Tsuba collection and appraisal

[giri2008]

Assistance requested. I am a professor at midwestern university. This last semester in talking with another faculty member, they mentioned that the university had this rather large collection of tsuba. Now I happen to be an American Bladesmith Society Master Smith. The idea of looking at a collection of old tsuba was captivating. I asked the curator and they scheduled a time for me to see the collection. A family in the local community made the donation of the tsuba after the original collector died. When I arrived I was shown a very nice wooden box with four drawers. In each of the drawers is 30 or 50 tsuba. Each are kept in what appears to be a silk sleeve. With each tsuba is a card that identifies information on the origin of the tsuba. The earliest example is identified as belonging to the 14th century. These tsuba have never been photographed or truly catalogued. The person who collected them was assigned to Japan after WWII and lived there for a time. There are also notes on each tsuba beyond the cards that he kept (I have not seen these). Carefully, with protective gloves on I had the opportunity to sit and briefly look at each one. Many have gold and silver inlay. These are not the highly cut out tsuba but are pieces of a particular style (at least most are solid pieces with the sword cutout and half round cutouts.

 

I would like to see the tsuba photographed and their value assessed. While the collection is not under my authority, I was hoping to gather some information and send it over to the curator. While I am not a collector, I do know artistry and some, if not all, of these pieces are astounding.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan L. Petersen, Ph.D.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Dan, I replied on SFI. John

[hybridfiat]

If these ARE cataloged could they be posted here for those of us who cannot see good tsuba in the flesh?

[Stephen]

Hi Dan

 

If you contact Professor Peter Bleed at University of Nebraska I'm sure he can assist. I can PM you his email if you like. Any chance to see some photos of said collection?

[reinhard]

Hi Dan,

 

Internet is not the place to get reliable information in the first place and you won't find a good "beginners-lecture" on tsuba anywhere in the web: Why not posting high-res pics here and we will discuss them over a longer period of time, one by one. There are some people really interested in the subject, ready to help. Those interested in commercial aspects probably sent you PMs by now. Ignore them.

 

reinhard

[Brian]

Dan

Congrats on trying to do the right thing. I think this would be a very worthwhile pursuit, and these definitely need to be researched for future study. I always wonder about the logic of these donations to museums and in this case a university, where they get put away in a back room and remain there indefinitely with no-one giving them any thought at all..but that is another matter entirely.

The donation conditions usually prevent them from being disposed of or sold Reinhard, so I don't think that is a worry..although I can't see how they benefit from being where they are indefinitely.

Does the university have its own museum or is this in the historical research dept etc?

A collection of this type definitely needs to be researched, photographed and documented. If you have further access, you could definitely take some pics and post them a few at a time. I am sure we would all love to see them and can advise on the quality of the collection.

The best thing to do though would be to get hold of one of the large sword societies and they can perhaps undertake the project of cataloging them. Perhaps someone will even be able to bring out a small catalog for commercial publication.

In this case, Dr Peter Bleed would be a good suggestion as mentioned by Stephen. I would also approach the Japanese Sword Society of the United States (http://www.jssus.org)

I would definitely do anything possible to prevent them from simply being locked up once again in that box and disappearing into the archives. Someday that box will disappear, and with no-one there having a real passion for them, I doubt anyone would worry too much. It's sad..but this happens in museums all over the world too.

 

Please count on us for any assistance we can provide at all, and see if you can gather some pics. New finds like this are always exciting, and if the original collector had a good eye, I expect there could be some of the very good late Edo/Meiji period tsuba maker's works in there. If you estimate there may be up to about 150 tsuba there, then they could be sitting on a considerably valuable collection depending on the contents. I wonder if the family who donated these knew this

 

Brian

[Grey Doffin]

Another consideration is preservation. Unless these tsuba are properly cared for they can suffer (rust on iron and scratches & dings to soft metal). The basements of the world's museums are full of donated art objects that are unappreciated and left to rot (ask the Smithsonian about the Japanese swords that Admiral Perry brought back from Japan in the 19th century).

By bringing this collection to light maybe it can be seen to that they are well cared for.

Grey

[Curran]

Dear Dan,

 

I agree with the comments of Mr. Reinhard, Brian, and Grey. You've managed to find a community here of fairly knowledgeable individuals that will help for the sake of simply enjoying to see an old collection come back into the sunlight for a bit.

 

Many of us would enjoy seeing them, confirming identity (concensus on unsigned pieces is not going to be perfect, but there are some very skilled individuals here) as well as comment on whether the signatures on signed pieces are real or forgeries.

 

Before moving to Florida, I did this 3 times to help several small private museum collections in the North East. Many had been put together pre-WWII by wealthy individuals traveling to Japan and were full of false signatures, but there were some incredible treasures too. Despite neglect, many of the iron ones had not suffered so badly. Unfortunately some of the kinko ones were inappropriately handled and had long term finger prints on the patina. Still, it was the most fun I've had in this hobby outside of Japan.

 

Dan, if you are willing- take photos and share. I miss this sort of exercise.

 

Sincerely,

Curran Campbell