Question about a book.

[Darcy]

Kind of late to this thread but I don't agree with being described as a "victim" here because I wasn't at all, it was a thought out purchase done with knowledge of what I was getting into and the way I viewed it, it was a very small risk proposition which disagreed with how other people looked at it.

 

To clarify that daisho, they are here:

 

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_ ... ID=4552738

 

This kind of listing has a guarantee on it that the items are Kamakura period Soshu swords. So when you buy, should they fail that guarantee you have an option of returning it for your money back.

 

I didn't buy this set thinking that the signatures were legitimate. Nor did Christie's guarantee the signatures, they only described them, which tells you what their opinion is. When you see something like this you know that in the past some people, probably starting with Festing, had been snow jobbed and I'd also been told that somewhere in Europe someone had paid a million dollars for this pair of swords at some point. I don't know if that's true or who it was, but this came to me after the auction from a well regarded source.

 

In buying something like this you need to kind of sit down and game theory it.

 

On the one hand I have backing that they are some sort of Soshu blades from the Kamakura period. I know that they're not what they say they are. But, the number of Soshu smiths that it can be attributed to are rather small. So on the upside, you have a couple of Juyo Token mumei blades with fine koshirae. On the downside you have your money back from Christies.

 

As long as you don't pay more than what the value of two mumei Soshu blades with koshirae can fairly be, then you have a no-lose proposition. So this was thought out and the reason I bid on these. I don't think anyone else bid on them because for the most part they were wrapped up in them having false signatures. My hope was that I was dealing with a Shizu and a Nobukuni and I based my bidding on that, knowing that the downside was covered by the Christie's guarantee.

 

In the end, what was learned about the swords was:

 

1. the katana was Shinto, Reinhard described it previously on the board as a masterpiece of Dewa-Daijo Kunimichi but the circles that came to that conclusion did so independently of me.

 

2. the tanto, the NBTHK analyzed and encouraged me to remove the signature and send it to Juyo, and suggested it had better than even odds of passing as Soshu Sadamune. Should that happen the tanto on its own would probably be valued higher than the price paid for the set.

 

3. the koshirae did not match as a daisho, and the paperwork that came with them indicated that they were bought on separate occasions (probably by Field Marshal Festing), so they were just grouped together out of a similarity in koshirae.

 

4. the tsuka on the daito was made by Tsukahei (Shukichi Yamaguchi), and signed, and in itself was important work. He was Mukei Bunkazai and Bob Benson put his opinion forward that nobody in the past could reach his level of craftsmanship. He had seen only one other item that actually bore his stamp other than this one.

 

In the end, there was nothing "wrong" with the quality of these items. Just at some point the Kunimichi had been dummied up as a Masamune gift to someone and what was probably a mumei Sadamune or Nobukuni had the signature added, one that was not really that far off the mark and in older days when Yukimitsu got a much wider range of attributions was probably entirely acceptable.

 

So removing the false meis and thinking of them as mumei, overall it's not too bad. Mumei shinto doesn't have a ton of value on its own, but is non-zero and the rest of everything came out well.

 

In the end I offered them to my clients as a Shinto sword with false attribution to Masamune, and a Nanbokucho period Soshu tanto, not as a daisho but looking similar. I said I had the option of returning to Christie's or if someone wanted at my purchase price they were welcome to it. I was offered 15% more than my purchase price and sold them for this profit. After the purchase I disclosed the advice to remove the mei and the possibility of getting Sadamune on the tanto, as well as the information about Kajihei's work. I didn't want those to influence the purchase as they were not tangible in the way of having authentication papers available. So they were a pleasant surprise for the buyer.

 

Overall it was an interesting experience, truths were revealed, discoveries were made, a profit was made and a satisfied buyer got the news after the fact that he had a legitimate 50% chance of getting a Sadamune attribution on a piece he had just bought... rather than having that set up as a lure for a sale. I don't know anyone else who has heard that kind of pleasant news post-sale (I sure haven't been so blessed).

 

So in the end, everyone was happy and nobody was victimized.

 

It was a great experience.

 

The only losers were the people who kept their hands in their pockets. Sometimes gimei is the kind of thing to buy, if you have an outside shot at least of determining what exactly you're getting.

[Brian]

Thank you Darcy, it was an interesting and educational post.

Even if it came almost 4 years later :lol:

 

Brian