Dieter3

Here's another neat one, a Pu-Yi Enthronement (I think.....?) document, ¥70,000 - no idea if that is a 'good' price or not but looks like a nice document and the only one I've seen in the short time I've been doing this. I think it is safe to assume these are pretty rare!

Well, not to rub salt in the wound...... but here's the Manchurian Incident document - looks to be in good shape and awarded to the same person. Much cheaper at ¥8,500 (not 8,000 as I originally posted.....)! This just goes to show you it pays to know your history and the people involved! Well, I'll just consider my ignorance as bliss.....

Thanks Rich, that somewhat explains it I guess! Just a a few bidders were battling it out with each other over these and they were hot to get 'em! I figured there must have been SOMETHING to this other than just a simple case of one-upsmanship! A Manchurian Incident document was up there too from the same seller, perhaps issued to the same individual but - in better condition than either of the two above, though it fetched a lot less at 'only' ¥8,000....

Wow! Some gorgeous items, thanks for sharing! :D

One of you lucky guys?? Sold at auction for ¥97,100..... Would love to see anyone else's photos if you've got one of these in your collection!!

It's a lot of work, but for the past few months I've been monitoring auctions for Japanese items (pretty much just orders, medals and their corresponding documents, not pins or badges) from OMJAS. My initial interest was just in tracking value trends and essentially planning out my future purchases (or rather, what will I need to save to get what I'm after!) but it has proved to be a valuable method of learning a bit about the various awards and what they and their rosettes or cases might look like based on their period of manufacture, variations, etc., etc. Always exciting to see new and unfamiliar things, not hard in my particular case! One thing is for sure - the auction sites are far from predictable! Not that you guys aren't already aware of this, but it amazes me at what things can sell for - a relatively common piece in not-so-good condition sells for a fair sum, while the same thing, sometimes on the same day even, will sell for a ridiculously low price despite its superior condition!! Puzzling. Anyway, for what it's worth, I only have a few months worth of data (and it is A LOT) and am happy to share the info with anybody should they be curious as to what kinds of prices particular items in a given condition might be currently fetching. For you long-time collectors, I'm sure it has been interesting to watch the trends over time!

The China Incident document is not in bad condition, the 2600th isn't terrible, but it's not great either. Any ideas on why the high prices??

O.K., so I've seen some crazy auctions as I'd imagine we all have.Sure, I've paid more for things than the "market value", but I don't quite get these two auctions today. Not sure if it was a case of bidding wars gone wild or if these documents belonged to somebody important. If anybody can make sense out of it, I'd sure like to know!The first one for a China Incident award document, sold for ¥37,000with 70 bids! The second one a 2600th Anniversary award document for¥22,500 with 29 bids.....

For your belt: http://members.shaw..../senninbari.htm' For your bags: http://members.shaw....uworld/bags.htm Finally! A new post! Seemed a bit slow around here!! :rolleyes:

Thanks Rob. Quite a difference between the Japanese ribbons as well, not only the color, but the taper of the ribbon, very interesting! I wonder if these were made in different locations, or if the design was intentionally altered! I don't as yet have one of these, but now that I see the differences, I'm really going to pay more attention! Variants are always a big plus in my book!

Wow. The ribbons really seem quite different! Thanks for the post!

Ah ha! Me thinks you're right! Thanks for that. How about that kanji, anyone?

I know some of you guys will know what this is, but please educate me! Looks like a Sacred Treasure medallion and ribbon but with a Paulownia suspenion. Anybody read that old kanji on the case?

Got this one today, it's my first 1914-15 medal. The front is a tad faded, and there is light soiling, but no major damage, just one small snag that's hard to see. All in all a good piece. I think it's a keeper. Has original case, in good condition, though I left it at work for "de-bugging" - no signs, but I don't trust these things (cases) anymore so they all get the deep freeze!

Yet another 1914-15 War Medal, looks like this mark is pretty common....??

Weren't earlier ribbons with darker blue stripes?

And if it does exist, you can only hope that the one involved don't discard it as old garbage..... Wouldn't it be nice to know people in power? Need an inside person!! I think you're right, information is likely to exist somewhere, either on paper, or in the back of some person's mind. I do know information like this can be difficult to obtain with regards to weapons/small arms, but many of the books do cite human connections that have garnered information - people that knew, were there, or otherwise had something to do with manufacturing, at least in the days leading up to WWII....

Looks to be a very nice example! :)

Has anybody ever tried contacting the current mint? I know a lot of records were destroyed during the war years, but I wonder if connections remain to people that may have worked there (if anybody is still living!)?

So it seems clear that the "M" is an Osaka Mint mark. But what might be the significance of the other marks? Are these possibly similar to the way Japanese weapons have been marked where characters denote a specific series for a serial# range, arsenal, or an actual person's personal inspection mark? Were there other mint locations operating under supervision by the Osaka mint?

One thing to keep in mind, or so I'm led to believe, is that acid-free, unbuffered (pH neutral) paper though correct for textile preservation, will be limited by how the entire wrapped object is subsequently stored. The unbuffered tissue is still subject to absorbing pollutants and with enough time can go acidic, then offering less protection to the wrapped object or perhaps even transferring harmful molecules to it, hence the use of secondary containment that is buffered or otherwise engineered to absorb acids and pollutants from the external environment. Not that this was necessarily your issue, but do you think this may have contributed? As you pointed out, it is of course interesting to note awards that were highly unlikely to have had an sort of special care or conservation applied to them, yet they are just fine!

I would recommend you consult with a conservationist! Obviously, you should handle/move them at an extreme minimum to combat mechanical degradation and minimize exposure to light if you're not already doing so, especially sunlight and fluorescent. When moved or handled, try to give them the utmost, uniform support possible, preferably without having to directly handle the object itself. None of my items are handled with bare hands, only cotton or nitrile gloves. I wrap the awards in unbuffered, acid-free tissue. These are then kept in some sort of support vessel whether it be their original cases (which may or may not be a good idea for long-term storage depending on what they are made out of and their potential to off-gas molecules that may degrade the award over the long haul....) or other special boxes made for archival storage. Either scenario, the items are then subdivided into larger archival storage boxes made of materials to combat air pollutants. Have a look at this: http://www.conservationresources.com/Main/...icroChamber.htm I think this technology seems reasonable short of serious (and costly!) environmental control. (Though if you can control the relative humidity at all, aim for 40% - this seems to be the recommendation by several textile conservationists with whom I've spoken, and this applies to lots of other materials as well.) The initial costs may or may not be moderate depending on your collection, but if you have rare/valuable items, the costs for conservation are negligible. None of this is convenient if you want to frequently view or display your collection, but if your goal is conservation, it should help!

Fortunately, none of the affected items are rare and I should be able to upgrade them pretty handily. The bummer is that the medals that belong to the affected cases are near-mint condition, so the bug-holed cases seriously degrade them overall in my opinion. Nonetheless, a learning experience!

I don't think they were powder-post beatles. I'm pretty sure whatever they were, they were native to Japan and hitched a ride in one of the cases! Fortunately, I've not found any more among the collection or the place where they are stored, though if I ever do, I'll take 'em alive to get a positive ID! I hear what you're saying though!

So far so good - I can only treat 4 cases at a time with the space I have available. I've been running them at -20C for right around 100 hours or so. Both wood and pasteboard cases seem to be able to take the treatment with no ill effects - no apparent warping, cracking, color changing, nothing. After treatment, I places the cases into fresh plastic bags so I could monitor them for any new appearance of holes, wood dust, critters, any signs of life. So far nothing. I'll just keep monitoring them, and maybe declare victory at the end of summer as I'm hoping the warming would induce them to hatch out or come out of hiberation, what have you, by that time. All I know is any item I get from now on is getting the treatment before it goes anywhere near anything else!