Charlie C

Looks old to me. This photography style is quite iconic. I have never had any problem with this dealer's business.

冰清玉洁 as clean as ice, as pure as jade 陳胖製陶 pottery made by 陳胖 竹趣 fun of bamboo

Happy holiday season folks, Have a silver buckle for sale here. All the details and descriptions are on eBay. I would like to offer this piece to a fellow member of this forum for a discounted price of $200 before the new year. https://ebay.us/m/SC6FXI Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Best wishes, C. C.

Try to measure the density of this piece with water and see if it's higher than silver's density. I fear that it's nearly impossible to decide which school produced it, unless you send it for shinsa. They have a huge database that is accessible only to themselves.

It is indeed a strange phenomenon that silver is rarely used to make an entire menuki. On many occasions, people use 四分一 with a higher silver percentage, or even silver-gold alloy to produce the light silver tone. I suspected that silver might be too prone to oxidising, but people still use silver gilding and even silver 置金 on menukis, so I don't know why pure silver is a less popular choice. Maybe there was some Edo aesthetic thing that we couldn't comprehend today.

七十叟信徵画 Drawn by seventy-year-old-man 信徵 筆力？（篡？）上古？ 丹青獨（覺？）眼前物 Probably means "my drawing power is better than all the drawers before me, and my current work is more worthy than the old ones". Doesn't really match the quality of the art I see in the photo. Of course, very likely I read it wrong.

Hi Max, I do not collect tsuba and have no opinion on the forging age of this piece, just wanted to add that people often underestimate how fine the craft of modern (not even contemporary) massively made copies can be. One can often find, as Vajo pointed out, poorly made cheap (~10 USD) tsuba and conjecture that all copies are poorly made, but even in the 19th century there were 浜物 decent enough to camouflage itself into a purely handmade one. I suggest that the best strategy to avoid such a loss is to watch long sufficient before purchasing to establish one's own standard as to what is good enough and what is not, in this case, maybe even post on this forum before purchasing. I hope this little setback will not prevent you from your tosogu adventure. C. C.

Hi Stefano, I believe that many 拵え for 短刀 before the edo era actually didn't have tsuba on them, needless to say a big one. This website gives a nice description. https://nikido69.sakura.ne.jp/militaria/militaryarms/arms/katana01b.htm Best, C. C.

Geese have been a common motif for menuki but differentiating the belly from the back with silver is a technique only observed in later days. This is purely personal empirical observation, though. From the current photos it's hard to tell if the feathers are inlay, but the beak and feet are probably gilding.

大永八年 is CE 1528, so probably the 3rd generation of 関兼貞.

Same guesses here, no earlier than 幕末. The complexity of decoration, the plate's thickness, and the size all pointed to the second half of the 19th century. I personally couldn't find any info leading to a specific school.

How long are these?

Have nothing to sell but I assume what Marc wanted was the following mon, 加賀梅鉢. It is used in the 前田 family and several other families in the edo era. I have never encountered any menuki with this design, except the piece on the first page of 加賀金工大鑑. Very likely you would not be able to complete the set, but there are many 加賀金工-made alternatives. To me it would make more sense if you have a set of tosogu made by the craftsmen in the same region/school instead of the same motif but made by people from different regions. Best of luck, C. C.

袋着 is mainly used only on menukis before the Edo period and appears quite different from the other two. 平象嵌 and 焼付 could be separated by observing the connection of materials and the corresponding reverse side. Victor provided a nice example above.

Totally agreed - the word 色絵 should literally refer to color applied regardless of technique used, but practically it mostly means 袋着せ, 焼付, or 滅金. That's how language evolves. I personally prefer not to use this word and specify the technique used to avoid confusion when possible.