IJA General sword tassel

[Alan M]

I thought you might like to see this rare item . A very nice example with an equally nice price .


WWII Gendaito Japanese Army General Officer Sword Knot Tassel Original | eBay

[lew07]

Very nice.It sold for more than some of the swords sell for lol

[harryamb2]

its gone.

[Silberkreuz]

Hi Alan,
Never saw one of those before, there can not be many of them. thanks for the posting.
Regards SK

[DrPMC]

For future reference.

[SteveR]

For future reference.

Glad someone was smart enough to post a picture to the thread.
LINKS to ebay are Not acceptable to any thread just common sense should tell anyone that. Links to any other hosting sites or auction sites are not acceptable either. POST THE PICTURES or the thread will just be wasted band width later on.

[BOB COLEMAN]

The question is whether it real or a Chinese made copy. I have had a few genuine ones and for me, the fold is too yellow on this tassle.

[stegel]

I tend to agree with Bob on this one, yes it is nice but i would not have bid on it for that exact reason.
The original tassels had a gold bullion thread weaved into the straps to produce the zig-zag pattern, which with time tends to fade and appear more dull to the eye. I think that this one is a bit suspect, in that the thread appears to be just a common yellow thread, and therefore could be a reproduction.
Look at the pics below of my two tassels and you will see what i mean.
I can guarantee that mine are real, as i still have one of the swords.
I have also included 2 pics of Bill Rannows collection, they also appear similar to mine.
Obviously there were different suppliers/manufacturers for these which can account for the differences in the shades of the gold tassels, from what i remember, the darker gold tassel on the right side is very early manufacture, and the lighter one to the left is late manufacture.

There were also two grades of tassel available for purchase by officers, the standard, and the deluxe.
I'll look for a pic to show the differences, and post it for you.
Basically the deluxe version has the opposite colour along the edge of the straps to the main colour.
So if your looking at the blue side (for company grade blue/brown) you will see the edges in brown and vice versa. The standard version doesn't have this feature.
From what i've seen, i don't believe that general grade tassels came in Standard versions.
Perhaps Bob or someone else can confirm or deny this.
Cheers
Ern

[stegel]

Here's the link to Ohmura's Gunto site, scroll down to the end where he mentions the two grades of tassels that were available
The scabbard, a spring clip and a tassel for new GuntMes

I just noticed, the generals tassel on his page also has the 'yellow' thread in it......
perhaps it could be real after all??

[Alan M]

Gentlemen , please accept my apologies on not posting pictures direct to the forum , i should know better ! I thank DrPMC for his input. It was an oversight on my part as i was just browsing , came across this item and thinking it could be of interest , posted the link on impulse and without thought . Anno Domini must be setting in LOL ! As SteveR has stated , i need to be smarter in future

This item sold for $1642.