Lacquer tonkotsu by Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891)
In the form of a large chestnut with shiny reddish-brown skin and ishime lacquer bottom, decorated in black takamakie with a large beetle, and on the reverse with five ants heading for a hole
Scratched signature
Height: 7.5 cm
Provenance:
Pontgibaud collection, sold by Ader Picard, Drouot, Paris, 26th April 1971, lot 102, the signature not seen by the expert, since in the same family
Literature:
Illustrated in Bernard Hurtig’s Shibata Zeshin, part II in Journal of the International Netsuke Collectors’ Society,, 5/3, p. 28, fig. 15
I am struck by the similarity of overall conception between this and a wood tonkotsu by Jikan Ganbun from the Pereda and Lohrberg collections, illustrated in Sagemonoya’s Netsuke & Sagemono, Aji, Umami or Daigomi?, no. 159. In that instance the wood is unlacquered and the ants are of copper.
MR2812
