TomMcRei Posted March 8, 2021 Report Posted March 8, 2021 Looking for opinions about this iron tsuba water wheel tsuba, size is about 68mm. How old is it? Quote
Bugyotsuji Posted March 9, 2021 Report Posted March 9, 2021 Not my area at all, but I too would be interested to see what people think. I'm going to take a stab anyway, and say early Edo. "Incoming!" Quote
ROKUJURO Posted March 9, 2021 Report Posted March 9, 2021 I am not so sure about great age. I see several spots which let me believe it is cast. Perhaps not collectible. Quote
Steves87 Posted March 9, 2021 Report Posted March 9, 2021 I see some (flattened) ten zogan (and some areas where missing). This looks like one of Artur's pieces he has for sale. If you decide to buy I can confirm he is excellent to deal with Quote
TomMcRei Posted March 9, 2021 Author Report Posted March 9, 2021 5 hours ago, ROKUJURO said: I am not so sure about great age. I see several spots which let me believe it is cast. Perhaps not collectible. Which areas are suspicious? Quote
ROKUJURO Posted March 9, 2021 Report Posted March 9, 2021 Tony, as a craftsman, I am used to look at traces of tools which are not visible in the photos. The lines are not sharp, the SAKURA flower does not look as if it was filed to shape, the water wheel seems to lack file traces in the SUKASHI (all 'angles' are round), and as Stephen remarked, the water droplets on the waves seem to be 'cast in', not set in with brass or gold (?). Some of these effects can be influenced by corrosion, so my observations are just what I see from the photos. These are just a few hints, but if you want an expert's opinion, you should ask Ford Hallam. 1 Quote
Marius Posted March 9, 2021 Report Posted March 9, 2021 This is a tricky one and those eBay pics do not tell everything and might be misleading. I see what seem to be casting bubbles in the sukashi walls. The iron looks brittle in the last picture. Must be seen in hand and scrutinised for traces of tools (chisels), evidence of folding or for tell-tale signs of casting. Quote
Shugyosha Posted March 9, 2021 Report Posted March 9, 2021 Photographs can be misleading but from what I can see I agree with Jean in that the sukashi isn’t very well defined and, as he said, would look sharper if sawn or filed. There are a couple of other parts that arouse my suspicions also: in the penultimate photo the edge of the sukashi part is off line at the top which doesn’t seem right and there’s a rough edge in the hitsu ana. As this would rub against a soft metal kozuka, I would have thought that it would have been dealt with if intended for use. Quote
Iekatsu Posted March 9, 2021 Report Posted March 9, 2021 Id say it's Momoyama-Early Edo, a relatively low end piece. At some point it was heavily corroded, which did quite a bit of damage and was later cleaned and stabilised. 2 Quote
Kurikata Posted March 10, 2021 Report Posted March 10, 2021 Some explanation about this tsuba topic... https://varshavskycollection.com/collection/tsu-0356/ 2 Quote
roger dundas Posted March 11, 2021 Report Posted March 11, 2021 Hello Tony, Here is one similar I have and posted here for comments in about (Nov) December 2019. Opinions varied and I have no criticism of any of the propositions as it just shows how difficult it is to try and work out dates and backgrounds for some of these things. But I did very much like Bruno (Kurikata's) post above. Roger j Quote
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