PietroParis

I suppose it is this one, right? I have just bought an affordable chawan from the same dealer and I am eagerly waiting to receive it, hoping it will dispel that nagging "too good to be true" feeling... Cheers, Pietro

Well, if the ultimate destination was the European market importing the handles would have made more sense...

The blades in Dwayne's set are marked "Mappin & Webb - Sheffield", and the ones in the Bohnams set are marked "Jules Piault". Does this mean that European jewelers were importing the handles from Japan and fitting them on locally-made blades and forks? Cheers, Pietro

There appears to be a market for those sets, see e.g. this Bonhams lot, but indeed my understanding is that they should be viewed as fancy cutlery. Cheers, Pietro

Hi, I presume I am stating the obvious here: the decoration on both sides of the handle means that they were "born like that", i.e. they are not actual kozuka adapted to kitchen knives, but rather "kozuka-like" decorations of regular knives' handles. I saw a set of twelve such knives sell for 562.50 EUR (including fees) at a recent auction in Paris. The ones in your post appear to be more-finely chiseled to my untrained eye (but the picture of the Paris knives is very poor). Cheers, Pietro P.S. I would also wonder why "Meiji period Japanese knifes" are marked "Mappin & Webb" on the blade...

Hi All, A dealer of Japanese art that I recently visited in Paris had his tsuba arranged in a vitrine under strong spotlights. The ones that lay closest to the light bulbs were almost too hot to touch. What do you think, could this treatment damage the tsuba in the long term? Cheers, Pietro

OK, thanks again. To be fair, the Wikipedia article does not suggest any relation between "Oda Sei" and "Oda Seizan", it was just my own speculation. Cheers, Pietro

Hi Steven, thanks a lot for your input! I also found that the wikpedia page for Kutani ware – not necessarily a reliable source, I know – mentions one Oda Seizan, a master of fine calligraphy. Might the name of the retailer be somehow a reference to this artist? (the artist's signature looks very different, though). Cheers, Pietro

WOW, you guys never disappoint! Malcom, I think you are correct. The left part of the signature in the picture you linked appears to match the one on the cups. And - as far as I remember - the decoration of the cups was perhaps a bit less garish, but not dissimilar in style from the one of this plate. Thanks a lot! Cheers, Pietro

Hi All, My girlfriend's family owns a set of porcelain coffee cups which they believe are from Japan. I understand that they originally belonged to some great-grandmother who was involved with an antiquarian. Cups and saucers all have the same mei: Can anybody here translate it? Thanks in advance for any help, Pietro

I can only join the chorus of envious Parisians... I presume it was not in St. Ouen?

Maybe six legs and two antennas?

I showed the site to a friend who has been collecting Mashiko ware for many years, and he is amazed by how cheap many pieces by top masters are. Of course this might mean that there are hidden surprises - of the "too good to be true" variety - which is why it would be interesting to find somebody who has actually bought something from this seller. Anyway, I will keep an eye on the site, and maybe try my luck if another old/antique Shino chawan like the one I had noticed goes on sale at an affordable price. Most of the bowls available now are Raku, which I would steer clear of for the reasons we discussed in another thread... Cheers, Pietro

Hi Steven, Thanks a lot for taking the trouble to check the site! I was intrigued by a few antique chawan that seemed surprisingly affordable to me (e.g., this one, which was sold for 17900 JPY), but I don't know much about pottery, and it is of course possible that they are all of low quality. Anyway, "you get what you pay for" may be depressing, but it is still a notch above "you pay a fortune for fake stuff", which characterizes some of the online sellers discussed in this section... Cheers, Pietro

Hi All, Today I found the website of a shop named ChanoYu. They sell mainly Japanese pottery, but also a few tsuba. The descriptions of the items are rather minimal, but rich of pictures. They appear to offer free delivery (?) to Europe and US. What I find a bit puzzling is that the prices seem rather low - usually below 20000 JPY - even for signed and supposedly antique items (e.g., check the tea bowls). I am not really able to assess the quality of those pieces, but I am well aware that when something looks too good to be true, it often isn't... Does anybody here have any experience with this seller? Cheers, Pietro

Indeed, this is “the last tip” I was referring to. I guess I’ll just look for a different kind of bowl! Cheers, Pietro

Thanks for the tips! Personally I think that I would stick to the last one... Concerning the “leaded” bowls, should older ones (where the glaze might be worn or crackled) be considered riskier than newer ones? Cheers, Pietro

The bowl really does look great, but isn't there a health concern from the lead in the black raku glaze? I am not sure that I would want to drink from it... Cheers, Pietro

Hi Ian, I was told that the armory halls were recently rearranged, the sword and the armor pictured above were all the Japanese items I could see (but I may of course have missed other stuff). Here is a picture of the glass case, from the museum’s website (see also the link in my first post for more pictures of the armor). Cheers, Pietro

Are you referring to the missing stripe of fabric on the top of the tsuka? In the third “fittings” picture I see the same feature on the saya. Of course I have no idea of what it means... Cheers, Pietro

Hi All, Today I visited the Royal Armory in Turin - which was the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy - and I stumbled into an armor donated by the Emperor Meiji to King Vittorio Emanuele the 2nd in 1869: The armor was displayed next to a sword, but the written explanations were unclear on whether the sword itself was part of the imperial gift. This is the best I could do picture-wise, considering that armor and sword were hosted in a large glass case, and that my photo skills and camera are what they are... Global view of sword and saya: Fittings: Blade: What do you think, is this sword worthy of an Emperor's gift to a King? Cheers, Pietro

Here is a pine tsuba from Joe Earle's book on the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts: Cheers, Pietro P.S. "attributed to Nishigaki Kanshiro", I suppose it's the original version that Michael refers to in the post above.

Hi All, Apologies for the slightly off-topic question: where does one buy the bone (?) to remove rust from metal? Cheers, Pietro

Well then, it should be priced at one million dollars!!!

As suggested by "Surfson", it is probably just a ploy to advertise his shop. Indeed, the description of the sword ends with: "Please see the many unique items we have for sale on eBay at THE SAMURAI MONKEY 42" Cheers, Pietro