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Japanese Sword Collection - Thomas Del Mar Ltd - 27Th June 2018


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I guess I know my own preferences by now. :laughing: 67. Masamitsu, 69. Kageyori and 2. Akihiro. Those would be my 3 to keep an eye for but unfortunately I won't be buying anything for a long while. Still even with the 24% premium added to prices I'd agree with Curran that some estimates seem to be on the lower end of scale. Of course it is impossible to judge the condition on the single picture provided.

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I'm planning on going if only to look. The estimates are low but if it's found it's way onto NMB then I imagine there won't be any bargains to be had. Was kinda hoping it'd fly under the radar as the catalogue isn't on any of the online auctioneers and I've had a few good deals from here before.

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James, pictures are not good enough to buy without holding those swords in hand and being able to closely inspect them.  The prices are off by up to ten fold too low, I imagine.  You might get lucky if you go there, and if I was anywhere near there, I would go.  

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Agreed Michael, the few that are papered would of been my first interest and that always begs the question of if someone has a collection with only a few papered (recently at that) then why are the rest not?

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Here are few thoughts that may or may not be bit negative and are just some thoughts nothing to be taken too seriously.

 

Would be nice to get to see Token GB appraisal of the Akihiro and actually see the sword too. The shape is not really strong tachi shape and it could be just a regular katana with gimei. I can't zoom in the picture to see nakago & ana well enough. There are some late tachi from early Muromachi that are quite short and quite straight. So based on that one picture I wouldn't even guess if it is tachi or katana.

 

As for Kageyori I'm quite positive it would have been "shinsaed", as because signed authenticated tachi by Kageyori are worth a lot. I have prices for 3 signed tachi and asking prices for them ranged from 3,5M Yen to 8M Yen. Signed legitimate Kageyori would by my logic go for Jūyō. Granted I don't fully grasp the Japanese fascination for rivalries etc. other technicalities when going for top tier "beauty pageants" but I'd think historical value of signed Ko-Bizen tachi would be enough.  ;-) I am a sucker for nicely curved tachi so in overall it looks nice by shape even if it would be gimei.

 

I see Masamitsu as the most interesting of the 3 I listed above. One major factor being that it might be possible for me to have a Masamitsu in collection in my lifetime where as Kageyori and Akihiro are out of my league. Masamitsu has lots of blades attributed to him so getting a small database together is easier. Unfortunately I have only 1 signed tachi for 5M yen and 1 signed wakizashi for 1M yen. Plus 9 mumei katana & naoshi ranging from 1,2M yen to 5,5M yen.

    Then on to the speculative part of the sword. As was stated the sword has old papers, and it would only be logical to apply new NBTHK papers for authentication as well signed legitimate Masamitsu tachi are quite valuable. Plus given how many mumei Jūyō swords attributed to him there are I would again think that signed tachi by him would logically be easily on a course to Jūyō. However the tricky part is here as the sword has new NTHK papers. I know that NTHK shinsa guys know more than I ever will and they have judged the signature. I personally like NTHK authentications and I hope I do not get too much flak saying out loud that I think NBTHK papers are just financially superior in the market. In general you don't see too many expensive swords with NTHK papers in the market. In general I feel that with Hozon authentication the starting price/estimate for this tachi would be totally different from the 2,5-3k£'s. The question in my mind is, has this been already sent for Hozon and NBTHK didn't agree with the signature? This one is really interesting and I'd really like to see this one. :)

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Masamitsu has lots of blades attributed to him so getting a small database together is easier. Unfortunately I have only 1 signed tachi for 5M yen and 1 signed wakizashi for 1M yen. Plus 9 mumei katana & naoshi ranging from 1,2M yen to 5,5M yen.

 

For your database ;-) : last year Ginza Chōshūya sold a signed and dated, slightly suriage Masamitsu tachi (jūyō) for 6.8 million Yen. I saw another one (ō-suriage mumei, jūyō) for 2.5 million.

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Many of the items in the sale are from the collections of senior (in age group) members of the To-Ken Society of Great Britain.

 

Also just keep clicking on the image in the online catalogue and they get a bit bigger.

 

Alternatively use this portal and keep clicking, gets it way bigger:

 

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/thomas-del-mar-ltd/catalogue-id-srthomasd10012/lot-50fb0c2d-2f88-4054-8f89-a8f901103e27

 

 

PS...

 

Hi Ed, low estimates as a pure marketing ploy?

 

I have never heard of such a thing................................................... :rotfl:  :rotfl:  :rotfl:  :rotfl:  :rotfl:  :)

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