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Nambu tekki - non tsuba


Spartancrest

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I have been following these cast guards for literally years now and am often surprised at what people are prepared to pay for scrap metal. Is it the false advertising of "Edo period" is it the shape - perhaps the poorly cast mei that is more often than not illegible ? It can't be the rarity,  they turn up week after week.  I do hope the members of NMB are not active in this auction,  the starting price of 1,000 yen was already above it's value and that only because of the storage box included. [It is missing the cardboard box it came out of the factory with.] (current bid at twelve hours from finish is just over 16,000 yen)

https://www.jauce.com/auction/u389417633

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Dale, How can we be sure that anyone had bid at all ?

Auctioneers will put in 'dummy bids' to get an auction going or to try to get the bidding up to the reserve. It wasn't a crime here in Victoria to do that- I'm not sure about now . At times the auctioneer g can get left with the item if no one rises to the bait and tops the  auctioneer's bid.

For a fair time of my life I was an Auctioneer/ wool valuer- firstly selling wool which was fairly ' fast and furious' but the buyers (maybe 40 or more) were professionals buying at auction day after day, week after week. No false bids here. Later, property, house and household goods, (like tsuba) is slower selling to mostly amateur buyers.

Different techniques might be and are used.

 

Roger j

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6 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Yas 

I see the dealer pulled the auction at 25,000 yen - not enough money for him?

I also see it is relisted today with starting bid of 1,000 yen - the dealer is persistent! [he should have taken the money offered]

 

I see, he may have put a high price on his own. I think the seller is bullish because it was sold at a high price in the past. The same item can be viewed at any time. One is broken with a hammer, glued together and soiled with clay to make sure it is a casting.

 

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/q403624219

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/p732686203

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Hi Yas, yes I saw the glued one last week on Jauce, no bids at all! I have seen prices of $800 US. for one, that is taking someone to the cleaners! 

Yahoo and Jauce must be linked as items appear on both sites and finish at the same time.

Getting back to Roger, there were over 41 bids on that first auction before it was cancelled, if they were by the auctioneer or owner why so many small increments? Jauce already has the ability to let the owner put in a reserve or starting price. I have 'won' auctions a few times, then been told the bids were closed at the last second [ in reality up to a day later by the seller] Am I naive to believe there should be some ethics in auctions?

Getting back to the gist,  Yas has shown that there are a lot of these souvenirs out there so just be aware and if you do happen to like them, try getting them for the cheapest price.

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Dale. I've never seen a product with smashed tsuba glued together. The previous winning bidder may have destroyed it with anger. And sloppy gluing. 😭

The seller may even use the two IDs to make it appear as if they are competing fiercely. Various the art of coaxing is taking place, all of which violate the auction terms. But it's effectively on the loose.

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Unfortunately and sadly, Auctions can  easily be manipulated .Buyers in hard times can collude by not competing on certain  predetermined lots by working out  before hand- just who will bid on which lot , but this really only works if the buyers are dealers looking to stock up. Probably not relevant here. Any buyer not part of the cabal derails it somewhat of course.

An auctioneer can keep taking spurious bids to work the price up to where he or the seller want its but runs the risk of pushing it just a bit too much if the legitimate bidders pull out.

Tsuba auctions could certainly be manipulated but to what degree would depend on a country's pertinent laws and how easy it would be to implement  them or catch out a villain.

 

Roger j

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  • 5 weeks later...

I was sent this image taken from facebook (face-ache) from S. King in Western Australia - he knows my pet  peeve  about these things - it would be funny, but I don't suppose the owner got it cheap enough to see the funny side. [Supa Glue work on cast iron?]

There is always a replacement available  https://www.jauce.com/auction/o439044478 one almost every week in fact! 

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3 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

The image seems to have disappeared from the previous post - replay.

facebook fracture.jpg

 

I'm hugely impressed by how the person who apparently dropped and broke their tsuba managed to arrange the lighting in the second image to perfectly match the image of the tsuba from the auction site. That's almost unbelievable! 🤣

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Ford I believe either the first image before the break already showed a hairline crack. - - or the first image is just the two pieces pushed back together and thus shows the 'before' image after it was already broken. I have seen a number of these rather fragile guards broken into two , three or more pieces almost as if they were made of glass, some even set up for sale, with plenty of glue in evidence from hasty and in my opinion useless repair. Broken or not there are so many of these out there for sale that I can only feel sad that anyone would/has paid more than a few dollars for them. They are in their own way worth about the same as any of the fake Chinese alloy decorations that resemble tsuba - because they aren't tsuba.

fracture cut.jpg

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Dale, don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely in agreement with the assessment that these are crap cast fakes. I was just pointing out that the photo posted showing an apparent break seemed to be a photoshop job, based on the exact shadow positioning.

 

This particular tsuba and it's many cast copies has been thoroughly discussed on this forum previously. There's a link above to a pretty definitive thread on it from 2011.

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I'm the culprit who sent in to Dale, I believe the original post on FB was by someone who Im sure is on the forum here, Artur D.

Hopefully he finds the post and chimes in. But I also think that the photos are taken only minutes apart, post breakage. Not sure the reason for the change of background, but the lighting as Ford says, looks the same

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Thanks for the link Ford, I have seen that post before, it is of some interest that the example seen in that first post has sekigane - the only one I have ever seen. How it was put in is a great mystery as you would expect the guard being so brittle would break.

I should have said I agree with the lighting, the change in background was probably to simulate the original picture from the previous owner? Not blaming the 'fixed' photo, you do need the before and after shot for the effect of the damage.

 

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I should be remembered that cast iron can be rendered a little less brittle by an annealing process, to produce malleable cast iron. This was a procedure being carried out in China at least 1000 years ago. But that aside I still maintain that iron cast tsuba are a modern phenomenon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This weeks supply has arrived !  https://www.jauce.com/auction/522772366

and before you ask, it is from a different seller from a different part of the country.

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And here is one from ebay with its original box! [bonus] https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Tsuba-guard-Japan-Samurai-Sword-sukashi-Engraved/402586358521?hash=item5dbc0452f9:g:C84AAOSwwMJfxxLu

 

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Indeed this particular seller has two other nambu tekki souvernirs also with their original cardboard boxes - so we can add two more designs to the non-tsuba collection. 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Tsuba-guard-Japan-Samurai-Sword-sukashi-Engraved-KAZISAKU/402586355314?hash=item5dbc044672:g:fCUAAOSwnFJfxxHj

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Tsuba-Samurai-Japanese-sword-Katana-Engraved-NOBUSHIGE/402586351872?hash=item5dbc043900:g:K00AAOSwqARfxxAN

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Nambu tekki tsuba with a purpose! These cast iron plates would serve very well as 'sizzle' plates, I have a set myself [always five in a set] They are on the small size, like a saucer so you won't fit a big meal on them ! They turn up from time to time at reasonably cheap prices - the catch these days is the weight and shipping cost!

https://www.jauce.com/auction/f486771757

 

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