Which one to buy? Advice needed.

[Shuko]

This has been a good tsuba lesson for me today.   

[Spartancrest]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:09 PM, kissakai said:

One from the Birmingham museum

Image from my book. Kagemishi (mirror maker) circa 1800

 

Compare it to this [cast?] iron example https://www.jauce.com/auction/c1212973939

 

Edited December 19 by Spartancrest

[ROKUJURO]

The authentic KAGAMI (鏡)-SHI TSUBA were cast frome soft-metal (often brass-like copper alloys), but your second example is looking more like iron to me (certainly not cast in EDO JIDAI but much later ).

With the right (= modern) casting technology, casting iron is much less expensive than copper alloys. 
 

[Spartancrest]

1 hour ago, ROKUJURO said:

second example

Yes the nakago-ana and both hitsu are badly done - - not something I would fall for unless I needed a paperweight  [of which I already have plenty! ]