Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip
If you have a pic of the tang peening mushroom on the end of the pommel, I can get a better idea of when the re-hilting likely occurred.
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Philip, thank you for your insights on these swords as well the notes on their provenance. When I first saw them at the preview, it was clear that they had all required significant polishing and restoration and it was also clear that the work was of excellent quality (and reminded me of some of your fine work that had come my way via Scott Rodell decades ago.) These three swords came from a rural auction in upstate New York.
I have attached an image of the pommel showing the peening of the tang in the sword with later cupronickel mountings as you have suggested.
I refer to my collection of about a dozen Chinese swords as my "accidental" collection as for whatever reason, knowledge about them was pretty scarce in my earlier collecting days and so I never actively sought them. I guess a number of other collectors were influenced by the same information void. Fortunately a few really nice examples did find me over the years (via Scott Rodell, the Yaroms and Peter Dekker) but a number were chance encounters. I remember a dealer in Brimfield once 'begging" me to take a pair of Chinese swords, a big ring pommel and a big ox-tail at $75 each, if I recall correctly. I suspected they were recent and artificially aged, but I took them home anyway as he had done me well on another item. Months later, I examined them with more care and realized they were decent antiques!