Lost Tiger found - Hidden in plain sight?

[Spartancrest]

I think I may have solved a mystery that caused the late Ford Hallam to "recreate" a "lost tsuba" - I believe I found that lost tsuba in Hawley's "TSUBAS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA" Page 301 of that picture book.
In the book there is an odd view of the ura side of a guard which should have been flipped over - to me it is obviously the same tsuba that was "missing" or so close to it that it makes no difference. Remember the book was published in 1973 so it is impossible for the image to be of the utsushi made by Ford. See this blog from 2009 https://followingthe...-cat-out-of-bag.html   What do you think? Was Hallam looking on the wrong continent and the tiger was in California all along?  There is a signature on the Hawley image but it is not clear enough to read, Ford may have assumed that the small guard he had access to was made and signed by the same maker as the larger piece, but he did not have the ura view to back this up.

Anyone know a collector from California by the name of "Stoehr" ? He may know of the whereabouts of the lost guard.

 

[PS. Ever notice the title of Hawley's picture book is WRONG - no such thing as tsubas  surely he knew the plural of tsuba was still tsuba!]

 

[Brian]

Wow Dale. Certainly hard to refute. Certainly worth investigating further.

[kissakai]

I'm sure Bob M has an image of the reverse

 

[ROKUJURO]

Wonderful research work as usual, Dale!

[Spartancrest]

2 hours ago, kissakai said:

I'm sure Bob M has an image of the reverse

 

Yes looking at his pages he has these - but I believe these images were only available after Ford had made his utsushi. I wonder how the guard got from California to Stuttgart and how many other stops along the way? 

There are a few minute differences between the image in Hawley and the auction in Stuttgart but they may just be photo problems or as Bob M says himself there may be another guard made by the same maker.

 

    

 

Anyone got a clue when they started making these hideous copies? [lazy at that - they mirror reverse the image both sides] I know it didn't take long for the Chinese to steal another tsuba designed by Ford.

[kissakai]

Dale

You are correct about finding the image after he made it

From memory there is a area at the bottom that Ford made that was more complicated/difficult to make

 

[Jake6500]

They certainly look like a match to me! Very interesting post.

[Spartancrest]

5 hours ago, kissakai said:

area at the bottom that Ford made that was more complicated/difficult to make

I think it is much better that Ford came up with his own slant on the design - makes it unique and not a slavish copy. That is the true Japanese expression of utsushi after all.

Lets leave the lousy copying to the Chinese - who, lets face it, are not that great at it!  [Yes I know I will never make it through immigration control if I ever visited China!] 

[Bob M.]

Hi Dale,

 

I think that the gentleman collector that you refer to as being named adjacent to the back b/w view of the tiger is Donald Stoehr. There are a number of obituary notices for him, if the same person, but I have not seen anything that references a specific interest in Nihonto or fittings.

 

To the best of my knowledge, the tiger pair were split ( under contentious circumstances ) in the early 2000s.

 

It is quite likely that the original and still missing piece ended up with an east European or Russian collector after the Nagel auction. This was getting on for 20 years ago and so it could have changed hands multiple times since then.

 

Images of the Utsushi that Ford made have been freely available on the internet for many years also. Sites like pinterest have shown it for a long time, so it is no wonder the Chinese fakers have picked up on it.

 

Obviously, it was only after the views of the back of the tiger tsuba became known to us that it was possible to compare Ford's Utsushi with the original. The more complicated treatment of the point where the tiger sits was an interpretation of the available information from the front view ie. in that area, almost nothing. I remember having long telephone and Skype conversations with Ford about that area on the piece , and eventually deciding to go with the paws and exposed bamboo framing, all of which were very difficult to blend convincingly.

 

As I am sure you are well aware, there is more background information and commentary to see on the 'A series of fittings' thread - for those who are unaware or would like to revisit, the relevant Item Nos. are 306 and 307.

 

Best

Bob

[Spartancrest]

54 minutes ago, Bob M. said:

Donald Stoehr

His name only mentioned as a member of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA  TO-KEN KAI and LENDERS   https://drdeanhartle...AndArmor.htm#MEMBERS

Such a little mark in history we all make.