Tsuba Collecting - First Purchase, How Did I Do?

[carlitobrigante]

Good day all,

 

After collecting a couple of interesting Wakizashi & Tanto, i wanted to add a few nice Tsuba to my humble collection.

 

For first purchase I picked up this Tsuba with boxed with papers for just under $300. The style appealed to me,  and the fact it was signed with papers was an unexpected bonus, as i expected higher costs for even a lower grade papered example. All the gold inlay seems to be intact. 

 

How did i do? Did i overpay? It is signed 'Echizen jyu Kinai saku'. I have yet to get a full translation of the certificate.

 

It is not a high end piece i am sure, and i doubt it is particularly old (late 19th / early 20th century?)  but would like to hear any thoughts from you about the piece, and the pricing. The pricing for Tsuba collecting seems to vary massively, and i am finding it abit of a minefield!

[ROKUJURO]

Adam,

I think that you did fine on this TSUBA, and it is a good start into collecting. It seems to be of good quality and in very nice condition. The price you paid is on the cheap side, depending a bit on the size of the TSUBA. 

The AOI leaves design is a standard one with KINAI like the one below.



As KINAI were made roughly between 1600 and 1800, yours may be mid-EDO.

[Curran]

Actually very good for a first purchase.

Condition appears fine, so don't feel any need to do anything to/with it.

 

The papers appear to be very old (early) NBTHK white papers from 1963. If I have the date wrong, someone feel free to correct my reading.

 

Much of the language is standardized.

I think either Danney Massey's site has a good crib-sheet of information and translation of the old NBTHK papers.

See http://www.nihontocraft.com/japanese_sword_papers.html

Danney's green papers example broken down part by part should help you.

[carlitobrigante]

thanks guys, i really appreciate the information. That site explaining the various papers was very interesting.

[vajo]

Adam you picked a very nice Tsuba.

I saw some more worse Kinai than yours. The leaves are very nice carved and the condition is near perfect.

The price is very fair i.m.O.

 

But I'm not a expert.