A JAPANESE WAKIZASHI (SHORT SWORD)

A JAPANESE WAKIZASHI (SHORT SWORD)
PROBABLY EDO, 18TH/19TH CENTURY

The black lacquer scabbard with a pronounced shagreen decoration, one menuki modelled as a copper frog with gilt eyes, together with its young on a lotus leaf; the other a writhing snake in shakudo; the fuchi/kashira and tsuba with a large number of flowers rendered in gilt over the shakudo ground, the fuchi signed Nagaharu; the kozuka with deer and maple leaves, inscribed Shizu Saburo Kaneuji in homage to the 13th century swordsmith; the tang of the blade mumei (unsigned), the blade 48cm. (2)