Two Sword Sales, Two Markets: Bonhams' Yorke Collection vs. iGavel's Quigley Lots — Results Compared
Two lifetime collections of Japanese swords closed within a day of each other: Bonhams' 71-lot Peter Yorke sale in London, and Part 2 of the Michael Quigley collection at iGavel / Lark Mason in the United States. One was a high-end provenance event; the other a timed sale that opened some lots at $50. The results say more about how the antique market actually works than either catalogue alone.
1. Bonhams: Provenance Paid — and Paid a Lot
Bonhams has published realised prices for Japanese Swords: The Peter Yorke Collection, the online sale of 71 lots from the collection of dealer Peter Yorke (1949–2023), which closed on November 11, 2026. The leading lot, a fine and large 15th/16th-century Soshū wakizashi catalogued under the Masamune lineage in superb mounts, sold for £83,700 against a £15,000–£25,000 estimate — more than 3.3 times its high estimate. A Bizen tantō dated 1558, in superb mounts with Ichijō-school fittings, reached £56,820 against a £10,000–£15,000 estimate, and a later Soshū katana of the Yoshihiro lineage, dated 1859, made £54,260. A Musashi tantō by Kurihara Kenji Nobuhide, dated 1862, sold for £31,200, more than double its £10,000–£15,000 estimate. Further down the list, a Mino katana by Kanesugi made £33,780, a shin-shintō katana by Munenaga made £22,100, and a Horikawa-school wakizashi dated 1611 made £13,000. At the other end of the room, the lowest realised prices on the sale page were a fine koshira-e for a wakizashi at £780 and a Hizen katana by the Tadakuni lineage at £1,560. Bonhams’ sale page does not state whether its published figures include buyer’s premium, so compare them with hammer prices elsewhere with that caveat in mind.
Source: Bonhams — Web
2. iGavel: Low Openings, Real Competition — and a Surprise at the Top
Across the Atlantic, Part 2 of Treasures of Imperial Japan and the Samurai: The Collection of Michael Quigley, presented by Lark Mason Associates on iGavel, closed on November 10, 2026, with lots closing in staggered order from late morning into the early afternoon Eastern Time. The sale held 103 lots in total, including 38 Japanese bladed weapons, of which 31 sold and 7 went unsold. The sold swords totalled $107,076 in hammer prices — $133,845 once iGavel’s 25% buyer’s premium is added.
The three lots we followed from the catalogue all sold above their openings. A signed Norisada katana of the Showa period, estimated at $500–$800, opened at $250 and closed at $850 hammer ($1,062.50 with premium) after 8 bids. A mumei katana attributed to Awa Kaifu Yasuyoshi, c. 1375–1520, with NBTHK Hozon papers, opened at $500 and sold for $1,300 hammer ($1,625.00 with premium) against a $1,000–$2,000 estimate. And a Muromachi-period naginata signed Yoshisuke, in shirasaya with a red-lacquered saya, opened at $1,000 and closed at $4,350 hammer ($5,437.50 with premium) against a $2,000–$4,000 estimate — above its high estimate after 11 bids.
The sale’s real top, though, was none of those three. A katana by Takahashi Sadatsugu (1902–1981), dated c. 1943, opened at $1,500 and sold for $19,500 hammer ($24,375.00 with premium) after 14 bids — thirteen times its opening. A 15th-century Yasumitsu wakizashi with Imperial diplomatic chokunin koshirae opened at $5,000 and made $16,000 hammer ($20,000.00 with premium), and an Imperial Admiral Yamamoto presentation tantō by Endo Mitsuoki opened at $2,500 and sold for $14,600 hammer ($18,250.00 with premium) after 25 bids. iGavel shows hammer and premium separately on every lot page, so these are hammer prices; the totals in parentheses include the 25% premium.
Source: iGavel / Lark Mason — Web
From the shop:
Tamahagane Choji Katana with Real Hamon | Full Tang 18-Stage Polished Black Urushi Scabbard 102cm — $1199.99
3. What the Contrast Actually Proves
Provenance and attribution set the ceiling. Yorke’s sale was one dealer’s fifty-year reputation attached to every lot, and the market paid for it: the top lot more than tripled its high estimate. At iGavel, the biggest multiples also went to named makers with documentation — Sadatsugu at thirteen times its opening, the Yamamoto presentation tantō at nearly six times its opening. A name you can verify, and papers that back it, are what move a blade from the middle of the room to the top of it.
A low opening is not a low value. iGavel opened lots at $50 to $1,000, and every one of the three lots we tracked closed above its estimate — the naginata opened at $1,000 and sold for $4,350. An opening bid is a starting point the house sets to get bidding moving, not a valuation. Judging a sword by its opening bid is like judging it by its first photograph.
The floor is real, too. Seven of iGavel’s 38 sword lots went unsold, including blades that opened at $1,500 with no bids at all — among them a katana signed Echizen Ju Harima Daijo Fujiwara Shigetaka and a wakizashi by Yamato Daijo Fujiwara Masanori. At Yorke, the cheapest realised prices were still £780 to £1,560. An opening bid is a hope; a bid is a market. When nobody bids, the market has spoken just as clearly as when a room fights over a lot.
These are barely the same market. Bonhams’ three highest realised prices alone totalled £194,780 — more than the entire hammer total of iGavel’s 31 sold swords ($107,076). One sale served collectors buying documented history at five figures in pounds; the other served collectors hunting named blades and military swords from $50 openings. Both are the antique sword market. Neither, on its own, is the whole of it.
From the shop:
4. The Standing Lessons, Restated
Antique value is history, provenance, and condition — not cutting performance. A 15th-century wakizashi that sold for £83,700 is not better at cutting than a well-made modern blade. It is rarer, documented, and tied to a name and a collection. If you buy an antique expecting a better cutter, you are paying for the wrong thing.
The hammer price is never the total. Buyer’s premium, shipping, insurance, and blade import rules all sit on top of the hammer price. At iGavel the 25% premium alone turned $107,076 of hammer into $133,845 before a single shipping label was printed. At Bonhams the published figures do not say whether premium is included, which is itself a reason to read the terms before you bid, not after. And if a blade has to cross a border, check the import rules for that country first — antique blades, military swords, and modern reproductions are treated very differently, and the paperwork is part of the price.
Papers are not decoration. The Yasuyoshi katana carried NBTHK Hozon papers; the gassaku katana that sold for $6,750 at iGavel carried Tokubetsu Hozon papers. Attribution without documentation is a story. With it, it is a price — and without it, the discount is the market telling you exactly how much the story alone is worth.
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