Online Arthur Church tsuba collection at the Ashmolean

[growlingbear]

As has been mentioned previously on the NMB, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford holds the Arthur Church collection of tsuba. Unfortunately, these are not on public display (the museum only has three or four tsuba in the galleries), but fairly recently the entire collection has been photographed and put online - over 1200 tsuba!

 

The collection can be found at this link:

http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/7/10237

 

It is organised as a kind of online catalogue which isn't the easiest way to look through, and the tsuba generally have only photos of one side. The catalogue was written in 1929 as well, so some of the information and attributions may be quite dated.

 

You can zoom into the pictures by clicking on the "details" button (it took me a while to find this, and is quite useful...).

 

Hopefully this is of interest - I think it is a shame these tsuba are not on display, but at least it is possible to now see some of them through the photos.

 

James

[Geraint]

Brilliant link, thank you James.

[cspage]

Wow. Not only a good site, but really sweet tsuba. Check out the Tsuba with egg fruits in the "Akao school of Echizen and Yedo" section.

 

Colin

[raven2]

Excellent reference site. Thank-you James.

[kusunokimasahige]

Thank you very much for posting this ! Excellent reference !!!

[Ludolf Richter]

Thank you for this fine reference.A pity there is nothing about mei and mei-reading/explanation or did I make something wrong in not finding the respective text?!Ludolf

[christianmalterre]

Dear James...indeed...that´s running puzzeling now...(did not know that!)

attached an Dai(in an actual well known German collection )-and an Sho(in an Museums collection)

standing hard between an Rock and an Chair now...so far....

(LOL!)

 

Christian

[Marius]

I dare say that the Yamakichibei from the Church collection looks like a late Edo copy. The hammer work is nothing that you see in the shodai or nidai, and the tekkotsu are wildly overdone.

 

Yamakichibei experts, chime in, please?

 

Thanks for sharing this excellent resource, Very good photographs, some interesting tsuba.

[christianmalterre]

don´t let you confuse by that "Kitsch" Sekigane!

The Church one is as real as ...

Schoolar... ;Earlier,but which one?(LOL!)

 

Christian

[Marius]

I am paying attention to the hammer work. And it does not look at all like any of the three/four Yamakichibei acknowledge by scholars (o-shodai, shodai, nidai and sandai).

 

It is so... over the top, quite clumsy. Don't let yourself be fooled by the shape and design. This tsuba is interesting in its own right, but Yamakichibei? Nah. Late Edo, revival piece. Futagoyama at best...

[christianmalterre]

yes!-i do see what you mean...

me personally never but have seen any Tsuba from Norisuke group showing real Tekkotsu...

they did made good "kind" "artificial" one...however it lacks it´s historical significance,,,(Momoyama tradition)....

otherwise...LOL! what shall i say?

somebody in latter Edo did add some vogue(ish)?-(personal) Kitsch-taste /to excellent old iron tradition here(Church tsuba)

it´s good certainly-one but had to unplugg these elements!

 

Christian

[Ludolf Richter]

Has there ever been a listing of the whole Church-Collection printed?In his book from1914 (with reprints from the last 20 years) only 272 pieces are shown with the remark,his whole collection had "nearly five times that number",e.g.only 4 Tsuba from the Ito-School in the book,but nearly 40 in this online catalogue.Ludolf