Japanese Bronze Statue? Nice or tourist piece?

[waljamada]

Wondering if any bronze statue wisened eyes can gleam anything off these pictures.  It's a bronze coating rather than pure bronze.  Is that typical or evidence more mass produced piece?  Not sure if okimono bronze statues are tyoically pure bronze.  Has some damage under one of the arms shown in photos.  I don't think it's a high quality piece and no evidence of a signature so I'm guessing tourist piece?  Here's its brief description:

 

Weight 9.5 lbs.

Includes removable sword

Meiji Period - 1868-1912

Lost Wax Casting

 

Still tempting just as decour but would like to learn a bit more about this branch of Japanese art collecting.

[John A Stuart]

I like the subject matter. Are you sure it is a bronze and not spelter bronzed? As pic #00138 suggests. John

[waljamada]

John, I am unsure and truthfully I had to Google spelter bronze to learn of it.  It very well maybe, and the only test I read to determine so was a scratch test.  I don't own this statue but was tempted by it as it's under $300. 

 

I have other statues that have a thin layer of bronze but for all I know those are spelter as well.  Don't really want to scratch them to test....but the photo below is an example of one of the thin layer bronze statues (or possibly spelter).  That's what came to mind for me as its all I knew.   The bronze statues I have that were made with the "Lost Wax" technique are thicker so wouldn't match the damage that occurred in the statue above. 

[kissakai]

Spelter is a lot lighter. I is quite grainy so doesn't have the fine detail of bronze

 

[waljamada]

Received the statue and I do believe it to be bronze, but you can tell the casting wasn't done to an extreme quality.   Did not find a signature so my opinion now is it may be from the 50s/60s...could be Meiji but seems newer than that to me.  The detail is good but you can see evidence of its casting (missing a few finishing touches of high quality pieces) and some areas where it seems like it was done after the mold was older and a bit worn down.  Still for $250 bucks (not a steal but didn't get burned either), bronze and 17" tall I'm happy with it. 

[John A Stuart]

$250.00 is a pretty darn good price. Looks good from that perspective and was worth it, I think. John