Project Description
Boxwood Netsuke of Tengu no Tamago by Naito Toyomasa
Emerging from its egg, the left wing already spread over the outside of the shell. The fingers resting on the edge of the broken shell are skeletal. The eyes are mid-toned buffalo horn with drilled pupils. The grain of the wood is plainly visible on the unworked surface of the shell
Signed. Tamba. Circa 1840
Height: 4.6 cm
Literature:
Illustrated in
Eskenazi, Eighteenth to twentieth century netsuke ,1978, n° 27
Journal of The International Netsuke Collectors’ Society, 5/4, illustrated in the Eskenazi advertisement on the back cover
Sydney L. Moss, More things in Heaven and Earth, n° 48
Provenance:
E.A. Wrangham collection
Eskenazi, 1978
Private collection, Italy
Sydney L. Moss, 2005, purchased by the present owner
MR3967