Daisho Tsuba

[Ludolf Richter]

Auction Nagel/Stuttgart/Germany/Nov.4 with estimate Euro 1300

[John A Stuart]

Hi Ludolf, I suspect a Mito tsuba but what is the attribution given by the auctioneers? I like it. John

[Ludolf Richter]

"Probably Tanaka-school",whatever that means.Ludolf

[Curran]

If it were, this would be a fair bargain. They are not Tanaka school.

 

I sold a nice Tanaka school tsuba last year for $3000 without papers. I owned it for all of 6 days. Within 24 hours of posting it, it was gone. The signature was certainly authentic, but the tsuba had some small damage- so I priced. it accordingly. With Hozon papers, it swould have been closer to $4500 USD. The other two I knew about went for between $5000 and $6500 via Bob Benson. They both went fairly fast out there, and one fellow has shared with me that he collects them.

 

ex:

http://www.cgfinearts.com/gallery_outpu ... alleryID=2

 

I am a wee bit surprised the one on Colin's website has not gone at $3850. The ones up for auction look more like Aizu Shoami / Mito. See the tsuba that Colin has next to the Tanaka school one for an example.

Aizu Shoami certainly gets a bad rap for some decent work. I believe to paraphrase the wording in the Nihon to Koza, "they produced diamonds and duds", so their diamonds suffer the valuation of the duds.

 

To say "Probably Tanaka-school" is quite a wink and nudge from an auctioneer.

[Pete Klein]

I have to agree totally with Curran. I think that the way the metal around the mimi is worked is very much like the Tanaka school as is the overall shape. However, the craftsmanship is not up to snuff and the Tanaka school 'usually' used formed kuchi beni in the nakagoana much as the Bizen Suruga and Akasaka Tadashige/Tadanori.

[Ludolf Richter]

I just got them 300 Euro below then the auction limit,because they remained unsold during the session.Ludolf

[Ludolf Richter]

Hi Tsuba guys,now that I own these Tsuba,I started to look in my books for a possible artist.I believe I was successful:there is an iron Tsuba (with gold and shakudo inlays,but without a Kogai hitsu like with mine),signed Hideoki

(H 01129,1788-1851,student of Otsuki Mitsuoki,worked at Edo and later

Osaka) with the same shape,size,rim (!),nakago and Kozuka hitsu like my

bigger one Tsuba.When I lput my Tsuba on the pic (according to the author in original size) of Hideoki's one,nothing of the pic was to be seen besides the part below the Kogai hitsu!The motive is of course different.Ludolf