Higo sukashi tsuba- opinions please?

[tony edmunds]

Hi Guys

I'd welcome opinions on this sukashi Tsuba.

To my eyes it Looks like it could be Higo (with a flowering plum theme) but I'm no expert so any help will be much appreciated.

 

Regards

Tony Edmunds

[cspage]

No pic attached, Tony. Or...it's a unique tsuba none of us have ever seen before...

 

Colin

[tony edmunds]

Hi Guys

My apologies I managed to omit the images.

 

Tony

[pcfarrar]

Tony,

 

I think the tsuba might be a cast copy sorry.

 

Peter

[tony edmunds]

Hi Peter

I thought the same initially but I couldn't make out any casting flaws/ features and the finish is a bit rustic if you know what I mean. I've shown it to a couple of collectors and they were unsure hence my posting.

 

Regards

Tony

[Ford Hallam]

I don't think it's a casting myself but I did have some doubts about when I first saw it. I hesitated to comment for fear of sounding a bit like a broken record ( remember those? :D )

 

I get the impression it is actually hand made and carved but not particularly well. The fact that both front and back are the same strikes me as odd. I'd expect to see the rear view of the flowers on a piece like this. Of course if you only have a picture of the front to copy.....

 

just a thought

 

regards,

 

ford

[machinist]

Does it ring at all when you hit it with a fingernail?

[Brian]

Does it ring at all when you hit it with a fingernail?

I think you are going to find that test is actually an old wive's tale, and doesn't really mean much. Doesn't tell you the quality of the iron/steel...or if it is cast or not. Not sure if it tells anything at all besides with really really poor castings.

Correct me if I am wrong Ford?

 

Brian

[cspage]

For what it's worth, my "Nobuiye" tsuba diagnosed as cast a couple of weeks ago has a lovely ring to it.

 

Colin

[tony edmunds]

Thanks for the input guys

 

I believe Ford has got it right, I think this is a hand made copy of a Higo design but lacks the finesse you would expect even from the Edo Higo school (well known for copying earlier tsuba)

 

As I've said a rather rustic looking piece,I wonder, could this have been an amateur effort?

 

Regards

Tony

[Ford Hallam]

Hi Brian, as you said...no disagreement from me :D

 

Tony,

 

I was alluding to that exactly... amateur work in my opinion. Which leads me to suggest in last 50 years or so. Perfectly honest work with no intent to deceive but....once it leaves the hands of the original maker who knows?

[Marius]

For what it's worth, my "Nobuiye" tsuba diagnosed as cast a couple of weeks ago has a lovely ring to it.

 

Colin,

 

cast tsuba have a lovely ring, forged iron sounds dull.

 

Sorry, couldn't refrain from this silly joke.. . I just think that using our eyes may produce better results. The most beautifully sounding bells in the world are cast, are they not?

[cspage]

Mariuszk, excellent point. Lovely rings, however, are very seductive and one wants to believe they have nothing but positive implications for tsuba. Flicking fingernails at tsuba will no doubt carry on just for the aural gratification if nothing else. (I think this subject has probably been driven into the ground previously, so I will stop now.)

 

Colin

[Ford Hallam]

Colin,

 

just for the oral gratification

....I assume you mean aural gratification ....not that I'm averse to either

[cspage]

Ford, I see you caught my post before I realized I'd made the perfect Freudian slip and corrected it. Don't want the Board to think I'm trying to lower the level of discussion here.

 

Colin

[sanjuro]

Too late..... Ford already took it there and the rest of us were just waiting ......... We did know what you were thinking though.

[Ford Hallam]

he he...like a pack of hungry wolves waiting to pounce at the slightest hint of weakness

[Jean]

lower the level of discussion here.

 

You are too modest Collin

[cspage]

Jean, oh, believe me, I've no illusions about the level capabilities here. Just trying to keep myself above the waterline as long as possible.

 

Colin (note the one "l," a very touchy subject with all Colins throughout the universe.)