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

Details

An Ivory Netsuke and Three Others
Edo Period (Late 18th-Early 19th Century)
The first a standing figure of a female pearl-fisher holding a net; the second a man drying himself after his bath; the third a skeleton folded for burial; the fourth a boy with a tortoise on his back
2 1/8in. (5.4cm.), 2½in. (6.4cm.), 1 7/8in. (4.9cm.) and 2in. (5.2cm.) high respectively (4)

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Lot Essay

The middle years of the Edo Period were a time of increased awareness of European ideas of anatomy, making skeletons an ideal subject for netsuke not only because the material, ivory, was particularly suitable for depicting bones but also because netsuke carvers were so interested in creating portable representations of everything that was novel and strange.

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