Project Description
A Shunga Walrus Ivory Netsuke of Daruma by Michael Birch
The patriarch represented by his angst-ridden face enveloped in his cowl. It takes a while to register the phallic nose penetrating a suggestive clenched brow. The crystalline core of the ivory runs down the back of the head
Signed on a gold tablet: MHB. Probably carved in the late 1970s
Height: 4.2 cm
Information:
In her monograph on her late husband’s work, Janet Birch illustrates 15 netsuke of Daruma, some of them highly abstract. One of them, in stag antler, seems to me to be a self portrait. The two closest to the present work are versions in elephant ivory, illustrated on pp. 28 and 29. I have also sold a version in ebony
MR3529
