Boxwood netsuke of three rats on Daikoku’s sack

Boxwood netsuke of three rats on Daikoku’s sack by Susan Wraight (born 1955) moved to Australia in 1983

The visible eyes of two rats inlaid in dark horn

Signed with monogram SW on a gold tablet

Width: 5.7 cm

With original wood box applied with a similar tablet to that on the netsuke

Information: 

This is one of at least three versions of the subject, and one of the carver’s masterpieces.  One, carved in 1991, was a gift to President George Bush in January of the following year and is illustrated in INSJ, 12/3, P.39, fig. 6. The other is in the Takamado Collection, Tokyo, illustrated in Prince Norihito’s ‘Contemporary Netsuke’, no. WO41

MR2749