Tsuba, can anyone provide details on style

[Pippo]

All i have of this is that its edo period, any other thoughts?

[Steves87]

Ahh, the good old Mustache Tsuba!

Dale (Spartancrest) will be in shortly to give you the rundown, but unfortunately, this is quite a common cast Tsuba. Your example is one of the better, more well-formed ones though.

[Spartancrest]

8 hours ago, Steves87 said:

Dale (Spartancrest) will be in shortly to give you the rundown

What . . again? 

 

Stephen probably knows as much about these as I do now! 

Sorry it is one on the list of cast guards [when they were made and why is still up for debate.]

 

Type 1 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/394651745141  and  https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/374483049004    https://www.invaluab...842ddc3264f54eb83033   cast irregular outline with irregular outlined hitsu  also sometimes described as Clouds rather than Waves - https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/10944-thoughts-on-edo-cloud-tsuba/

 

Type 2 cast in 'tagane - ato" with hitsu outlined in 'niku'    https://www.invaluab...3cd8c55943fb31afba59   https://www.invaluab...uba-363-c-2264fc3aa9    https://www.ebay.com/itm/325790662099

 

Type 3 - https://www.jauce.com/auction/u1098557134  or  https://page.auction.../auction/u1098557134  

  and another 

 

Type 4 - the mustache!   https://www.invaluab...h-a--38-c-39f4a92a35   https://www.ebay.com/itm/402977710393

I call the cast wave tsuba the "moustache/ mustache" for the double sided wave seen on both sides under the nakago-ana - you could call it the Poirot if you like.

          

 

 

 

[Brian]

Dale could easily write book on late Edo and later tsuba, reproductions and mass produced ones.
Your pc must have hundreds of images by now? There is SO much info gathered by private collectors and students out there that is vastly untapped. Bravo Dale.

[Spartancrest]

18 hours ago, Brian said:

Your pc must have hundreds of images by now?

Yes Brian - thousands of images - trouble is remembering what files they are in and having the images doesn't always mean I can now find them.

Needle in a haystack - I can at least remember I have a needle but it is often difficult to find the haystack it is lost in! I seriously think my computer often knows what I am looking for before I do, which is kind of weird but helpful!

For instance I have an image of the "mustache" tsuba on file but darned if I could find it and Stephen recently showed me one he was looking at but I couldn't find that image either - I had to resort to looking on-line through hundreds of images until I recognised the one I wanted - lucky they are not 'rare' 

[Steves87]

I always imagined it would be more like a needle in a needle stack.... 1000 Tsuba looking basically the same, yet, different??

[Spartancrest]

Would you believe Louis Comfort Tiffany [Tiffany Glass - Tiffany Lamps etc] was an avid tsuba collector, he tended to buy en masse hundreds at a time. One of his designs for glass tiles must have been "the Moustache" ! 

     https://www.acstickl...glass-tile-c1910s-2/ 

 

More information on Tiffany as well as another tsuba tile can be found here - https://www.lilliann...a-favrile-glass-tile

Edited November 28, 2023 by Spartancrest
More images

[Spartancrest]

https://www.jauce.com/auction/d1117154519 Moustache cast tsuba has been a replacement for a missing Seiriuken Eiju.

https://www.jauce.co...0627f2usd4192078.jpg