"Tsuba: The R. E. Haynes Study Collection" Auction

[Curran]

17 hours ago, Mantis dude said:

Did you also see that while US citizens can purchase these items, they will not be shipping to the US (because of tariffs).  The is a tsuba I want but I also want it shipped to me as well. lol.

 

Yep,  as Ken said, word has been that they are not shipping to the USA.

There is still one I want to bid on,

but USA bidders face some serious headwinds for now.

 

[Katsujinken]

Ugh. Welp. So much for that. 

[kissakai]

Anyone know what time this auction starts GMT

 

[Manuel Coden]

It starts at 2:00 PM CET

[Soshin]

On 3/11/2026 at 9:29 AM, Curran said:

Yep,  as Ken said, word has been that they are not shipping to the USA.

There is still one I want to bid on,

but USA bidders face some serious headwinds for now.

 

Don't really care about this auction per say so not a big loss in my opinion in terms of not shipping to the USA. This not an attack on Mr. Haynes, I am just not doing much active collecting of Tsuba now and what I am after is really nice in my subject opinion and can be obtain elsewhere. I did just notice now that Curran has a new website. I am going to check that out this morning before work.   

[Curran]

2 hours ago, Soshin said:

 

Don't really care about this auction per say so not a big loss in my opinion in terms of not shipping to the USA. This not an attack on Mr. Haynes, I am just not doing much active collecting of Tsuba now and what I am after is really nice in my subject opinion and can be obtain elsewhere. I did just notice now that Curran has a new website. I am going to check that out this morning before work.   

 

Thanks David.

I haven't done much with the website other than 'hang a shingle' out there.

The website host is a bit antiquated. With time, I will work around some of their quirks. Probably after tax season is done.

 

It looks like the Auction is winding down now. I'm watching final prices pop up.

[kissakai]

I logged in at 2.00 GMT so I missed the Onin tsuba that interested me

Some amazing prices so are tsuba gaining in popularity or is it the connection to Mr Haynes

 

[Promo]

On 3/18/2026 at 12:52 PM, Soshin said:

 

Don't really care about this auction per say so not a big loss in my opinion in terms of not shipping to the USA. This not an attack on Mr. Haynes, I am just not doing much active collecting of Tsuba now and what I am after is really nice in my subject opinion and can be obtain elsewhere. I did just notice now that Curran has a new website. I am going to check that out this morning before work.   

It is not Mr Haynes who forbid on them to be shipped to the US, it is due to tariffs imposed by the president of the US. As a result to this there are hardly any shipping companies which are willing to ship items like this to the US. Especially if an item such as Tsuba is made of steel and there are special additional tariffs for those too, and it depends on where it was made, etc.

 

Too late now anyway, but you could always go there, pick up in person and fly home with it. And someone can easily take a bunch more of those into luggage, if it is being organized.

 

Anyway, did someone win something in this auction?

[Lewis B]

This was a shocker. Paul Kremers says these tsuba are fake and I would assume he should know. 

 

[Rawa]

22 minutes ago, Lewis B said:

This was a shocker. Paul Kremers says these tsuba are fake and I would assume he should know. 

 

That sekigane men. I had similar. Kogai ana was cut out in mine example. 100% cast.

Edited Sunday at 09:07 PM by Rawa

[Lewis B]

I hope the buyer knows what he bought when he gets them in hand and demands a refund. ~11k Euro after fees is a big hit. Got to wonder how many other pieces in the collection are suspect. 

Edited Sunday at 09:01 PM by Lewis B

[Rawa]

38 minutes ago, Promo said:

It is not Mr Haynes who forbid on them to be shipped to the US, it is due to tariffs imposed by the president of the US. As a result to this there are hardly any shipping companies which are willing to ship items like this to the US. Especially if an item such as Tsuba is made of steel and there are special additional tariffs for those too, and it depends on where it was made, etc.

 

Too late now anyway, but you could always go there, pick up in person and fly home with it. And someone can easily take a bunch more of those into luggage, if it is being organized.

 

Anyway, did someone win something in this auction?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ewxjpqqqzo 

[Soshin]

1 hour ago, Lewis B said:

This was a shocker. Paul Kremers says these tsuba are fake and I would assume he should know. 

 

 

I don't collect Goto school work   I just searched how much 11,000 euros is in US dollars and I was shocked. I am friends with Paul, and his father and was shocked to the point I didn't response on Facebook to Paul's post about the tsuba (this does have happen often). It really looks fake to me, but keep in mind I don't collect and not really interested in Goto school work but have seen some fine examples in hand over the years and this set of tsuba is far from that level of quality.      

[kissakai]

Today I received an invoice for the papered Kanayama I bought

The email stated I will be contacted by a shipping subcontractor which I hope id not too expensive

Just letting other know as it is all new to me

[Promo]

17 hours ago, Rawa said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ewxjpqqqzo 

With the recent rule by the Supreme Court it became actually even more complicated. Because it allowed certain tariffs, and others not. Especially the ones for steel were mostly "approved". And for some items the steel value is already something you'd have to pay an additional charge that is added to potential other tariffs. And speaking of Tsuba, it is mostly steel (as is a blade). On the other hand, there are possible exempts for antiques and pieces of art .. so depends on which customs tariff number you may use. To put into other words: a nightmare. With tariffs changing on weekly basis (apparently currently not, but who knows..) I fully understand why some simply give up doing this until there are clear rules.

[BrentC]

Also rec'd invoice today.  

[DirkO]

Yep same here, they're quite easy to work with. And reactive to mails.

[MauroP]

I was in Sarzana and attended the auction. It was my first time attending in person, and it was a pleasant experience. Unfortunately, the prices went higher than I expected for a couple of tsuba I was mostly interested in. Nonetheless, I successfully bid on two lots for a reasonable price, which is not bad at all.

[Soshin]

21 hours ago, kissakai said:

Today I received an invoice for the papered Kanayama I bought

The email stated I will be contacted by a shipping subcontractor which I hope id not too expensive

Just letting other know as it is all new to me

 

Good luck @kissakai! From my experience if an auction house subcontracts the shipping it will usually be very costly. I once won a Bonhams Auction during COVID-19 pandemic, and the shipping was very slow and expensive from New York, USA to Maryland, USA. The shipper also shipped every tsuba in its box. This resulted in many damaged wooden boxes. Fortunately, tsuba were all iron Ko-Tōshō and Ko-Kachūshi tsuba and were unharmed by the very poor packing. I later had the tsuba boxes fixed and customized for each tsuba in Japan when they were apprised at the NBTHK.        

[MauroP]

I also had an unpleasant experience with shipping from Bonhams Skinner (Marlborough, MA). I paid a 28% premium on the hammer price, and shipping via UPS (the cheapest option) cost $370 (from the US to Italy). Additionally, the shipping agency failed to provide the correct fiscal code, so in the end my tsuba cost me more than double the hammer price.
Previously, I purchased a tsuba from Czerny’s, and the shipping cost was only €20 (although, of course, that was within Italy).

[Curran]

4 minutes ago, MauroP said:

I also had an unpleasant experience with shipping from Bonhams Skinner (Marlborough, MA). I paid a 28% premium on the hammer price, and shipping via UPS (the cheapest option) cost $370 (from the US to Italy). Additionally, the shipping agency failed to provide the correct fiscal code, so in the end my tsuba cost me more than double the hammer price.
Previously, I purchased a tsuba from Czerny’s, and the shipping cost was only €20 (although, of course, that was within Italy).

 

I too bought a tsuba from Bonham's Skinners (Marlborough, MA).

Pre-tariff, I think premium, expensive shipping, and USA urban sales tax added +70% to the price.

 

Then the expense of getting it NBTHK papered was about 175% of what I would have spent pre-tariff.

All in all, not the bargain I originally thought it.

 

 

[kissakai]

Just awaiting the shipping costs and asked the to use the correct tariff code which they will probably ignore

 

[dimitri]

Same here.

I'm now waiting for the shipping costs; being in France, fingers crossed.

Quite happy with my purchase of the Tenhô signed tsuba. There were one or two others I liked, but their prices skyrocketed; this one was much more reasonable.

[kissakai]

Being such an import auction I wondered if any NMB members wished to show what tsuba they bought and if anyone regretted not going just one more bid

 

[MauroP]

These are my tsuba from the auction. And, well, my only regret was not having a bigger wallet... Seeing all those tsuba together was like finding Santa's sledge parked in the backyard for a kid... 

 

 

The second tsuba has a paper, but it's a minus, not a plus... guess what's the attribution?

Spoiler

Shōami 

 

[Soshin]

Just wanted to follow up on my original comment with a post saying that I like Bonhams and still register and bid on their Japanese art auctions even to this day. I like their commitment to Japanese art throughout the years and have always had positive interactions with their director Jeff Olson. I just registered for their current fine Japanese and Korean Art auction here (Bonhams : Fine Japanese & Korean Art). It should be noted that I selected local pickup only during the registration process. So, I should be able to avoid extra fees associated with shipping and handling of the auction items. I recommend all NMB members who bid and win at the Tsuba: The R. E. Haynes Study Collection Auction to pick up their items at the auction house directly if possible.