Spartancrest

They are positive resin impressions of various small fittings, known as Yanigata. like having a 3D reference of finished works. This site has many examples and good information. https://tsubakansho.com/ There are published examples that are clearly labeled with the names of the makers: If you want to know what work your ancestor did - better than a drawing or a description!

Piers you just beat me to it! It might depend on the decoration if any - does it make sense in any particular orientation. The problem still remains if the guard is un-decorated or symmetrically decorated. Has anyone seen a display board with the nakago-ana peg pointing down?

I am a disinterested party but even Stephen Hawking wrote or co-wrote 15 books - and I think he had more handicaps than Ford? Eight years is stretching the friendship a bit.

Two separate auctions [on the same night] by two sellers. What do you think? Daisho or not? https://www.jauce.com/auction/480050041 https://www.jauce.com/auction/x1043826445 Same shakudo 'wire' fukurin and sukashi pattern, but one above nakago-ana the other below?

The third one may be based on a guard by Yasuchika - a close design from the Marquis de Tressan collection [circa 1913].

https://tsubakansho.com/tag/catalogue/

Scott - that is one of the 'better' cast fakes [not saying much]. I was wondering is that a bit of junk on the right side of the seppa-dai or left over casting spill? Two minutes with a file could have fixed that. [but not increased it's value] https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/crane-sukashi-tsuba-Japanese-samurai-135685052 Same cast design, bigger chip under the head and blob lower right hitsu - grainy seppa-dai Plenty of them about. Real 'quality' piece https://www.jauce.com/auction/u1042220390 - 50,000yen !!!! [bloody awful]

I had no idea so many countries allow personalized postage stamps - this site lists a great number that were available up to 2016 and more may have been added since that time. So have a look to see if your country is listed. How many people can say their collection was printed on a postage stamp? [I look forward to seeing any designs] https://www.meterstampsociety.com/WorldPersPost.html

I don't know if this is the same 'Miboku Hamano' but an interesting site nonetheless - https://tosogu.cz/?p=1647 Also https://yuhindo.com/otsuryuken-miboku-soroikanagu/

Soren, Small is beautiful, I have a Katamenuki very similar [wish I had both] and what I take to be a tiepin? Also a tobacco pouch ornament only 2 cm high. They make modern copies but they are just not right. I have those Bonhams menuki as being sold the year before by Barnebys Auctions. "Tale of the travelling Tosogu."

I have managed to track down the 'tachi' stamps from Japan, from what I gather it is possible to order your own stamps to be printed in Japan just as I was able to do in Australia. Further to that, it may also be an option in France. This may come as a shock to the Japanese and French members of NMB but other countries may also have this opportunity but be unaware of it. Next time you visit a post office just ask if such a thing is available, it does not mean you can't produce your own stamps outside the field of tosogu of course. https://kunkun888.exblog.jp/15135430/ http://www.fabiennejouvin.com/blog/category/Correspondence-.-Stamps Totally non tosogu related - my first grandchild-

Old auction image -

http://thumb1.zeppy.io/d/l400/pict/144416322943/antique-1700-Japanese-Japan-samurai-sword-tsuba-iron-openwork-noren-guard-vtg Yours I presume. One in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford. http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/7/10237/10365 EAX.10776 A variant found here. -- https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/collection-publications/collection/works/tsuba-doorway-curtain-design/36454/ Another - https://www.earmi.it/armi/tsuba/tsuba.htm [picture quality not so great.] One up for auction now with papers - https://www.jauce.com/auction/r1039267825 Perhaps someone can translate them?

We can't see the ura view very well but there are no obvious signs that it has been mounted. No tagane-ato marks. Perhaps a presentation gift?

What about a 'Hit list' - like notches on a gun - I don't care how crazy you look, no one needs a tsuba THAT BIG!

The two squares remind me of a Kabuki actors woodblock.

Colour in your own fake! I can't see a lot of skill in the paint job of this numerous copy. https://www.jauce.com/auction/o1044108364

Chris, I just had a thought - [I try to limit them to one a day!] - Even though I was bidding through Jauce, the tsuba may have been listed on Buyee or Yahoo or even some other linked site that follow different rules, so perhaps not the great mystery I was thinking it was? Even though I got it by default I am looking forward to seeing just how it was constructed, struck me yesterday that if you were putting parrying bars on a guard why put them next to the weakened area near the hitsu? Why have hitsu to start with and as Eric pointed out, why round hitsu?

I can't track down who may have that specific guard now, some sites here with other Funada Ikkin tsuba. https://yuhindo.com/funada-ikkin-tsuba/ https://www.aoijapan.com/tsubafunada-ikkinkao/ https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19295/lot/5/ good luck in your search.

Chris you are right, I think ebay has something similar. However in order for me to even put in a bid on Jauce, I need to have the money already in my Jauce account. Unlike ebay who take the risk if you won't pay - Jauce takes no risk, they want your money up front. They have just started 'giving credit' to long term clients, setting a limit depending on your buyer history. The credit is only good for 24 hrs whereby you must deposit the funds - also the 'credit' only works if your account has some funds still in it, even if only a few dollars/yen. Perhaps the other buyer was working on credit and had second thoughts or couldn't get to his bank? I don't know but there may be different rules for Japanese buyers?

Back to being STRANGE - The person who 'won' the original pronged guard apparently forfeited the bid and as the second highest bidder I got it! Strange because the auction house doesn't let you pull out of a bid once it is made - so how did the 'winner' manage it?

If that one was strange what is this? https://www.jauce.com/auction/h1043733464

This auction - https://www.jauce.com/auction/g1043772704 "Stimulated the little grey cells" as Hercule Poirot would say - I had seen this guard in a little 1945 Japanese book only just recently. Has anyone seen it published after that date? [1/4/1945] Does the mere fact that it has been published, increase its value or is it more a case of providing provenance that adds to the value? I wonder where it has been all these years?

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-299547 I think this is the auction - but no images.

Could someone give me a translation on this mei - there appears to be a character on the bottom left not identified. Thanks for any help.