A Stag Antler Pipecase and Wood Tobacco Box

MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY), SEALED KOKUSAI [OZAKI KOKUSAI (1835-1892)]

細節

A Stag Antler Pipecase and Wood Tobacco Box
Meiji period (late 19th century), sealed Kokusai [Ozaki Kokusai (1835-1892)]
Carved as a lotus flower and stem with a snail, the design following the natural curve of the antler, the details stained dark, the tobacco box designed with bamboo "slats" applied with metal bosses and fitted with a hinged carved dark wood cover; amber bead ojime
8¼in. (21cm.) long

拍品專文

Kokusai lived and worked in Tokyo's Asakusa district. He learned carving at a young age, apprenticing with ningyo (doll) carvers until he reached his twenties when he took a job in the Shin Yoshiwara brothel district to support his son, novelist Ozaki Koyo (1868-1903).

While Kokusai carved items of many shapes and sizes, he is perhaps best known for his slender, elongated stylizations of animals, figures and plants. Kokusai's material of choice was stag antler, a material well suited to slender sashi and obi-hasami netsuke forms, as well as pipecases. Stag antler is an extremely difficult material to carve, requiring great hand strength and control. However, the antler's coarse, dark core allows for color and texture variations that Kokusai put to great use in his designs, as here.