A kinko menuki set showing shi-shi, the lion-dog figures, worked in copper with gold highlights. The shi-shi are posed guarding bags, and the bags are picked out in gold. The menuki are unsigned and come in a box. Condition is listed as used.

Menuki sit beneath the wrap of a sword hilt, one on each side, and a pair with a guardian subject like shi-shi was chosen as much for meaning as for looks. For a Texas collector this set works either way: mounted under a new tsuka wrap where the copper and gold show through the ito, or kept boxed as a small piece of antique metalwork. The gold highlights against the copper body give the figures some contrast, and the guarded bags are the detail to look for when matching the pair to the rest of a koshirae.

Key features

• Kinko menuki, shi-shi guarding gold bags
• Copper with gold highlights
• Unsigned, boxed
• Used condition

These fittings are not firearms and ship straight to your door in Texas.