Help on a soft metal tsuba

[Bernard]

Hello everybody,

Can this tsuba be assigned to a specific school ?

Regards.

Bernard D

[Brian]

Damn you have some interesting items, Bernard :lol:

If that were mine (if only!) I would consider it a serious candidate for a Hallam restoration. I think it would really benefit.

 

Brian

[Brian Ayres]

You keep pulling out some nice pieces Bernard. I agree, Ford would make this piece glow. I really like this one too. Thanks once again for sharing. :D

[Bernard]

Many thanks to the two Brians, for their kind replies !

Best regards.

Bernard D

[docliss]

Bernard

 

There has been a dearth of comments on this tsuba. It is an example of sumi-e zōgan, comprising flat inlay on a polished ground, and resembling ink painting. It is almost certainly late Edo work, but I am unable to assign it to a particular school, as this technique was adopted by a number of schools at this period. Sadly, some of the shakudō inlay is missing, and it is all badly discoloured. It was once a fine tsuba, and I agree with Brian. I would certainly ask Ford Hallam if it is salvageable.

 

John L.

[Bernard]

John,

Thank you so much !

Do you think the same for this one ?

Bernard D

[chris covington]

Mr. Bernard,

 

Do you just pull all of these wonderful tsuba out to make the rest of us jealous? Because it is working!

 

Cheers!

Chris

[Bernard]

Thank you Chris ! (I feel like it's time for me to stop posting new items... :D I have three or four more and it shall be the end).

Bernard D

[Stefan]

Tsuba Nr. 1 : I would say late Kaga-Kinko Tsuba.

[raven2]

Great stuff again, Bernard. Did you say that these were all your father's collection? If so, I would say he had very good taste. If they are yours, I would say you have very good taste. Please let us see the others

[Bernard]

Thank you, Stefan and Fred.

@Fred : yes these pieces were all my father's collection.

Best regards.

Bernard D

 

PS : in case you didn't see it, I posted one more tsuba today in the topic "Translation assistance" (reply to svarsh).

[docliss]

Bernard

 

Another very fine tsuba with an iroye of shakudō and gold, depicting a water well (Ido) and vegetation upon a polished copper plate. It is mumei, late Edo work, but I am unable to attribute it to a particular school. Admittedly, it is rather discoloured in the deeper recesses on the omote surface, but this is probably only an accumulation of grot, and will probably clean gently with no problem.

 

Do any other members have a suggestion as to an attribution?

 

John L.

[John A Stuart]

Well, I think Nara school work or derivative school. John

[Curran]

First tsuba is appealing.

Personal feeling is that it would be older than we are attributing it. While technique most common in late Edo, the skill on this one seems very fine like truer to a painting.

I have much to learn about ko-umetada kinko, and every time I see a NBTHK papered ko-umetada kinko tsuba with this sort of fine workmanship.... I allow for something similar like this to be much older. Very difficult to date this one.

 

This is a nice tsuba.

While I cast pebbles at the quality level of the previous Tanaka tsuba, your father had fine taste.

Most everything you have shown us so far has been at a very solidly elevated aesthetic above the vast majority of what people query about.

In other words: batting average very high. Wondering if there isn't a home run or two waiting to be seen.

 

Second tsuba:

Mito or Nara work.

My first thought was one of the decent 1800s Mito spin off schools, but John might be right on Nara call.

Very hard to pin it down to a specific subschool without some sort of special clue, and nothing leaps out as evident in a quick look.

[Bernard]

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for all these additional comments.

Bernard D