Significant Finds Out Of The Woodwork?

[Brian]

Was just thinking today....we have all heard of significant sword finds our of the woodwork. National treasures or missing swords that popped up out of the blue.
So I was wondering, what significant finds in the world of tosogu have you heard about? Not someone buying a Kaneiye out of Japan, but things that were picked up in unexpected places and turned out to be REALLY special.
Just curious what a good eye has been able to dig up at that yard sale or pile of rusty old fittings?
 

[johnnyi]

I've never found anything worthwhile in a junk box Brian, but I did dig these out of the ground back in 1990. I wrote a little article about them then at a time when a tsuba was a "sword guard" and a tsuka was a "sword grip"  .  

   I dug these at an 1850's lime kiln in Bucks County. The first find was the tsuba which was about 8" down under tree roots (almost discarded it, as it was crusted with rust....rust which would quickly brush off the fine iron).  It took two years in all to find everything, and I never did find the blade.

  I'd imagined a scenario which might have made sense, had I not through pure serendipity (years after article was written) bumped into a fellow who, after us conversing on treasure, told me of the sword he'd found with his brother back in the fifties. How it was in an old trunk thrown into the ravine near the lime kiln, and how they spent the day hurling it at trees and generally doing what boys do. As to the blade, it was carted home to be seen no more. 

   The tsuba, which  you will occasionally see cheap reproductions of, is according to Christies, early Edo. Someday I may clean it, but I'm happy with it as it is for now. I don't know the dates of the other fittings, but the leaves do appear to be pure gold and the two piece habaki is solid silver. As to the location, apparently the nearby farms used the ravine adjacent to the kiln as a dump during and immediately after WW2.        Thanks for looking,   Johnnyi

[Curran]

I've never had a "REALLY special" find.

Just found a few at about 1/5th to 1/10th of the fair value. 

 

Repeat: just a_few

[Peter Bleed]

Good Eye? Brian, in the old days "good eye" had nothing to do with it. Everything was cheap and a little brass hammer made you an expert!

Peter

[Surfson]

A friend of mine found a wakizashi size Ishiguro tsuba for 500 bucks that was absolutely good and spectacular.  I have run across four solid gold habaki that were unnoticed....

[Brian]

Keep 'em coming. Love to hear the stories.
 

[Fred Geyer]

Had one major , Compton had a summer home 2 hours from me "I had no idea" and one day in the paper said AUCTION "WITH Japanese ITEMS" that was it.

So away I went to see what was there, took about 10 min of me just in shock of what I was looking at and whos house I was in..... one other person in this group was there.

We bought everything ...I had this guy come up to me all huffy and asked why I was wasting my money buying all this Japanese crap !!!

 

Bought a lot of things for $5 to $10 dollars still have some great things that was on the walls and displays, letters, etc. but tosogu bought 9 tsuba still have one a Umetada for $4.00 and a koshirea that I think was $10.00   

 

Fred      

[Brian]

Wow Fred! That is pretty mindblowing.

[Bugyotsuji]

Have had some incredible finds but nothing J sword related, yet.

 

Someone sword-related that I know in London found a rusty Jumonji Yari in a box of junk at a stall in Portobello for 10 GBP. The seller had no idea what it was. It polished up beautifully.

[Stephen]

kinda not related,  i think we need a die regester ,,notice if someone who has a collection of more than a few nihonto. im not saying any important finds to had at my household auction. Shudder to think some locals getting what i have only to destroy them. Id like to believe Bill R or Grey would make the drive. just a muse carry on.

[Surfson]

Fred, was that after Compton had passed?   I am surprised that his heirs wouldn't realize the value of the items.  Maybe they sold the house including its contents to an unknowing new owner?  Fabulous story though.  

 

I bought a wakizashi for not much money a couple years ago and it had a kodzuka signed Goto Ichijo.  I just had Brian T clean it up and plan to submit it to NBTHK.  Not sure if it will paper, but work is amazing.  

[Bugyotsuji]

Re Compton.

 

On 10 March I was with an NBTHK group invited to handle some special swords in the Hayashibara Museum of Art. Afterwards I was asked by my sword teacher how I had enjoyed it. I muttered something about a great privilege, etc., oh, and how it was the first time I have ever seen, let alone handled, a Tanto by Chogi. 'That one was part of the Compton Collection', he said confidentially.

[Fred Geyer]

it was after his death, i really dont know why they sold things like they did it was boxes and boxes of stuff also alot of his books , letters like when you meet so and so you say this to each of them. I have to find it but one set of letters was when he was taking one of the nation treasues back and who he was meeting and again what to say what he wanted for dinner and who he was to set by, interesting view into history of him and the sword world then along with other things that other person got at the auction was a fun day!

 

Fred         

[Surfson]

I have a daisho koshirae that was in his collection as well as a wakizashi by Kishinmaru Kunishige.   Both are wonderful.  I also had a very nice tsuba, but realized that at some point it had been "patinated" with shoe polish, so I moved it along.  

[Guido]

It actually isn’t my discovery, but since I own the tsuba now, here’s the story:

 

An antique dealer in Portland imported a tansu from Japan. He heard a rattle while moving it around, and finally found a secret compartment containing some tsuba. He showed them to Cary Condell at the San Francisco show, who bought them. One was signed (and papered tokubetsu hozon to) …. (hanaremei) Nobuie!!!

[Bugyotsuji]

Hmmm... not sure I want to push 'like'. Green with jealousy.   again

 

Now I will have to go and dig something out. 

[Brian]

Guido!

 

:clap:

That's exactly the type of story I was looking for. Wow....amazing. And what a beautiful piece to own.

[Bugyotsuji]

Guido, you could write a nice article based around that!

[Surfson]

Gorgeous!  Worth submitting for juyo?

[Leporello]

What a great find!!!

I cannot keep up with that, even though I found this tsuba a few years ago on a local antique market between lots of nonjapanese stuff for a real bargain price.

The dealer already knew what it was, but he did not at all know what he had ... lucky me!!!

Still one of the best and favourite tsuba of my collection