AnewAgain

One and the same! Small world!

That might make sense (re: study pieces)... The gentlemen that passed was a professor emeritus at a prestigious university. Good catch with No. 7.

Thanks for the links Spartancrest! I'm into the lot of 17 tsubas, 3 fuchi, and 1 kashira for $1100.

Kantaro: Thanks! kissakai: Thanks! SteveM translated the artist name on the box of number 4 to be 貫齊 (Ikkansai) ROKUJURO: I went to the estate sale with the hopes of acquiring a katana (since there were several), but they ended up running far beyond what I was interested in spending. The tsuba collection caught my eye and I was able to get them for what I thought was a reasonable price. Numbers 5, 17, and 12 are the one's I'm most drawn to at this point. As for #1, my wife came in while I was taking the photos and picked up a couple of them... I missed that she put it back upside down! Ha! Better picture of #5:

Close up of 10,11,16,17

Close up of 8,9,14,15

Close up of 6,7,12,13

Close up of 5 (My early favorite)

Close ups of 1-4

Here is side B:

Good morning everyone, What better way to start a collection of your own than purchasing the entire collection of someone else... It's just like jumping into the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim! The original owner (who passed away) was an avid collector of all things Japanese. I'm planning on thinning this collection out and wanted to get some opinions from the much more experienced collectors here. Here are 1 through 17 side A:

Thanks Steve!

Is the black text possibly referring to Yoshimura Ikkei? And the gold colored text, ironically, "Tsuba"?

Good morning everyone, I recently acquired a large collection of Tsubas and am trying to do some research on them. Would appreciate any assistance in translating the text on the box of this Tsuba. Thanks in advance, Charles