A JAPANESE BOXWOOD NETSUKE

A JAPANESE BOXWOOD NETSUKE

MEIJI ERA, 19TH CENTURY

Carved as two small rats on a cluster of peanuts, one gnawing on the nuts, their hair finely rendered and with their eyes inlaid in dark horn, signed Masanao underneath with kao (for Masanao of Yamada, Ise Province), 3.9cm.

Provenance: an Irish private collection, Dublin.

Cf. G Lazarnick, Netsuke & Inro Artists, and How to read their signatures, vol.I, p.721, where this very netsuke by Masanao of Yamada is illustrated.