Mr Darren Harvey

[DFX]

Hello

Id appreciate any help with identifying 

this Tsuba I acquired recently from an antiques store there was no information with it

it weights 152g

Is it copper, Bronze?

age?

period

 

any help

would greatly be appreciated 

[Mark S.]

I believe this may be a cast reproduction.  

[Spartancrest]

Welcome Darren. Sorry to say it is very likely a Chinese fake - once again - sorry.  Cast alloy, the mei is cast in and rounded in the grooves, black 'soot' added to make the kanji stand out. I do hope you did not pay too much. I will have a look and find you other examples. Do you have the receipt from the 'antique' store? - they don't seem to know what they are selling.

[Michael 101]

Hello Darren, 

 

sorry to say that this is definitely a modern cast copy.

 

if it was sold to you as original or it was expensive then I would see if you could get a refund.

 

the main giveaway points are its crudeness, signatures carved in soft metal ( eg copper brass etc ) would be much more crisp than your pictured show.

 

worth reading some of the articles you will find here on cast copies so that you can get your eye in.

 

by the way we have all bought these at the start so take it as a lesson ( hopefully not an expensive one ) 

 

kindest regards 

 

Michael 

[Spartancrest]

https://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/c1038531563/ Also appears here - https://www.jauce.com/auction/c1038531563 as a different colour variation of the same alloy cast guard it sold for 3,500 yen or approx. $26.43 USD. I am pretty sure they turn up on ebay as well.

[DFX]

Thank you so much for your responses..I guess I’ll take this as a lesson learned this will be going back to where I purchased it…

gutted!

 

I will find and own an original

one at some point!

[raaay]

Hi Darren , very poor fake Tsuba IMHO , i hope you get a refund for it ?

[Curran]

 

[Matsunoki]

Darren, a nice tsuba is available here on this forum. Perfectly genuine and in my opinion it’s not expensive. See this link.

The market is flooded with Chinese fakes. Many crop up in “antique” shops and at auctions across the UK and neither the shop,owners nor the auctioneers seem to have a clue what they are selling….thus many are described as “Japanese tsuba”.….and many enthusiastic beginners get caught. 

 

 

[vajo]

7 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

https://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/c1038531563/ Also appears here - https://www.jauce.com/auction/c1038531563 as a different colour variation of the same alloy cast guard it sold for 3,500 yen or approx. $26.43 USD. I am pretty sure they turn up on ebay as well.

 

This one is a better quality cast. With a little more effort you can make a nice tsuba from it for a chinese replica katana. To sad that it is painted.

[DFX]

Thanks again

getting a refund tomorrow 

lesson learned!

so glad I joined here

I appreciate the experienced

advice given 

[kissakai]

We do try to help but it will always be an opinion but I do the NMB quite a lot

 

[roger dundas]

DFX- Darren, you should buy Kissakai, Grev's illustrated book on Tsuba from the Birmingham Museum as well as Spartancrest, Dale's productions on tsuba from various museums.

Great value and great information. Get yourself 'hooked' like so many others here.

Roger j

[1kinko]

Books are OK but handling and examining with an Optivisor is much better. Attend some sword shows and get to know  knowledgeable dealers.

[roger dundas]

Do both if you can. The more the better.

Roger J