Alex A Posted October 12 Report Posted October 12 A bold claim, along with the statement regarding a similar Tsuba in the Boston museum. "A closely related shibuichi tsuba with waves {omitting the crane and turtle} by Omori Teruhide is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 11.5454." The tsuba. The Lanes Armoury | A Beautiful Omori School Tsuba Turbulant Sea With Crashing Waves and A Crane Swooping Over Turtle Below.. Edo Period Boston tsuba.....Tsuba with design of waves and spray – Results – Advanced Search Objects – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (mfa.org) 1 Quote
Winchester Posted October 12 Report Posted October 12 Agreed, Alex. They are selling the hedonic or multi-sensory aspect of their wares. Reminds me of the philosophy question: Is ignorance bliss? Quote
Alex A Posted October 12 Author Report Posted October 12 Hi Brian There's no comparison in the quality of carving of the waves between those 2 tsuba. Would love to know what makes them so confident with the description. Otherwise would have expected something like "in the style of" Would be expecting those guys to have a £2500 price tag for a genuine Omori wave tsuba 1 Quote
Brian Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 Wow. I had occasionally given them the benefit of the doubt. But now it's hard to see this as anything but misleading and deceitful. Quote
Shugyosha Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 13 hours ago, Winchester said: Agreed, Alex. They are selling the hedonic or multi-sensory aspect of their wares. Reminds me of the philosophy question: Is ignorance bliss? Dunno... 1 Quote
Shugyosha Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 1 hour ago, Brian said: Wow. I had occasionally given them the benefit of the doubt. But now it's hard to see this as anything but misleading and deceitful. They've been full of this kind of rubbish since forever. It's always stuff that is short on detail or authentication and long on Samurai fantasy. This does get dangerously close to fraud though so maybe business isn't so good - perhaps they're suffering with import issues too? 3 Quote
Alex A Posted October 13 Author Report Posted October 13 I have noticed that they have branched off over recent years, apart from militaria, other stuff like ancient relics, jewelry etc. Some of those write-ups no doubt will raise some eyebrows. As a dealer and descriptions. Wonder if they sell some stuff on commission and just accept descriptions from sellers without doing the research. They are not the only ones that have descriptions that come with lots of questions. Seems to be a tactic for all types of dealers in antique and militaria stuff, though no other comes close, by a long way. The ideal customer needs to be ignorant, and there is no shortage. Its bad though, to sell so confidently with puzzling attributions. Did see an Omori style Fuchi on a sword several years ago and it was far better than this tsuba. Could have been Omori, though it had a fake signature "Teruhide", though it was beautiful and convincing. 2 Quote
Shugyosha Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 I made the mistake of buying my first sword from there many moons ago, so you can imagine that I have little sympathy for their business model and do whatever I can to deter anyone else from spending money there. With regard to the Japanese stuff, I heard (I think from Peter Yorke who fed them some of his rejects) that most of it came/ comes from bulk buys of low-grade stuff from the art auctions in Japan via an agent. They then tried to match blades with koshirae and sent some blades for an acid polish (a guy called John Bolton used to do them in the UK). The blade I bought was in koshirae that didn't belong to it and the whole thing had a very odd chemical smell to it that (I later reasoned) was due to how it had been "tidied up". Anyhow, you live and learn. I can't imagine that I'm their only dissatisfied customer, but then, if they'd not ripped me and cultivated me as someone new to collecting, they might have made more money from me. That said, they've been around for a long time doing the same thing so a degree of dishonesty clearly pays unfortunately. 3 Quote
MauroP Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 BTW, I'm selling my Ferrari car. Ask me via PM only if seriously interested... 1 5 Quote
Alex A Posted October 13 Author Report Posted October 13 Seems they have and will upset many a newbie. Ive had 2 buying experiences with them, the first ok, the 2nd not so ok. As you say , you live and learn. Spoke to one guy on the phone about a sword i was interested in. The pictures were bad so i asked him to get it out and check for flaws. His exact words on the phone with sword in hand were "its flawless". It turned up with an opening, an obvious one. Anyways, that was then, we have all done daft stuff as beginners. Thinking about it, does show how ruthless dealers can be to make a sale and keep the wheels of cashflow turning. Quote
Ian B3HR2UH Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 I visited the shop thirty years ago .Full of high priced junk . I left after about three minutes . Quote
Alex A Posted October 13 Author Report Posted October 13 7 hours ago, Spartancrest said: The Crane's feet are clumsy Maybe wrong, dunno, but looking at what you point out sent me off on a personal debate as to whether its possibly cast?. Just something about it, the way the waves are not crisply carved. Folks will know better than me. Quote
Spartancrest Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 30 minutes ago, Alex A said: a personal debate as to whether its possibly cast? My first thought was cast with some rework - but those feet are very poorly done. 1 Quote
raaay Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 Alex , the usual BS write up from the Lanes and of course with the usual fantastic prices 1 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.