 tsuba from the Poncetton collection in April). This one with the gourds was marked by the auction as Kaga. This was a single lot. The second Sukashi was in a lot of 5 along with the single tsuba from the Marquis de Tresson collection. Relevant to your post Dale, l only found the relationship to the earlier collections by researching a single auction number online. I am wondering whether the other 3 sukashi tsuba in the group of 5 were also from earlier European collections but so far l haven't been able to ascertain whether they were. Neil B

Related to this post is a tsuba featuring 4 Gingko leaves with gold coloured dew and insect nibbled leaves. Neil

A recent acquisition relevant to this post, sorry for being late to the party, ... again). This features a circle of 4 Gingko leaves with gold coloured dots of dew and insect nibbled leaves.

Hi Spartan, yes you can, but may l ask you credit where relevant please. Btw l have 2 other tsuba from the same auction that were also from the Poncetton collection. 1 was in the group of 5 sukashi as the de Tressan. When l have time l will post.

This may be of interest to Spartan Quest as during my research l found this tsuba in his recent book, Additional Early Articles for Tsuba Study 2. This tsuba was published in the Marquis de Tressan's 1911 Bulletin of the Society Franco Japonaise, the Evolution of the Japanese sword hilt from the beginning if the 17th century to the present day. I purchased this at Bonham's Samurai Snow auction but at the time the auction house did not have details of provedance. It was only after researching an auction tag on another tsuba that led me to a site citing this tsuba came from Tressan's collection. The Marquis was killed during the First World War in 1914 but the tsuba was not auctioned until 1933. lt would be interesting to know who owned this tsuba from 1933 to 2024. There is a vary similar tsuba (number 218) in The Hartman Collection of Japanese Metalwork (1976), but this is described as a daisho set and the seppadai appears different. Neil B.