EDO PERIOD (LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY)

Details

TWO BOXWOOD NETSUKE
Edo Period (late 18th/Early 19th Century)
A wood netsuke of Shoki holding in his right hand a sword and bending over a well, the himotoshi formed by a large hole with the natural opening of the robe and the well, signed on the left sole forming an oval reserve Kigyoku; and another of a farmer carrying an axe and cut-wood on his back, the himotoshi formed by two small holes on the lower back, signed on the hakama and just below the haori Minkoku
1¼in. (3.3cm.) and 1½in. (3.9cm.) high respectively (2)

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

An almost identical example to the netsuke by Kigyoku is illustrated in George Lazarnick, Netsuke and Inro Artists and How to Read Their Signatures (Honolulu, 1982), part I, p. 613. Another similar example in the Behrens Collection shows Shoki looking down the well at an oni forming the ojime and attached to the cord.1

1 Glendining and Co., auction catalogue of the W.L. Behrens Collection [by H.L. Joly], pt. 1. Netsuke (London, 1912), no 4765

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