LONDON AUCTION REPORT (Nov ’04)

Sotheby’s catalogue

Over the 2 days of 9^th and 10^th November, 147 swords plus numerous fittings and some armour, were offered for sale in London. These included the residue of the Sir Frank Bowden collection at Sotheby’s and the swords from the Museum of Japanese sword Fittings in Tokyo at Christie’s. Please note that in the following, all prices quoted are hammer prices and do not include any buyer’s premiums or tax.

Sotheby’s, Tuesday 9^th November

The majority of the Sir frank Bowden collection was sold over several sales in the early 1980’s and following his more recent death in 2002, the family were now selling off those pieces he had kept back.

The sale started briskly with Lot 2, an ornately mounted tanto of the Ishiguro school with a blade ascribed to Yamashiro Daijo Kunikane. Estimated at £6-8,000, this exceeded the high estimate and was knocked down for £10,500. Lot 11, a rather flamboyant daisho with both blades signed Omi no Kami Tadayoshi was also estimated at £6-8,000 and although I had strong reservations about the daito, it still this managed to realise £10,000

Lot 15 comprised of a beautifully mounted tanto of gold togidashi, which had a high estimate of £6,000 but sold comfortably at £10,000

Lot 15

  Of some personal interest was Lot 19, a katana blade by Seihosai Muneari, a pupil of Koyama Munetsugu, which I had offered to buy from Sir Frank several years ago. The sugata was most robust and I was impressed by the Ryo-guruma cutting test. However, I will have to learn to live without it as I underbid the Japanese dealer who held it for £5,500 which was within the estimate.

Finally, although I did not remain for the tsuba and fittings, one rare and exceptional Lot (not from the Bowden collection) needs to be reported on. This was a rather attractive iron tsuba by Miochin Muneharu who forged the plate, and Kanao Natsuo (1828-98) and I believe the vendor was a well known American dealer. The tsuba had been exhibited at the NBTHK and was Juyo Kodogu (from Heisei 12^th year – 2000). However, it had an incredibly optimistic estimate (even by Sotheby’s standards) of £60-65,000. I understand it failed to reach this level and was unsold.

Lot 117 Kano Natsuo tsuba

Christie’s, Wednesday 10^th November

The swords from the Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings were actually offered in two separate but consecutive sales. I had several viewing sessions of the swords including a special viewing, with hospitality, for those attending the sword appreciation day at the British Museum on the previous Saturday.

The main catalogue was well presented with most swords taking a full double page spread to describe and illustrate them. A further welcome feature on most Lots, was that in addition to the normal description,, interesting and useful biographical and historic footnotes, were included. I am sure that that they will be useful reference material in the future.

There was great interest in this sale, with a full room and a number of telephones manned by Japanese and Japanese speakers. There were several dealers from Japan in the room, including a few old familiar faces.

Space restricts me reporting every Lot sold and so I have concentrated on the high flyers, for which I crave your indulgence. The first of these was Lot 6, a Bungo tachi from the Kamakura period and made by Yukihira. I thought this had a beautiful slim sugata but that the jihada was somewhat disappointing and it was very difficult to see any hataraki in the narrow suguha hamon. Although estimated at £80-100,000 it was sold on the telephone to a Japanese buyer for £10,000 less than the low estimate.

Lot 15 was a Soden Bizen katana attributed to Chogi with a Kanzan saya-gaki to this effect. This wide Namboku-cho period blade exceeded the high estimate and was sold for £42,000. Two Lots later, Lot 17 was an Edo katana signed Nagasone Okisato Kotetsu which had a £30-40,000 estimated price. Interestingly, the footnote described it as a “standard” work by Kotetsu, which one might consider was damning it with faint praise. However the bidding began at £35,000 and soon reached the £100,000 that it sold for on the telephone.

  Lot 17 Kotetsu
                          Lot 6 Bungo Yukihira                                                 

The auctioneer made an announcement regarding the mei on the nakago of Lot 18, which seemed to question either its translation or its authenticity and emphasised it was sold as seen. I could see nothing wrong with what was a perfectly good Echizen katana by the 3^rd generation Yasutsugu. It had a high estimate of £8,000 and I believe it sold in the room for £11,000.

Lot 37 was a tachi from the Bizen Ichimonji school dating from the Kamakura period and signed Sukehisa. This piece sold for over double the high estimate, being knocked down for £32,000 in the room, whilst Lot 41, a Bizen tachi with koshirae, signed Bishu Osafune Iemori and dated Oei 4^th year was almost quadruple the high estimate, selling for £38,000.

A comparatively reasonable £26,000 was a daisho of blades with non-matching koshirae, by Hosokawa Masayoshi formed Lot 45. Both swords included the expression “Sokuyo Bakka shi” (a retainer of the ruling clan of  Sokuyo).

It is not often that one might expect to see two Bungo Yukihira blades at the same auction, however Lot 56 was just such a piece. It would appear that the auction house rated this second sword lower than the previous Yukihira tachi, if the estimates are an indication. (high estimate Lot 6, £100,000, high estimate this Lot only £70,000). If this were the case, I would have to disagree with them. I have already expressed my opinion of the first blade but this sword was much easier to appreciate. The hamon was wider and more interesting whilst the jihada seemed healthier. Accompanied by a Meiji period tachi koshirae in black leather, this was a very interesting Lot and was reputed to have once been owned by the Imperial Prince Kacho no Miya. It seems that the buyer had a similar opinion to me on the relative value of these two swords (unless he bought them both!) and it was sold on the telephone for £95,000.

I was interested in a naginata that was Lot 59. This was a Kamakura period piece signed Bizen Kuni Suketada. Although not in the best of condition, and with the suggestion that the boshi might not be in tact (I thought it was probably OK) I considered it a most worthy thing. I think that naginata from this period are rather rare, one or two by Nagamitsu, one by Kagemitsu but I can think of no others. Unfortunately my wallet failed to keep pace with my appreciation, and I was unable to match the £8,500 that it realised.

Possibly the greatest surprise were in Lots 70 to 74 which were all koshirae without blades and although OK I would say they were not exceptional. They made:- Lot70: £17,000. Lot 71: £16,000. Lot 72: £19,000. Lot73: £18,000. Lot 74: £13,000.

This was the end of the “Important Swords” part of the sale but was continued in the Japanese Art and Design sale after a 3 minute break. This part of the sale included 21 swords from the museum as well as a few “other properties”.

Amongst these swords, I was amazed to see an apparently genuine Oei period Nobukuni katana, with an estimate of £1,000-£1,500, sell for ten times its high estimate at £15,000. Especially surprising as there was a clear case of nioi-giri in the monouchi area which was catalogued.

Lot 56 A Bungo tachi (Yukihira)

Lot 21 A Kiyomaro School Katana

The highest priced Lot in this part of the sale was Lot 21, a Kiyomaro school katana. This was stated to be a very early example of Kiyomaro’s work when he was only 17 years old and was signed Ikkansai Masayuki. It was not the best Kiyomaro you will ever see, his later work in Soshu-den is, as would be expected, far better, but certainly a most stalwart effort for such a young man. Christie’s had rather ambitiously estimated this at £100,000-£150,000 and although it failed to reach the low estimate, I believe it sold for £70,000.

In summary, the swords from the museum were almost without exception, very fine blades. I have visited this museum on more than one occasion and I know that there were some magnificent swords there that have not come onto the market in the West (including several Shintogo Kunimitsu for instance) and which, as far as I am aware, will not be at the New York sale next year. Maybe the cream of the collection has already been sold in Japan or retained by the owners whilst we are seeing the rest.

Many of the swords were bought both in the room and by telephone by Japanese, whether dealers or collectors, although there was also spirited buying from a Taiwanese museum. I think western dealers and collectors should be cautious of considering that, simply on the evidence of this sale (and probably the forthcoming sale in New York) that the sword market has revived to the extent it was in the 1980’s. It is important to remember that this collection was mainly put together in the 1950’s (before NBTHK shinsa) and have never, as far as I know, been offered for sale before. They were also far above the average quality that we are usually offered.

Please note that all of the above is my personal opinion only.

Clive Sinclaire

London Nov 2004

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