Spartancrest

This is not my area at all but I thought to share this very strange "sales pitch" for a blade that has drawn human blood - very recent blood by the look! https://www.jauce.com/auction/t1194607685 That looks like about twelve stiches to me!

Thanks Jason, I am just glad that I managed to grab all the now missing images. I have all the ura views of the sukashi ones, which is not a big deal as you would just see a mirror reverse image really, but sometimes the tagane-ato are on that side and the punch marks are often a "finger print" to identify specific pieces that may have been in other collections in the past. Forensic Tsubaology A screen shot of a question answered by AI : AI will have to guess again! I released a "Pictorial guide to the tsuba in the Saint Louis Art Museum" six days ago - maybe "Skynet" hasn't caught up yet! [John Conner , where are you?]

Something odd going on here - now some are showing two images, while others have only one with a signature close-up - https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/8667/ https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/8666/ https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/8686/ Maybe it is a "Time share" thing

But how many images of each tsuba? Apart from a few with closeup signatures?

I recently up-dated the Saint Louis Art Museum's collection of tsuba, but something has happened to the museum's on-line images. Half the images are now GONE. It seems incredible to me that a museum would minimise it's access to information particularly images in the public domain. I wonder if any members within the U.S. still have access to all the images [omote & ura]? Living on the other side of the planet I am wondering if some "firewall" has been erected to limit access to "outsiders" - or am I just paranoid? [Makes no difference to me as I have the entire collection on record - but why should I be the only person with access?] Can other members check the site and see what they find? https://www.slam.org/search/tsuba/

Check out this tsuba with a poem from the Walters : https://art.thewalters.org/object/51.363/

My "speciality" finding the original bargain!

Not a fan of ebay - far too many "proxy sellers" which is an indication of corrupt practices that ebay allows [probably endorses]. What does the ebay platform care as long as they get their cut? I know a lot of other sites do the same, so it is up to us [the buyer] to look a little harder for the original seller - he/she is also getting their reputation damaged. Can anyone remember when the airlines were closed for shipments around Covid lockdown and the spike in shipping fees that were "temporary"? They never did go back down did they!

Hi Jon, is it possible to get an image of the tsuba unmounted from the blade? From the number of seppa I think the guard is unlikely to be original to the sword. A look at the seppa-dai might help with its identification.

Alex what other purpose does money have? All money is ultimately wasted - that is how governments work . You can't take it with you when you die and leaving it to the kids just puts them on the same roundabout. Money is the ultimate slavery tool - get rid of it. Hell 90% of people wouldn't go to work if they had to do it just for fun, wages are a form of enforcement to keep the masses busy. [This political broadcast was brought to you by the money lenders association and the guild of "Make me richer than the Plebs"]

Kitsune? Trickster fox? "Dancing Skunk" thread here: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/51886-old-classic-the-proud-tanuki-tsuba-aka-dancing-skunk-humor/

Who are the experts here? Typically dark image from the Vancouver Museum with this attachment: DB 248 RESEARCHER'S / EXPERT'S REMARKS "This tsuba might be the work of the late artists of Owari. Common design and all are the same. This type of tsuba is certainly by the same school, if not by the same hand." Owari? I would swear it looks by Shoami Kanenori - who did indeed produce very many the same, thus common, but in no way are they ALL the same. But he had nothing to do with Owari as far as I know. So I would ask who are these researchers/experts? arse from their elbow experts?

https://varshavskycollection.com/collection/lib-3022.2022/ https://www.dollsmuseum.jp/shop/product/Japanese-traditional-oshie-hagoita-02/ https://mainichi.jp/english/graphs/20211126/hpe/00m/0et/002000g/20211126hpe00m0et015000q https://chidorivintage.com/en-au/products/Japanese-decorative-wooden-paddle-hagoita-kabuki-kimono-edo-jk745?srsltid=AfmBOooX9LbYKcLxvBbTLWt4kCD6qkyCtAow-LcNwpaw33vlf-QhV0Z3

I just released the St Louis book [again]. Larger format double the number of images. Someone gets a lot of the cash benefit, but it isn't me! Stupid high "markup" a $45 book to print, costs some poor sod $105 to feed the greedy middleman! And that's not even with shipping or taxes! I wouldn't pay that much for a book at the best of times - - - and it's my book! Brian where have you hidden the "bitching again emoji"?

Cleveland Museum of Art, left some with "mounting" damage on a few of their exhibits. Luckily within the seppa-dai but still not excusable.

That is what I thought. I do like the way the way the banner flows in the wind - nice piece!

An extreme example I will grant you!

Jesse, it does look like J9 - But the J may be an E or F written in perhaps an old German font? Strange place to put a museum catalogue number but the seppa-dai is probably too rough of a flat area? Do you know where the guard came from? You did well to bring the image out as much as you did from the original image it looks almost invisible or a bit of rust.

Hello, one here with the 'patina' intact and the right way up! https://www.jauce.com/auction/e1193417263 "Tsuba, ornaments, sword fittings" and nothing to see on the ura

Bruno, drifting off the topic but have you seen this? https://www.jauce.com/auction/b1190180124 Suitable for a trident !!

Going way back to Posted March 6, 2023 This has just come up https://www.jauce.com/auction/s1098914034 Well I now know what my example originally looked like - I wonder what happened to the frame on mine?

Quick get your wallets out! https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/226875719520 or https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/226875705267 US $329.99 ApproximatelyAU $506.97 Or https://jp.mercari.com/item/m23105341320 USD$ $23.90 Seems a large price difference? Well factor in the shipping cost for in excess of 1.5 kg of iron! What both sites fail to reveal is the size of this "Edo Period Antique" (Age: 1800-1849) - around 30cm or just under a foot in height, the fact that it is a wall hanging "object" is not mentioned and no view of the ura is shown either - and why don't they know which way up a tsuba should be seen? Still they did go to the trouble of removing all the factory applied patina to reveal the "silver" colour! [Oh and that is the strangest "Crane" I have ever seen!]

It might be rude to ask how much was paid for the tsuba? Another signed example selling this week on Jauce https://www.jauce.com/auction/u1191124637

Dubious description from the Vancouver Museum: Catalogue number DB 158 Iron (?); openwork; face: three bats in flight, with wings forming outer border, bodies connecting to metal surrounding openings; reverse: similar, but features not defined (or worn); rounded rim; three hole tang; Rabbits Kogai and Korzuka Anna. Really? Three BATS? Not three long eared Rabbits! Triple bladed - three hole tang? No idea what a "Rabbits Kogai" should look like or some person by the name of "Korzuka Anna" has got to do with it. O(h) Canada!

Yes the 1973 edition had it all!