The One That Got Away

[Jake6500]

So yesterday I participated in an auction for a tsuba on Jauce.

 

I was the leading bid and was about to win this awesome tsuba when the seller ended the listing seconds before the end of the auction.

 

Given how low the bidding price was, I can understand why the seller ended the listing. There are 2 things I don't understand though...

 

1) Why didn't the seller just list this item with a higher starting price?

 

2) Why wasn't anyone else willing to pay for this thing? Looked like a beautiful piece to my eye.... And I would have paid a lot more for it.

 

https://www.jauce.com/auction/w1147637774

 

What particularly caught my eye about this tsuba, aside from the nice Lion design, was the lions eyes..... Whilst both lions on the front have both their eyes intact, the lion on the back is missing an eye, and it looks like the eyes were embedded stones? From my recent reading, this is an unusual technique in tsuba that only a couple of schools practiced (correct if I'm wrong).

 

All that being said, what do you guys think about this item that escaped my grasp and what school would you attribute it to?

[Geraint]

Dear Jake.

 

I promise I'm not stalking you but I think that in this case you got away with it.  My observations would be that the posture of the shishi is stiff and not naturalistic, the katakiri is rough and the tsub looks as though it might have been polished at first and then an amateur has gone over it with a punch, possibly to obscure damage.  Notice how the ground texturing covers the seppa dai and also goes over at least one of the copper sekigane.  oh, and I think the eyes are gilt rather than stones.

 

All the best.

[Jake6500]

  On 8/13/2024 at 11:02 AM, Geraint said:

Dear Jake.

 

I promise I'm not stalking you but I think that in this case you got away with it.  My observations would be that the posture of the shishi is stiff and not naturalistic, the katakiri is rough and the tsub looks as though it might have been polished at first and then an amateur has gone over it with a punch, possibly to obscure damage.  Notice how the ground texturing covers the seppa dai and also goes over at least one of the copper sekigane.

 

All the best.

Expand  

 

I can definitely see some of the signs of damage and could see it going in to the bidding, but I actually rather like the artistic style of this thing, particularly the front side. The shishi on the back (in the image above) does seem a bit stiff but I feel like the ones on the front side (viewable in the link) look better and I'm a fan of this type of line work.

 

Then again, you would be the expert here not me! Maybe I dodged a bullet!

 

If the eyes are gilt that would also slightly diminish my interest.

 

Keep in mind I was about to win this thing for 10,000 yen, which is a pretty low price. (Or maybe not )