The dreaded papers!

[Spartancrest]

This week on a Japanese auction site two virtually identical tanto tsuba were offered, the first was not papered and started at  a low 1,000 yen price, this increased slowly as you would expect to around 5,000 in a few days - then the other papered version turned up with a buy it now price of 600,000 yen - this seemed to set the bidders off on the first guard, I suppose because they saw a 'real bargain' until some 'lucky' person finally won the first guard for 34,360 yen [$340 USD] Now for its size and condition that sounds about right - however the seller had obviously also seen the papered example's price and figured he wasn't getting anywhere near as much, so pulled it at the last second. What all who took part, got wrong, was accepting the papered example was worth the near $6,000 US. 

There are some condition problems with the first guard but nothing that can't be corrected, and the papered version is not perfect either. I can't help wondering what the first guard would have sold for if the papered version had been listed next week? You may also note one guard is described as Yagu while the other is Owari - which is correct?

[Curran]

The other one had Owari NBTHK papers?

I'm a tad surprised the top one papered to Yagyu instead of Kodai-Yagyu, but sometimes the decision really is after being "in hand" and looking at the mimi and a few other factors.

 

Any wave form or early design Yagyu tsuba will demand premium. The last 2 that I saw sold in within the past 18 months at roughly $9000 and $9525. 

A few of the original designs like the bamboo design, in the right condition with the 'Yagyu' kantei points will pull down > $20,000 to the right collectors.

 

That said, most of the serious Yagyu collectors are in Japan or Europe. I only know of one high level Yagyu collector in North America. The American NBTHK had a good display in San Fran circa 2004. Regrettably the publication that included them didn't do a good job of capturing the feel of them. Yagyu, like the best Ono or Kanayama tsuba, are something you need to handle to really grok them.

 

[Shugyosha]

In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king and for us mortals the NBTHK is the one with the eye and a seller is not going to second guess their attribution and certainly not to move the tsuba in a downwards direction in terms of potential selling price. In the hierarchy of potential attributions there's no argument that a tsuba papered to Yagyu (not ko dai Yagyu either) will command more prestige and therefore fetch a better price than an unpapered Owari tsuba. I suspect that the owner of the "Owari" tsuba was re-thinking his appraisal of it and wondering whether it was worth submitting for shinsa in the hope of getting it promoted to "Yagyu".

 

Or more likely he'll re-list it in the future with a link to the Yagyu tsuba and suggest that it could be papered to Yagyu if someone were enterprising enough to buy it and submit to shinsa (at a price over that which could be got for an Owari tsuba of course).

 

Good spot by the way.

[Shugyosha]

Out of interest, Aoi Art has four papered Yagu tsuba priced between 250,000 JPY and 500,000 JPY (one papered to kodai Yagyu is 150,000 JPY) so you could argue that the auctioned tsuba was overpriced in that context particularly as there are a couple on Aoi that I would prefer over that one but auctions throw up seemingly irrational results from time to time.

[Curran]

1 hour ago, Shugyosha said:

Out of interest, Aoi Art has four papered Yagu tsuba priced between 250,000 JPY and 500,000 JPY (one papered to kodai Yagyu is 150,000 JPY) so you could argue that the auctioned tsuba was overpriced

 

The ranking of Yagyu has been beaten into my head over the years.

The nami ones, even a half nami like this bell one, will command more- sometimes much more.

Most of the Aoi ones are lower tier of the Yagyu designs out there. The only one that makes me pause is: https://www.aoijapan.com/tsuba-mumeiunsignedyagyu/