tsuba Mito Dragon

[cdrcm12]

Hi,

 

A recent acquisition I believe to be Mito school, late Edo period.

 

Dimensions:

Height - 84mm

Width - 79mm

Mimi - 5mm

Seppa dai - 4.8mm

 

I like the nunome zogan on the clouds and dragon, and the small gold and silver zogan dots on the waves. The dragon has silver claws, a little worn, which is a nice feature.

 

It's a little dirty in parts any advice on cleaning or who could offer this service, given it a little oil, a stiff brush and some ivory rubbing but there's too many intricate areas?

 

I'm calling it a cloud dragon but seems to like the water as well!

 

Have a good new year, hope 2021 is better than 2020!!

 

 

[Geraint]

Dear Colin.

 

I do like this tsuba.  I have a feeling that the double nunome line around the clouds is quite distinctive and so have spent a couple of happy hours trawling through various references to see if I could find its like.  Alas nothing so far.  I guess I will just have to keep looking. 

 

All the best.

[Vermithrax16]

There was another Dragon tsuba posted recently that was open to guesses. I feel that one and this one share some similarities to Choshu and Mito. I have a couple examples as reference:

Mito, (flame shape and scales similar):

 

Choshu, (clouds similar):

 

 

 

[cdrcm12]

Dear Geraint and Jeremiah,

 

Thank you for your replies and comments. Geraint appreciate your search on the clouds, I'm inspired to look again myself, if you find anything let me know. Found this one whilst googling, unfortunately little description:

 

 

Jeremiah,

 

Agree there are elements that could be Choshu, this one in the MFA collection, Inoue Kiyotaka, Chôshû School

 

 

[kissakai]

I have six 'dragon' tsuba for sale that have reference images and descriptions

 

Link

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q0g8f5og1wl8ze5/NMB listing Nov 2020.pdf?dl=0