Its that time of year..... Closet Cleaning sale... part 4

[rkg]

Lacquered Saotome tsuba

 

 

This kiku gata is made of iron and measures 91.9 mm(both height and width) X 4.83mm (T,max) and it weighs 139.6g.

 

Here's a link to front view of the tsuba with a scale in it:

 

http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2019_5/lacquered_kiku_saotome/glass_kiku_saotome_scale.jpg

 

I strongly believe this is Saotome work due to the iron (you can clearly see weld lines where the place was folded inside of the nakago ana) and the sophistication of the design.  The petals have three different “textures” – convex, concave, and a sukashi  which alternate in a clever manner, which would create visual motion as the piece moved in the light – the Saotome made a lot of pieces that exhibited this design characteristic.

 

The original surface has a fair amount of old lacquer on it - you can see that its pretty old from the crazing and how its been partially "eaten" by the patina.  It can also be seen that there has been clear wax applied to the piece as well.

 

 

I would date the base piece to the Momoyama period or earlier based on the construction (saotome design, folded iron) as well as the condition of the lacquer on the surface.

 

The piece originally had sukashi and kozuka/kogai hitsu which have been filled and then lacquered. From the surface of this new(ish) black lacquer used to cover the filled areas and the few areas where the filler is visible,  I believe this modification was done much later - in the Edo or possibly even Meiji period.

 

 

The filler is interesting – I don’t know what it is, but I’ve seen it before used to build up mimis (I just got to study an example of this recently), as a coating on the outside of some nerikawa tsuba, etc.

 

 

The piece comes with a sad box - one of the sides is broken loose and is currently retained with a rubber band. In additon, the inner lip is missing a piece as well has being damaged a couple of places) It is up to the buyer to decide if they want to bother having me ship it to them.  And... I'm out of space again, Here are some links to images of the box/tsuba:

http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2019_5/lacquered_kiku_saotome/glass_kiku_box1.jpg

http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2019_5/lacquered_kiku_saotome/glass_kiku_box2.jpg

 

 

you can see the microscope images in my original posting on this piece here on the NMB:

 

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/27675-another-bought-on-a-lark-tsuba/?fbclid=IwAR2ChOu_hTkCynz4IHAIFVPK-z9sxdYt1tAg2CL0lYFyHnGST3h5k9f-Nzo

 

 

And here are some additional microscope images of the piece are on the kodogu no sekai facebook page:

 

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2191207904267879&id=266005023454853&__xts__[0]=68.ARAbbVbFq3Dhx_ez3mLmQw7dPvETeXXRRWlF1LVSk00tn16c9VeB5sBn7Tw5poYrgL4LsEfWa_7AMfGGgNDzzcq6mL2pbvJpQkyZ4R5Gdx6pyfrK2qayB-ZY7yY__OGS_2_fBym2RBpnGz2zCeA_-rh5Ahlks4FU6k_fWGu65X2s1ff17U7ciQKkdxZThZR31A67eOj_U1VWpOiA3Y0FX2-aqcJsmMGuHObwGDVkdcu59pDhnjeRkpXVoNrNRgI4Tx42y9N1MdJhiBkGi3g08komakUx7npHGZTgRdF6WAVv_yy7y0tTNpqLlrh54gso1S3O1tTQygfC0nRVYHjgJG1rtw&__tn__=-R

Please see the full size images for additional micro photographs.

 

Here are some 360 degree images of the piece.  As usual, click and drag (or touch and drag) right and left to rotate the piece right and left:

 

http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2019_5/lacquered_kiku_saotome/360/glass_kiku_front/glass_kiku_front.html

http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2019_5/lacquered_kiku_saotome/360/glass_kiku_back/glass_kiku_back.html

 

And finally, here's a link to a web directory with some full size images of the piece, micro photographs of the surface, etc.

 

http://www.rkgphotos.com/sale_stuff/sale_stuff_2019_5/lacquered_kiku_saotome/

 

Please look at all the images carefully before buying.

 

The price is in USD, and does not include shipping, which will be at actual cost.

 

Thanks again for looking,

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

[rkg]

Piece is on hold, but the Aizu shoami piece I listed earlier is still available:

 

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/28853-its-that-time-of-year-closet-cleaning-sale-part-2/

 

Thanks for the interest,

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

[rkg]

Sold.

 

Brian, you can move this to the sold archive if you want.

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)