Two Tassels - One blue, One purple?

[Lareon]

I purchased a couple of tassels recently with a skeptical mind on at least one of them. 

 

I wanted to get a general consensus on everyone's opinion of these two 

 

I wont mention too much as I don't want to tilt opinions one way or the other with what I believe to be the case.

 

 

[Bruno]

I woul guess one is just more faded/discolored than the other one. They were identical at some point.

[Bruce Pennington]

I think they are both faded and original.  There were several makers of these and the ink seemed to vary.  @PNSSHOGUN will settle it soon.

[robinalexander]

Tony, I'm no expert but have bought a few of these.

 

For what my opinion is worth...I would buy the blue one (maybe early production tassel).

 

I would not buy the purple one for the following reasons.

 

1. Its purple and if it was faded, it would be a faded purple tone, not the vibrant shade as it is.

 

2. The purple you can see on the knot is quite newish/clean/vibrant rather than more touched/used as you would expect a knot to be.  This is also inconsistent with the condition ofmthe tassels themselves.

 

3. In my limited experience I have never seen such a purple shade (faded or not) and therefore I would wonder about it, every time I looked at it.

 

All my opinion 😊...... look fwd tk what others (particularly John thinks).

 

Rob

[PNSSHOGUN]

Nothing wrong with the faded one, at worst the knot has been retied. The purple one is a bit strange, looks brand new but why are all the tassel fringes missing? Suspect they put this one with an original to flog it off.

[matthewbrice]

They should both be fine.  I have owned many of each.  Different manufacturers produce slightly different works. 




—Matt

 

www.StCroixBlades.com

[Lareon]

Ok, thank you all for your replies.

I must admit when I first saw them for sale I was uncertain about the darker purple one hence the post.

 

when it's in hand it seems genuine in every way. it feels old and brittle at places (probably why the tassels have come off) but as pointed out this is inconsistent with the colour being vibrant so you could rule out damage by light

it has a bit of fraying consistent with being on a sword (doesn't prove anything though) 

 

the weave and material is almost  exactly the same as my others.

if you compare the edges of the tassels there is a difference (see attached photo)

 

the blue brown tassel is stitched with a solid colour on each side

 

the purple tassel has a single row of the opposite colour 

 

so one edge has a single row of purple and its opposite edge has a single row of brown.

 

the length of the tassels is the same too (I believe there is some variance in this anyway so again doesn't prove anything)

 

the only thing throwing me off is the colour. it is a very rich deep blue / purple

but that seems to be explained by others as different variation in colour

 

 

Thank you all for your feedback

Tony

[PNSSHOGUN]

Tony, another method to confirm if original (or at least made from silk) is to shine a UV light on it. Modern dyes & materials will glow, originals will not. At some point during the late 30's makers introduced colourfast/weatherproof dyes to the tassels, this can also explain why some tassels with clear signs of use retain relatively vivid colours and others have radically faded.

[Lareon]

6 minutes ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

Tony, another method to confirm if original (or at least made from silk) is to shine a UV light on it. Modern dyes will glow, originals will not. At some point during the late 30's makers introduced colourfast/weatherproof dyes to the tassels, this can also explain why some tassels with clear signs of use retain relatively vivid colours and others have radically faded.

Thank you, I have a UV Light at home but wont be back for a week or so but will update the thread then.