Tokubetsu Juyo items at Christie's, May 16, King Street

[Darcy]

Christie's moved their London June Japanese art sale up a month to May 16th this year. They just put the swords online. I put my best three swords up for auction in this sale, amongst other things. They were very carefully chosen, and are world-class blades the like of which come to auction extremely rarely. They carry Tokubetsu Juyo papers which identify them as the rarest and finest work, the NBTHK considers that Tokubetsu Juyo is comparable to the *upper* half of Juyo Bijutsuhin according to Tanobe sensei.

 

They are:

 

Tokubetsu Juyo Norishige:

 

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... Id=4919066

 

Tokubetsu Juyo Chogi:

 

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... ntry=chogi

 

Tokubetsu Juyo Ko-Ichimonji Sadazane:

 

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... Id=4919065

 

They are in London and may be inspected in person before the sale. I have set terms to guarantee sale.

 

Feel free to contact me through my website if you have questions about the pieces or would like to get my supplemental information on the Sadazane, or background information on Norishige, etc.

 

You can browse the entire sale here:

 

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... leID=20862

 

There are some other nice swords in the sale, particularly two works by Kiyomaro (though one has a hagire). As well there are a good number of excellent fittings.

[Darcy]

Also, though Christie's shows that VAT of 5% applies to the swords, this is only for EU residents. Once UK VAT is paid, an EU resident is able to import the sword into their member country sales-tax free by the EU treaties. Given that taxes everywhere else are higher than 5% it's a pretty good deal :-).

 

It is only 5% rather than 17.5% because they are antique items imported from a non-EU member state, and this is the VAT rate assigned by UK customs for this type of item.

 

For non-EU buyers, the VAT can either be waived or refunded after/during export. This is what I have done when buying at Christie's as I'm in Canada.

 

When importing into your own non-EU country, you are then responsible for arranging to pay local country sales / consumption taxes.

[Curran]

Put me down for one Toku Juyo Norishige with beautiful koshirae.

 

 

Seriously beautiful swords. I've seen the Chogi in person. I don't think the photos do proper justice. There is a lot more play in the hamon, like a blue glass flame.

[Wim V]

Wow, absolutely magnificent swords!

 

I think I would personally favour the ko-ichimonji Sadazane; according to the description this sword is approx 750 years old and still ubu, just knocks me down

 

If only I had the money ... :?

 

I'm quite curious though to see how high the auction price will go. This is something you don't see passing every day (well in my case that is, I have not seen an awful lot of swords in hand yet, and certainly none of this level)

[Curran]

I thought the Sadazane was older than that.

 

My feeling is Christies didn't do the best job on the descriptions. If anything, they seem very conservative this time around. Several of the tsubas in the sale belonged to me a while back. On several of them the auction catalog has the descriptions wrong, giving the wrong names even as you can read them from the photos. And many of the tsuba have NBTHK Hozon papers. No mention of the papers authenticating the signatures.

 

The descriptions have been fixed in the online catalog, although some still fail to mention they have NBTHK papers. I think some are severely underpriced, but then that is par for the course. Last tsuba I went after at Christies was estimated for $3000 and ended up going for $20,000+

 

My personal favorite was the Ichiryu Tomoyoshi of the monkeys. Great tsuba with bad photos. The backside of the tsuba has monkeys at play, one carrying a flag banner and a young monkey eatting a golden peach. I'd like to have it back, though all things considered I would gladly take the Toku Juyo Norishige over it. :D

[Darcy]

The Sadazane is from no later than 1248... the maker is sometimes put into Ko-Bizen, and so earlier, sometimes Ko-Ichimonji and so from around this time. The style is definitely Ko-Bizen, so he was either a Ko-Bizen smith from around 1198 at the beginning of the Kamakura, or he worked in a throwback style, but still early Kamakura period.

 

Christie's didn't specify down more on the time period. My own writeup is here:

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/sadazane/

 

When it passed Juyo they judged it as Ko-Bizen, and then Ko-Ichimonji when it went Tokubetsu Juyo. Either way, a very old sword, and very rare to be so intact. The quality is off the charts.

[Stephen]

on how the auction went?

[Pete Klein]

I have the catalog and results if anyone has a specific lot they want to know the results to. The TBJ swords sold:

Sadazane @ 120,000 GBP

Norishige @ 120,000 GBP

Chogi @ 54,000 GBP

Tsuba and kogai etc didn't seem to do well or didn't sell at all. There were a lot of unsold lots.

or:

http://www.christies.com/auction/result ... no=CKS7416

[Bungo]

not a sword dude but are the results good ?

 

milt the ronin

[Stephen]

GBP120000 =$237,353.96 x2

GBP54000 =$ 73000+

 

over half a mill....what do you think?

[Darcy]

The numbers Pete quoted have Christie's buyers and seller's premiums in there. They take a big, big chunk. The hammer price was 100,000 pounds on Norishige and Sadazane, 45,000 on the Chogi. I pay Christie's my portion out of the hammer price.

 

The prices were very fair for the first two, they are both world class pieces that will be collection centerpieces in even important collections. They were pursued because they were such standout pieces. Otherwise the market for swords I find is not so strong right now.

 

The Chogi, someone walked out with a real steal. Though it was expensive as a sword, it is at the highest level. Putting it in perspective, the only other Tokubetsu Juyo Chogi I was aware of in the past few years, the dealer wanted $180,000 for it. Christie's did not expand in the writeup that it was actually owned by two of the Tsugaru daimyo (sword still has tags with it from that time). The koshirae bears their mon as well.

 

It was likely hurt by the late arrival of documentation establishing it as a Juyo token, and the Tokubetsu Juyo papers have not been issued yet (we're expecting June). Tanobe sensei wrote a letter that I got up there just a few days ago to document it as Tokubetsu Juyo and he praised it as a standout blade in particular among the session of pieces that passed in 2006.

 

In terms of beautiful swords, the Norishige is really exceptional and I have never seen a Soshu sword that really nailed everything about the school the way that sword did. It is a masterpiece by the smith, to use the simplest language and for someone who wanted the best possible Soshu that was the blade.

 

The Sadazane I had written on my website a year ago that all things considered it was the finest piece I had ever had. The state of preservation, the condition, the quality, the length and signature, everything was just a home run with that sword. I am glad that people who had a combination of money to spend and knowledge to understand what it was in spite of the fact that the smith is not so well known (only four or five signed blades exist from him) recognized its importance. It had exquisite jigane and the jifu utsuri was fantastic.

 

Congratulations to the new owners if you see this, I know you will enjoy your new babies. Wish I could have kept them but at least now maybe I can buy a car one day.

[Stephen]

congratulations on the sale...I was surprised at the chogi as well. Of the three it was the one I lusted for the most.

[Eric H]

Both Kiyomaro's were not sold. The highest price in this auction was Lot 30, a Kutani dish, 32,5 cm diam., late 17th c., £ 400'800 ($ 792,143). This in comparison with the results of three swords of the highest level !

 

BTW £ 54'000 are $ 106,789

 

Eric

[John A Stuart]

Hi Darcy, Beautiful swords of highest quality. That must be one hell of a car! :lol: John

[Stephen]

did euro insted of GBP

[Bungo]

don't buy a car unless it's green and you intend to crash it.............

 

Green Car Crash sold for 70+ millions UNITED STATES DOLLARS !!....No, not from the Nigerians, but by Christies '

Imagine that.................

 

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/ent ... ref=slogin

 

 

We need to attract the hedge funds managers to our Nihonto world !!

 

 

milt the ronin

[Bungo]

" The art market is strong at all levels, whether it's a $20,000 or a $5 million work,'' he told Reuters."

 

yeah right.............

 

 

milt the ronin

[Pete Klein]

I think we should all be very happy that our antiques and relics have never really been understood or accepted by the 'art market' at large. If so we'd all be collecting baseball cards for lack of funds. Where can you find an example of fine jewelry 500+ years old in almost new condition for a couple thousand dollars?

Let's keep the whole field quite and to ourselves, shall we? LOL!

[Darcy]

One of the true great things about the artwork surrounding the samurai is indeed that the spectrum falls only within a fraction of the costs of other more well known collecting fields.

 

Putting aside $10.00 a day will buy you an excellent Juyo Token probably within seven years if wisely and conservatively invested.

 

Nobody is going to get a top ranked Impressionist masterpiece for this kind of money :-).

 

So we are really lucky that our field is under appreciated. I don't know if this will always be the case, or if maybe it will become less appreciated... who knows. I think though maybe that the new class of millionaires and billionaires rising in Russia and Asia will have a greater appreciation for nihonto and its associated art and overall there will be an upswing somewhere down the road.

 

I'm wondering if my three swords did not end up with an oligarch or two.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Darcy, The fact is I have recently come in contact with a new Russian collector that mentioned a new interest in Nihonto in Russia. This will indeed drive prices up in all likelihood. A little more difficult for the regular working chaps to get that level of sword. That is the nature of collecting, alas, but one can only hope it is for true appreciation and not for that momentary acquisitiveness of the nouvelle riche. John

[w.y.chan]

I also heard the Russians, in particular very rich underworld figures are on the look out for nihonto, also wartime gendaitos especially ones with associations to right wing, patriotic and by top smiths.