NH-0746 Rank 301
Tsuba · Nishigaki
Round iron openwork tsuba with snowflakes and wild geese, unsigned and attributed by its NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon paper to the Nishigaki school of Higo.
Photographs
Photographs by the seller at origin.
Description
An iron tsuba of slightly upright round shape with a rounded rim (marumimi), worked in positive openwork (jisukashi). The design, which the paper titles 雪花雁金透鐔 (yukibana karigane sukashi tsuba), sets a ring of stylised snowflakes around the seppa-dai, with small silhouettes of flying geese between them. The composition is symmetrical and the openwork clean and well resolved. The piece is unsigned: 無銘 (mumei). The paper attributes it to 西垣 (Nishigaki), a Higo school known for restrained iron openwork. According to the original seller it measures 7.65 × 7.48 cm, with a rim thickness of 0.43 cm, and weighs 84 g. The photographs show a dark, stable patina, with no active rust and no damage to the rim or the openwork. It comes with NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu paper no. 2005082, dated 10 August 2018, and the photographs show it in an uninscribed wooden box.
Strong points
- NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu paper (2018)
- Attributed to the Nishigaki school of Higo
- Clean, symmetrical positive openwork of snowflakes and geese
- Iron with a dark, stable patina
Points to bear in mind
- Unsigned: the attribution is to the school, not to a named master
- The paper does not specify the period beyond the Edo era
- The photographs are small for judging surface detail
Score breakdown
50.3/100
The score shares out 100 points: Maker 25 · Workmanship 20 · Condition 18 · Period 12 · Paper 10 · Extras 5 · Price 10. It is computed from the record, not from an opinion. Maker, workmanship, condition and period are judged from the photographs and the paper; price is compared only with fittings of the same type.
- Maker 9 of 25 Attributed to a school only
- Workmanship 10 of 20 Good work
- Condition 14 of 18 Good condition
- Period 5 of 12 Late Edo (1781–1868)
- Paper 4 of 10 NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu
- Extras 0 of 5 No complete set by the same maker and no inscribed box
- Price 8.3 of 10 Rank 39 of 228 by price among pieces of its type, from the most affordable to the dearest