



A very fine ivory netsuke of a stag By Okatomo, Kyoto, late 18th/early 19th century
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Find your local specialistA very fine ivory netsuke of a stag
Seated, its head raised and looking up as it bays to the sky and its antlers drawn back over its long neck for compactness, the slightly-worn ivory bears a good patina and the eye pupils are inlaid, signed in a rectangular reserve Okatomo. 6.3cm (2½in).
Footnotes
象牙彫根付 雄鹿 銘「友忠」 18世紀前半/19世紀後半
Published: Rosemary Bandini, ibid., p.118, no.172.
For a very similar example by Okatomo, see Joe Earle, Netsuke, Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Miniature Sculpture, 2001, p.260, no.226.
Compare also a very similar example by Tomotada, illustrated by Anne Hull Grundy, Tomotada and Okatomo in relation to the Kyoto School of Netsuke Carvers, The Antique Collector, June 1963, p.107, fig.1.
For a related, unsigned, example, see Victor Harris, Netsuke, The Hull Grundy Collection at the British Museum, p.67, no.293.
Saleroom notices
Please note that the Chinese characters for Okatomo have been incorrectly recorded in the catalogue, the Japanese captions should read: 象牙彫根付 雄鹿 銘 (岡友) 18世紀前半/19世紀後半