**SOLD** Ivory netsuke of a stag

Ivory netsuke of a stag by Yamaguchi Okatomo (active 1780-1830) 

Unusually tall, and at the same time slender, seated, baying.  Its elegant antlers extend almost the full length of its neck and it is distinguished by small haunches

Signed on the left haunch with a weak signature readingTomotada.  Kyoto, circa 1790

Height: 12.6 cm

The left hind foot well restored

Provenance: 

Julius and Arlette Katchen collection, Paris

Information: 

The closest comparison to this netsuke is probably the unsigned example in the Virginia Atchley collection.  Both have the same elongation and are carved from the same part of the tusk with the cementum visible as a darker, more orange layer running down the breast and forelegs of both netsuke.  They both display similar age cracks.  Although the netsuke is illustrated in the Atchley and Davey book, p. 55, no. N50, the photograph is taken from an awkward angle.  Comparison is easier with the illustration in Hurtig’s Masterpieces of Netsuke Art, p. 25, no. 13.  Other useful comparisons are with the Behrens unsigned stag, no. 1542A (pl. XXVI in Joly’s catalogue) which may be the netsuke which passed from the Oscar Raphael collection to the British Museum (Tsuchiya, pp. 150-151)

Literature: 

A. Katchen, Netsuke 7, vol. 1, pp. 75-76, no.  K374

MR1281