“Paul understood that swords carried special significance to Japanese history.”
Paul Davidson was a responsible member of his home and professional community. He was a serious martial artist and maintained a wide array of good friends and social companions who enjoyed his company. Those are worthy qualities, but at this moment, Paul deserves to be remembered as a truly outstanding collector.
Japanese swords were the particular focus of his collecting interest, but the concentration and responsibility he brought to this subject went well beyond what could be described as a hobby. Paul understood that swords carried special significance to Japanese history. He appreciated their value, and with a martial artist’s intensity, he realized that they involved aesthetic and technical qualities that had to be studied and mastered. Paul also understood that there are well-established principals involved in preserving Japanese swords.
I got to know Paul in the 1970s when we regularly bumped into one another at gun shows and collectors’ gatherings. These were rarely spots for serious appreciation, but Paul was cordial and seemed to respect my interest in Edo period blades from Sendai. I may have described these as “Yamato” style. That assessment was certainly naïve, but Paul recalled it time and again as we met. He respected my interest, but also convinced me that he was interested in blades by highly ranked smiths. From the beginning, Paul was a “quality collector.” Prices may have been generally low in those early days, but when I encountered a blade that was outside my interest or budget, I involved Paul. I put a couple of aging veterans in contact with him and more than once, he “got me out from under” a purchase I had made but didn’t want to keep. We also worked together on a couple of collections that were too big or diverse to be easily handled individually. In all of these cases, Paul freely shared information. He also expertly assessed swords and fittings and dealt fairly with everyone.
After retiring to Arkansas, I was able to visit Paul in his home where he and his wife Christine generously hosted my wife and I. Most importantly, on these visits, Paul would organize special displays of his blades for me. The amazing quality of the pieces Paul would present, along with the standards of presentation, and his thoughtful arrangement could only be compared to sword presentations I attended in Japan. Many of the pieces Paul presented were outside my expertise, but they were special to me because Paul regularly presented them to recall my interests.
“The amazing quality of the pieces Paul would present, along with the standards of presentation, and his thoughtful arrangement could only be compared to sword presentations I attended in Japan.”
Some collectors may be willing to keep pieces, “as found”, but that was not how Paul operated. He learned the standards of sword, koshirae, and armor preservation, and applied them to his collection. Collectors’ appreciation is also apparent in the way that Paul’s collection is being handled. His collection - with its many “museum quality” pieces - has been fully documented, and now is being made available to worldwide collectors and institutions.
In his will, Paul gave me a sword by Awataguchi Kuniyasu. I was genuinely surprised by this award, and I have to think that it was made to encourage me to consider the deep roots and characteristics of categories of my collecting interest. I deeply appreciate the generosity of this gift, but I have decided that this sword deserves to be recognized as part of the auction of the Paul Davidson collection.
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Peter Bleed
