Can anyone identify these Kozuka?

[Bijouxneko]

Hi everyone,

 

I have two Kozuka here which are a bit of a mystery to me. One is silver with gold iroe and the other is shakudo with silver inlay, gold iroe and gold backside. Any information would be most welcome. I would love to know the era of production and which school these might be attributed to. If anyone has ideas please feel free to share. Thanks again and I look forward to your comments.

[nagamaki - Franco]

Hello Justin,

 

the problem with the first kozuka is that the original patina which was probably shibuichi has been removed, making it difficult to judge. None the less, it looks to have been of good quality. You might think about having it restored. If I had to take a quick guess "as is", I would say the design reminds somewhat of Nara work.

 

the second kozuka 'might' be a waki Goto school, unfortunately, it too looks like it has suffered some abuse.

[Bijouxneko]

Franco,

 

Hello, thank you very much for your opinion regarding these Kozuka I greatly appreciate it. I am just curious how much do you think it would cost to have the shibuichi Kozuka restored to its original state? I am curious to hear what the overall value of the resotred Kozuka might be since I am not sure if it is worth me putting the money in or not. I really enjoy the piece so if you can suggest anyone who might be able to do the work then please let me know. Thanks again for your comments and please take care.

 

All the best,

 

Justin

[Ed]

If you are looking at restoration then selling, depending on what you have in them, plus restoration costs, I think you will have a hard time recouping your money. Imho neither look worth spending money on restoration, but I respect a man's right to do what he pleases with his own money.

Not like Obama wanting to rebuild Haiti with money we don't have !! (yeah, yeah, I know stay on topic)

 

What was interesting to me is that the one with the turtles, depicts "soft shell " turtles. I have never seen that before, very unusual.

[nagamaki - Franco]

Hello Justin,

 

Ed, may very well be correct here in that the professional cost of restoration might exceed overall value. The problem is that proper restorations of tosogu often require lots of time and can be labor intensive. And, a proper restorer would never settle for or release work that wasn't 100% correct. You might try going over to Ford's website http://followingtheironbrush.org/ , and ask about restoring the patina there as they might be able to offer a few suggestions.