A rare lacquered-wood netsuke of a gourd By Jikan Ganbun, 19th century
£7,500 - £8,000
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Find your local specialistA rare lacquered-wood netsuke of a gourd
The hollow loofah gourd open at one end and lacquered dark brown, its stem twisting around the body to provide a himotoshi half way along its length, at the top is inlaid an iron spider with brass eyes above a praying mantis standing below, its body and legs of iron, its wings of same and its eyes of inlaid pearl, the tendrils and other details are inlaid in gilt metal and pewter wire, and applied in gold foil of which traces still remain, signed Jikan Ganbun saku oju to (carved to order). 10.5cm (4 1/8in).
Footnotes
Provenance: Walter Behrens collection, no.5519.
Paul Corbin Collection, sold in Paris, 22nd February 1926, lot 375.
Sold at Sothebys, London, 6th December 1965, lot 223, acquired by J. A. Mang.
Published: G. Lazarnick, Mebun, in the Journal of the International Netsuke Collectors' Society, vol.6, no.3, December 1978, pp.23-31, illustrated as fig.C4.
The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Alan R. Liss, Inc., New York, 1986, p.64 (without illustration).
G. Lazarnick, Netsuke and Inro Artists and How to Read their Signatures, Honolulu, 1982, p.374 (illustrated and described mistakenly as 'black wood').
