The mystery of the 'Chicken-wire' tsuba!

[Spartancrest]

 

Taken from the François Poncetton Collection sale of June 12th 1929

 

12. Tsuba in Iron, oval, in positive openwork. It is later fortified with a red copper plate surrounded by sentoku [fukurin] , internally gilded and decorated with a bronze wire mesh: 88 mm x 86 mm. Bamboo and stylized birds. Work of a “Tsubako”. Ashikaga period. 16th century. From the Hawkshaw sale, 1910, no. 3159.

 

Now this is one of the oddest forms of "decoration" I have ever seen, is it unique? Or is it just very rare?

 

[Steves87]

Well, I am voting for the ultra leftside theory of "a new style of shingen" 😉

[goo]

Good job On seeking out the unusual !!!!! When I see things like this It reinforces my opinions that one should always expect the unexpected.   It seems there was much freedom to do something different.   Google says chicken wire was invented in 1844 then I looked up the François Poncetton Collection sale of June 12th 1929 and the book popped up along with these images.  Someone was into poultry would be my guess from the upper right image.    Looks like a rose comb breed rather than standard comb breed  fowl.  

https://www.abebooks...ppet-_-srp1-_-image2

 

 

[zanilu]

That it is strange is a fact!

 

Shingen? 

 

Regards

Luca

[Spartancrest]

  On 5/29/2024 at 11:36 AM, zanilu said:

That it is strange is a fact!

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I don't have an image of the other side, I would love to see how the wire was held in place - (very curious) 

[zanilu]

Dale I suspect that i other side is made by the copper plate you mention in your original post and that the wire mesh is sandwiched between the original tsuba and the copper plate.

 

In the past I have seen passing tsuba with a copper plate added to one side. At the moment I can not find any though.

 

Regards

Luca

[Robert S]

Looks like it might be a relative of this:  http://world.seiyudo...m/product/tu-100423/

 

[Spartancrest]

  On 5/29/2024 at 11:30 AM, goo said:

Someone was into poultry would be my guess from the upper right image.    Looks like a rose comb breed rather than standard comb breed  fowl.  

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Goo, I am working on that collection right now, here is a much clearer image.

I am laboriously translating the French text to English [and getting a few chuckles from it]. I think the top right guard may represent a Ho-ou / Ho-ho bird but it also looks very much like a Javanese 'Garuda'

a close comparison to this Kris handle.   There are lots of unusual tsuba from the Poncetton collection, many originating from earlier collections, I am compiling a tome [a word no longer used but often found in these old texts ] on these auctions limiting them to those with good images.  It amazes me just how many were written in French - Far more than were available in English. It also astounds me that the French 'scans' are far clearer than you can find on other sites - - why can't the others do their jobs? What are we preserving if you can't see the images or they are out of focus? [No quality control! ]

    Also found in the Berens catalogue. 

 

Sometimes this works to our advantage when one auction displays only one face, another auction may show the other. 

 

An example of funny translation  Number 72. in the above Poncetton page is described as  -

72 — Tsuba in mokumé, circled with shakudo [fukurin], inlaid in relief with gold, silver and shakudo:
 72mm x 68mm.

"Deer standing on a coffee table."   Now I don't know too many deer that do that, so I have changed it to "Deer statue standing on a display table." which I think reflects the true description . 

Edited May 30, 2024 by Spartancrest
example of translation errors

[goo]

  On 5/30/2024 at 1:02 AM, Spartancrest said:

 

Goo, I am working on that collection right now, here is a much clearer image.

I am laboriously translating the French text to English [and getting a few chuckles from it]. I think the top right guard may represent a Ho-ou / Ho-ho bird but it also looks very much like a Javanese 'Garuda'

a close comparison to this Kris handle.   There are lots of unusual tsuba from the 

    Also found in the Berens catalogue. 

 

 

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Dale , That Is a good observation about the ho-ho bird and Garuda I am certainly no expert on this and I have no Idea what was in the mind of the maker of the tsuba.    A couple of more points to consider might be the bird in the sculpture has teeth in the beak and the eyes face front not to the side.   The sculpture is in costume as well with a hat.   That being said the Tsuba is flat so it would be difficult to depict the eyes facing front but you could depict teeth in the beak the image also shows the fleshy ears behind the eyes.   Image number 306 shows fowl  I cant enlarge the image so I cant compare in detail but the flow of the heads feel similar to me. 

Not trying to label this as a chicken but Japan seems to have had fowl since 400 BCE ?  and making observations it would certainly be more exciting to think of it being a Garuda.    best regards goo