Tsuba Identification

[DAHM]

Hi, all.

Some help is needed with identification of a Namban/Nanban tsuba which has been lying neglected in the toy box for too long.

Iron. 76mm high x 72mm wide.  Faint traces of gilding here and there.

A more knowledgeable friend has suggested that it might be early Edo Nagasaki work.

 

Can anyone with more specialist knowledge make an attribution and explain the scenario depicted?  Any help will be received gratefully.

 

 

 

[MauroP]

Hi David,

it's difficult to make a more precise attribution than just nanban style. The two persons carved in your tsuba look perfectly nanbanjin (南蛮人) i.e. Portuguese merchants, so one could speculate about a pre-Momoyama tsuba. Anyway most people think of nanban tsuba as late Edo  production (this point is still unclear for me... as many others, indeed).

Bye, Mauro

[DAHM]

Hi, Mauro.  Many thanks for taking the time to give your opinion.

Another, much more knowledgeable acquaintance agrees with your thoughts, too.

 

Interestingly, yesterday I ran into a Chinese chap over here (UK) who collects, unsurprisingly, Chinese antiques.  I showed the tsuba to him and passed on the opinions that the piece could be early Edo/pre-Edo and might have been made by a Chinese artisan in Nagasaki.  Typically, he said nothing for some time as he examined the piece.  Then he produced on a leather string around his neck a large piece of jade and proceeded to ring the tsuba gently with the jade! 

Finally, the pronouncement: "Chinese".

I said again that it was possibly made in Nagasaki.  He came straight back: "Made by a Chinese"!  And then: "How much?"!  When I told him how much, he just nodded, said nothing further and headed off, inscrutability intact!

 

I've decided to sell it, so I'm posting it on this site in the sales section.  I should have mentioned before that it is a noticeably heavy piece weighing just over 120 grams.

 

Best wishes, David.