"unofficial" Edition Of Kokon Meizukushi Taizen?

[Randy McCall]

A set of books recently went at auction for (relative) pennies.  It was listed by the seller as  the Kokon Meizukushi Taizen, in three volumes, with a publishing date of 1611. 

The problem being that no edition of the Kokon with that precise name, in that number of volumes, corresponds to any official printing listed in English bibliographic databases.  The Kokon itself was scribed in 1611, but according to the bibliographic databases, the earliest official printing was 1694, with various editions using different names appearing over the next 200 years. 

All recognized versions of the Kokon include the writing date (1611), the name of the publisher (various), and the actual date of publishing.  From my information, all early versions include inkan seals and stamps as marks of authenticity.  Most of these are (apparently) missing from the item sold at auction... at least, they are not mentioned in the auction listing, nor do they appear in photographs.  Additionally, in the listing of official versions, only one printing uses exactly this name as the title, and that edition was printed as an eight volume set in 1778,  containing all the aforementioned information / markings

The database does list one "orphan" version (not included in the official Kokon listing), with the name variant of "Kokon Mei-Zukushi Taizen".  According to the listing, this orphan version was printed with no publisher / publishing date / inkan, as a three-volume set, matching the description and pictures of this item.  This at least suggests it was an "unofficial" printing...

The winner of the auction got the set for the grand sum of $25 USD + shipping, and was the only bidder. 

I thought I'd post the pictures of the item to allow members to look it over and consider whether the purchaser got an amazing bargain or just an interesting historical curiosity. 

 

                               
 

[Surfson]

I have no knowledge of the nuances of these old appraisal books, but had my doubts about the age, since many of the swords would have been nearly contemporaneous to the suggested publication date.  I nearly bid on it, but I have one of the similar sets done later and never pick that one up, so I declined.  It did occur to me that it might be quite valuable, but since it's coming out of Japan, I assumed that perhaps it's not.