(4) Vintage Japanese Swords

Lot description

(lot of 4) Japanese swords in need of restoration or parts:  (1) with 27.5" blade appearing in bright good condition with hamon lines at each side, the wood handle, if original, is lacking the string wrapping and retains a sharkskin strip at only one side, the blade tang has Japanese characters at one side, the scabbard has a wrapped green finish and retains a paper with some source identification; (1) short sword, the 18" blade with rust and black spots, a simple wood handle, no marking on the blade tang, housed in a simple wood scabbard, overall with scabbard 34"l; (1) short sword, 21.75" blade,\with black in several places,  simple wood handle, no marking on blade tang, a simple wood scabbard with Japanese characters at two sides, overall with scabbard 30"l; (1) short sword, 21.5" bright blade, no writing on blade tang, the handle appears not original to sword, black wrapping over sharkskin, wood handle with some floral decoration is much longer than sword, overall 37.5"l,  for shipping total of all 6.65lbs    *Provenance: A consignment from the estate of a now deceased U.S. Army officer. Documents from the estate (not a part of this auction) indicate that three of the swords, not individually identified, were given to a U.S. Army Colonel, stationed in1946 U.S. Occupied Japan.