A JAPANESE IRON KAGONAMI NAMBAN TSUBA

A JAPANESE IRON KAGONAMI NAMBAN TSUBA

EDO PERIOD, 17TH CENTURY OR LATER

In Tibeto-Chinese style and decorated in openwork with two confronting dragons, an orb with a cross to the top and with two other crosses to the sides highlighted in gilt, on a ground of scrolling tendrils and with a ribbed rim, 7.5cm.

See Victoria & Albert Museum, access. no. M.194-1916 for a related tsuba.These tsuba were probably made in the workshops of Nagasaki. The gilding over crosshatched decoration is in typical Canton style which was popular in 17th and 18th century China.