Project Description
Exceptional ivory netsuke of a rat by Yamaguchi Okatomo (active 1780-1830)
Crouching with its front paws resting on a small edamame bean and scratching itself with a hind paw. The eyes are almond shaped cabochons of buffalo horn. There is minimal wear to the incised hairwork and staining
Signed: Okatomo. Kyoto, before 1800
Length: 4.3 cm
Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s London, 20th February 1986, lot 132 (hammer price £7,500)
Klaus Riess, Munich
Information:
This is almost identical to a netsuke in the Baur Collection, Geneva, illustrated in Coullery and Newstead catalogue, no. C-1133. Surprisingly there is another Okatomo rat in the same colleciton, not scratching its ear (no. C-1134). These three are the only rats with beans by Okatomo that I know
Literature:
Netsuke Kenkyukai Study Journal, 6/2 (1986), pp. 30-31, illustrated in a report of the Sotheby’s sale
Bulletin Association Franco-Japonaise, 13 (June 1986), p. 31, illustrated in a similar report
MR2226