Cast?

[Stephen]

[Henry Wilson]

I would say not cast (It looks hand made). However it might have been burnt. The surface looks discoloured and scaled as far as my weary old eyes can tell.

[Marius]

What Henry thinks is fire scale is evidence of folding, as far as my weary old eyes can tell

[sabi]

Evidence of forging/folding on the seppa dai and the carving looks too crisp to be cast.

[vajo]

Matsukatze normal don't have cast tsuba. 

It looks like a very nice dragon.

[Stephen]

Never say never Chris, Aoi taught me that!!

 

edit to save post! lol

 

i cant wait to give this ol boy a bath! so back off bidding or you may get caught paying $$$$ 

 

[sabi]

Never say never Chris, Aoi taught me that!!

 

his fins guys! looks like left over casting in my really old eyes! A good cast can give fine lines.

Those areas are also the most corroded on the plate, tough to put much stock into that I think.

 

The eyebrows are rendered with too much depth for this to be cast IMO, and the scales on the kozuka side of the body have a nicely layered effect that would get murdered by a casting attempt. And I still go back to the seppa dai, some clear activity there which supports this being a worked guard.

[sabi]

I would say not cast (hand made). However it might have been burnt. The surface looks discoloured and scaled as far as my weary old eyes can tell.

I thought the surface looked a bit iffy in those pics too, but now I'm not so sure...looks OK here.

 

[christianmalterre]

if it´s pleasing?

why not buying?

 

worn! yes....certainly but not cast!

 

me

[vajo]

Good luck Stephen for bidding. It is a nice dragon.

 

I lost the bidding fight last days an a nice tsuba with "Foreigner playes flagellotte" theme.

[TETSUGENDO]

Stephen,

 

 

I like this one. Heavy corrosion, but what's left is still quite intriguing. He is a very handsome beast.

 

 

-StevenK

[Henry Wilson]

I agree.  The corrosion adds to the charm.  I don't usually dig dragons but that one seems nice!!

[vajo]

Stephen ask Matsukaze what he want's for it and try to buy it. Some last auctions i missed the objects on the price. And some weeks later the object is new listed.

[ROKUJURO]

I have some doubts as I cannot explain the feature I have marked: 



 

[sabi]

To my eye that's just a sign of a forged guard. You see that kind of "pancake" effect on earlier ita plate tsuba.

[ROKUJURO]

Evan,

that is interesting. Can you provide an other example of this effect? I have never seen this, and I do a lot of forging and folding.

[sabi]

Jean,

 

Yeah I'll dig through my library and see if I have a good example on hand.

[sabi]

Ok, so this is what I was thinking of. This tsuba is a couple hundred years older and the "pancake" is a bit more defined, but it was made with much less-homogeneous iron so I still think a decent comparison can be made.

 

And since the "lump" on the dragon is located on the seppa dai, I'd imagine if it stuck out too far it would've been flattened by the tsubako so the seppa would sit right.

 

Lastly, in the interests of full disclosure: I do not know who currently owns this piece and always hesitate to throw up a random image of someone else's property, but as it can be easily found with a Google search I see no harm in duplicating it here.

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Evan,

thank you. I see now what you mean.

[Greg F]

Looks good Stephen, best of luck mate.

 

Greg

 

Ps. You can buy it as a celebration of your ten thousandth post! 2 more!!!

[parfaitelumiere]

If the buyer of this tsuba is here, the "sho " is actually on sale by same seller.