I found it. Also titled, 'The pitfalls of senility'

[Rich T]

All, a little while back, Curran raised a question in regards to a book with a price guide for fittings, I knew I had seen one, I just could not remember where. But I found it. It is called Kinko Tanko, mei no kakaku (signature and value) and is by Wakayama and Shibata (金工 鐔工 銘と価格 )

 

It has both examples of mei and the relevant values of the artisans, there are more entries than photo's of mei, and it was published in 1984. I have attached some images below.

 

Now here's the kicker, and you may laugh if you feel the need. How did I come across all this information ?, well the book is in my book case. We moved some furniture around last night, mostly as I had ran out off book case and needed to up size, and I found the book tucked away in a corner, forgotten for the time being.

 

Still, I knew about it, so the grey matter is not totally gone. Anyway, these are of course subjective values as they are relevant to two peoples opinions ( albeit it very good ones ) and are from a time when a good Ko Akasaka was worth 500 bucks. Also, I would assume these prices are based on exemplary examples of the quoted work, and not lower end or average pieces.

 

Examples are as follows in yen,

 

Nobuie - 1,000,000

Hoan - 300,000

Yamakichi - 130,000

Somin - 1,000,000

Yasuchika - 1,000,000

 

Rich

[Bungo]

I seldom pay attention to those ranking by monetary values.........still kind of wonder how they came up with the figures to begin with. Past auction sales ?

 

milt THE ronin

[Rich T]

I would imagine as Shibata was one of the premier dealers ( and his company still is ) would help a lot, add to that Wakayama sensei's great experience and you get the idea.

 

Of course these prices would meen little today.

 

Rich

[Brian]

I don't call it senility...I just call it having such a decent book collection that it becomes impossible to catalog it mentally :D (Sounds much better)

In my other field, I have over 2000 books...and I have lost count of the number of times I have come across a book in my library and thought "wow...how very nice of me to have that..I was thinking of buying it sometime" ..lol

Looks like a good book to use as a starting guide. Thanks for the info Rich. Has anyone done a search to see if there are copies available on the net anywhere among the used book dealers?

 

Regards,

Brian