SIGNED OKATORI (KYOTO), EDO PERIOD (EARLY 19TH CENTURY)

Details

An ivory netsuke
signed Okatori (Kyoto), Edo Period (Early 19th Century)
Katabori, heavily stained ivory; a Westerner in a long curly wig dressed in a ruff and a coat tied at the waist in a large bow, the four buttons inlaid in dark horn, his right hand holding a tasselled, trumpet-mouthed musical instrument and his left hand behind his back supporting a small child which climbs on his right shoulder, the whole with fine incised decoration and contrasting patinas on the back and front, the himotoshi formed by two holes in the skirt on the reverse of the coat, the larger hole below the smaller, signed with incised and stained characters in a rectangular unstained reserve to the right of the larger hole Okatori
5.9 x 3.7 cm. (2 5/16 x 1 7/16 in.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 20 December 1986, lot 13 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. E-29).

Special notice

Christie's charges a Buyer's premium calculated at 20.825% of the hammer price for each lot with a value up to €90,000. If the hammer price of a lot exceeds €90,000 then the premium for the lot is calculated at 20.825% of the first €90,000 plus 11.9% of any amount in excess of €90,000. Buyer's Premium is calculated on this basis for each lot individually.

Lot Essay

This is an interesting example of a figure netsuke by a member of the second generation of Kyoto netsuke carvers, who were better known for their figures of animals. While Kyoto figure netsuke generally depict episodes from Japanese history, this lot is a small-scale version of the larger figures of Westerners that were popular in the earlier eighteenth century and possibly also in the seventeenth century.

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