This kinko menuki is worked in shakudo with silver and gold highlights picking out the detail. The design brings together three motifs, a tachibana orange, a flower blossom and a folded fan, and the piece is unsigned. It is catalogued as SKU MGJ374 among Japanese swords, fittings and firearms, and it is sold as a used antique fitting.

Menuki of this kind were made to sit under the hilt wrap, so the motifs are small, raised and meant to be read close up. For a New Jersey buyer this is a display and study piece: the three-motif composition gives a restorer or a tosogu collector something to set against other soft-metal fittings, and the mix of dark shakudo with silver and gold shows well under a desk lamp. The supplier gives no school, maker or date, so judge it on the photographs and the materials listed, and ask about dimensions if you plan to mount it on a hilt.

Key features

• Kinko menuki in shakudo
• Silver and gold highlights
• Tachibana orange, blossom and folded fan motifs
• Unsigned
• SKU MGJ374, used condition

Delivery is to your door in New Jersey, as with any sword fitting that is not a firearm.