Tsuba From Birmingham Uk

[kissakai]

I’ve asked Brian to delete my older post about this tsuba book as I now have a copy and can make a couple of accurate comments.

The book has exceeded my expectations. The colours and text are great on quite heavy paper.

The only comment is that the text on the title page has a grey tinge on a white background.

The cover has some very common character, the first being in a computer script followed by the written version and finally the sosho version

 

 

The book has 221 A4 pages in full colour

There are 581 tsuba with many mei that to my knowledge have never been published

​There is a cross reference to the tsuba with a mei and vice versa

 

These tsuba come under the general term of the ‘Good, the bad and the Ugly’. So many books are high end tsuba that most can not afford but most of these can be seen a general sales and fairs

 

 

This publication is available on LuLu publishers

 

https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=greville+cooke&type=

 

 

Rather than post tsuba images I feel it is better to click on the LuLu ‘review’ tab to see the first few pages

 

Paperback = £39.06 ($49.99)

eBook = £19.99 ($25.59)

 

The major aim for publishing this tsuba book was to persuade the Museum to get the tsuba out of storage for an exhibition

To help this I’d like as many NMB members to promote this book through their web sites, Facebook, Nihonto clubs  etc

The more books sold gives me a decent lever to ask the Museum to display these tsuba

 

This has taken me around four years to get to this stage with the help of many NMB members but I would like to mention Markus Sesko for his invaluable help with the actual publication.

 

I would appreciate members to add to this post any reviews or corrections

[Shugyosha]

Order placed!!

 

Well done Grev. Really looking forward to a good read - I'll give it a review on here once I get it.

[Shugyosha]

Dear all,

 

I opted for the paperback version and my copy arrived this morning so here goes with my first impressions - apologies if it's a bit rambling.

 

As regards the size of the book, it is actually a little shorter and a little wider than A4 size. This isn't a gripe as the size enables (in most cases) four good-sized photographs and a description of each tsuba to fit on each page (though some contain two or three where where Grev has picked out particular tsuba for a particular attention). The tsuba are not to scale, but dimensions are provided and photographs are all in colour and are very clear and detailed.

 

In most cases they are of the omote of the tsuba alone, though some of the more interesting tsuba are shown both front and back, though I suspect also that this may be linked to the number of examples of a particular school in the museum's collection - for example there are lots of Namban tsuba (omote only) but only six Tanaka tsuba (ura and omote).

 

The book is well indexed: schools are shown in alphabetical order from Akao to Yanagawa and in ascending date order within each school. Grev has included some commentary on the history and style of each school at the start of the relevant section. There are additional sections that deal with tsuba in the museum's collection that do not fit into the headings of a particular school such as those that are utsushi, shiiremono, modern tsuba (the sharp-eyed among you will spot a couple of shodai Hallam ryu examples) or tsuba "in the style of" certain schools or artists.

 

In the case of signed tsuba, (with the exception of those that are gimei), the artists are linked to the index in Haynes and there is a useful section with enlarged photographs of the mei and this is cross-referenced to the full pictures of the tsuba.

 

All in all I feel that it is a very well thought out and presented book with sufficient breadth to appeal to those who are at the start of their tsuba collecting, or who dabble occasionally like myself, but also some depth to attract the more experienced collector in terms of good pictures of tsuba from well-respected schools that have been hidden away until now and sample signatures of their makers.

 

Again, congratulations to Grev on bringing this work to fruition and for bringing the museum's collection to light, which I do feel is a very worthy endeavour.

 

:clap: :beer:

[Brian]

Thanks John. Will be grabbing an eBook soon.

[yogoro]

My paper copy arrived today.
The advantage of this album is many tsuba ,  often with rare themes.
However, it is a surprise to give dates such as Akashak 1620 for tsuba. It is a pity that no source of attribution was provided.
I recommend to everyone,this will be a very useful book.

Good work , Grev !!! :beer:

[kissakai]

Now a couple have been sold I would like to post reply and add a couple of details

Currently 3 hard copies and 4 PDF books have gone to France, the UK and the USA

 

Please don't take this a plea to buy but I'd like to say that I get £0.96 ($1.24) for the hard copies and a bit more for the PDF version so I'd say it was good value

A principal aim was to be able to approach the Museum and say because of the interest shown in the book 'what about arranging an exhibition

The last time they were on display was 1930 which to me is a tragedy!

 

Mikolaj

You are quite correct with the dating of the early Akasaka tsuba as these should be around C1650 - 1680 oops

You also ask about attribution and this in its self is a bit of a story

Four years ago I was allowed to photograph all the Museum tsuba and I was also given the attributions. I also have a copy of the catalogue for the 1930 exhibition

Nice easy job, an image plus attribution. It became very clear early on that some attributions were way out

After talking to some NMB members I found out that possibly 85% of the attributions were incorrect

So four years later with help from collectors and members of the NMB the project was completed

Rather than mentioning all those that did help and with the main helpers approval I decided to accept full liability for the attributions

In the majority of attributions if three people agreed then I accepted their conclusions

With almost 600 tsuba there will be errors and for that I can only apologise but evidently it is quite easy to make amendments to the book

 

Ford also made the point that no Edo tsuba were made of sentoku.
It's all brass. sentoku only 'happens' in the early Meiji period. (1868 - 1880)

 

The comments above and in other posts can only help with this publication

 

I did ask a few members of the NMB whether to just do a selection of the best tsuba or do the lot

Most said, do them all and I think this is one of this books attractions, having the likes of good, gimei and shirimonjo in one book

I did have to take into consideration the cost of the book hence both sides of every tsuba is not shown. Namban tsuba are usually pretty similar on both sides

There are some schools that are well represented and it is therefore nice to the similarities as well as their differences

At the same time within these bigger groups the similarities around the 'anas' and seppa can be good kantai points

Namban selection is quite big so although not a favoured school it shows a bit of diversity

 

I'm very happy to receive any good or bad comments and of course I look forward to your reviews

 

 

With thanks

Grev

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kissakai]

Hi

As well knew a load of posts have been lost - it happens

There were a couple of nice reviews that have gone

The last one was a nice reply from BaZZa so if you wouldn't mind would you re-post today reply

There was also a current LuLu code that may still work, obviously this would help if anyone has the code

[Brian]

I bought the eBook, only had a brief chance to go through it, but was impressed. It is really nice to see a lot of the stuff that we would come across. Not just the best of tsuba, but mid level and also entry level. It spans the whole cross section, and is nicely set out, with some good info. The close-up mei section is also welcome, even acknowledging that they aren't papered.
A good buy.
FWD15 coupon code was working for 15% off. Worth a try.

[Jean]

Do it when I am back from vacation, using my phone as modem and believe me, I must be a saint. Impossible to upload images. I am in a no man's land....

[Alex A]

Briefly looked through the book today, excellent value for money, surprised at the number of tsuba at the museum!.

 

I'm sure to use the book for reference in the future, so many examples.

 

Well done Grev.

[christianmalterre]

i do very heartly recomment this project and the following publication done by Grev!

 

a LOT! of material here...some very rare design stilisms, some very rare to see motive and expression done by these Tsubashi thosetimes...and also some really well (excellent) forged early to mid Edo period Tsuba herein.

In sum- everyone, may the focus be on old iron?- or on Kinko?- will very certainly be happy with this amazing mess of material published herein in this book....

 

i really hope the museum will display some of these Tsuba in future...

 

makes pleasure for shure !

[Japan2112]

Congratulations, Grev, on such an ambitious and helpful project. I will order my copy today. Yes, it is disheartening to know of a museum's treasure trove, but not be able to view it. Your work brings that opportunity to light. Mark

[kissakai]

Again - thanks for all your feedback

If I may I have one last favour to ask

 

I looked on LuLu and filtered the results just to show tsuba books

I was surprised that none of the tsuba books had any reviews and therefore no 'star' rating

Would it be possible for those that have purchased the book to add on the LuLu website say a one line review and a star rating

I'm sure this would help with sales as when I'm buying anything on-line I look first for the star rating then read the reviews so this I'm sure would help with sales

 

 

Grev

[kissakai]

I have had some great feedback but this means I'll need to an updated version

There are some schoolboy errors and a couple of attributions that may be in error

If an attribution is found to be in error it means some major giggling of the pages

I expect this to take around a month to update

In the meantime I would suggest no one makes a purchase and ?I will notify the NMB when the second version is complete

To any NMB members who have bought a copy I will make a free PDF file available

 

I see I have one feedback completed on LuLu - thanks but any more always helps

 

Apologies for errors but it was a big project  

 

 

Grev

[Bazza]

Hi

As well knew a load of posts have been lost - it happens

There were a couple of nice reviews that have gone

The last one was a nice reply from BaZZa so if you wouldn't mind would you re-post today reply

There was also a current LuLu code that may still work, obviously this would help if anyone has the code

 

Drearie me, 6 weeks to pick up on this!!  I thought this thread could do with a bump as Grev's work to get this book to print is amazing.  I've been collecting 50+ years and for Grev to have accomplished this after coming into Nihonto in 2012 is a stunning compliment to his enthusiasm and persistence - with a little help from his friends, as the saying goes.  I think John Johnson (Post #3) said it well:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All in all I feel that it is a very well thought out and presented book with sufficient breadth to appeal to those who are at the start of their tsuba collecting, or who dabble occasionally like myself, but also some depth to attract the more experienced collector in terms of good pictures of tsuba from well-respected schools that have been hidden away until now and sample signatures of their makers.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I heartily agree with John's comments.  For myself there was a surprise.  Having bought a couple of tsuba recently I found a mate on page 31 of the book, the bottom rhs tsuba from the Choshu Nakai group of iris leaves and flowers.  When I have photos that accurately show the colour of this tsuba I'll start a thread on it because I have some questions.

 

BaZZa.

 

EDIT:  For those new to this thread and Grev's book the below thread outlines the genesis of the book:

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/13514-re-listed-tsuba/

[kissakai]

Thanks BaZZA

I'm very close to updating the book so as yet please do not buy!

I will add to this post as soon as it has been completed

Again with help it has a better layout and the mei is esier for a beginer to read

Most images are at least 10% bigger

[zanilu]

Hi Grev

 

I really enjoyed your book. I have bought a pdf version. 

 

For those who have bought the book in pdf the revised vertion will be available for free or at an additional price?

 

Regards

Luca

[kissakai]

Hi Luca

The updated version (PDF) will be available to anyone who has bought either the Hardcopy or PDF formats

[Curran]

Grev,

 

Let me know when the new version is available.

A major professional obligation had most of my mental space.

Now that it is past- I'm catching up on several months of "To Do List" and reading.

[Akao]

I'm very close to updating the book so as yet please do not buy!

I will add to this post as soon as it has been completed

Again with help it has a better layout and the mei is esier for a beginer to read

Most images are at least 10% bigger

 

I'm looking forward to read it ! 

[zanilu]

Thanks for the answer Grev

 

Luca

[Jean]

Still waiting for green light

[kissakai]

I have updated the hard copy and it looked OK but I'm having problems with doing the eBook

I thought it was OK but when I viewed it the right hand text had been cut off.

I'm awaiting a reply from LuLu to complete the eBook

I have ordered a hard copy so please don't order the hard copy until I am happy with it

As soon as both versions are available I will let you know hopefully no longer than one week

If you are buying then look out for any LuLu discounts that you could use later

As I've said before I will send the updated PDF file to those that have bought a previous copy

[zanilu]

Hi Grev.

Just a question. I have bought the pdf version of you book. We will be able to download it from lulu or we have to PM you directly?

 

Nice book by the way. A lot of reference tsuba, I like that!

 

Luca

[kissakai]

Hi Luca

As soon as I know all is correct I will email the new PDF to any previous buyers

This will be directly from me and nothing to do with LuLu

[kissakai]

An update

The eBook is available would some check the LuLu listing to see if all looks OK

I should be getting my hard copy on Monday or Tuesday so I'd still advise no one buys either versions until I've vied the hard copy

[Jean]

Grev,

 

Can you send me the link for the e-book, if I follow your link only the printed version appears.

[kissakai]

Hi Jean

Link as requested:

 

http://www.lulu.com/shop/greville-cooke/the-birmingham-museum-art-gallery-tsuba-collection-v2/ebook/product-23333008.html

 

On LuLu you just need to type in Greville Cooke and both books are displayed

Shortly I hope to restart my other 50 tsuba book

[Jean]

Message from the site: page unavailable error HTTP 500

[kissakai]

Jean

No idea why it didn't work

If ypu goggle LuLu publishing and search for Greville Cooke

That can not fail