Large wood netsuke of a dromedary, by Hideyuki (born 1941)
Standing with all four feet together, its neck cork-screwed around as it looks up and behind with mouth wide open. The himotoshi are bored between the hump and the tail. The doe eyes are double inlays of yellow and dark horn, the pupils tiny
Signed on an inlaid gold plaque: hideyuki
Height: 9.7 cm
With tomobako inscribed rakuda (camel) on the cover. Signed on the inside: kosei hideyuki with red seal hideyuki
Provenance:
Mme. Béa Estival, Brussels, sold to Jacques Carré, 15th November 1981
Max Rutherston Ltd., 2017
Since in a private UK collection
As Jacque Carré astutely observes on his index card, this is almost certainly a pastiche of the supposed 18th century kirin, more likely the work of Masatoshi, in the Irving Gould collection, illustrated in The Gould Collection of Netsuke, pp. 26-27. Perhaps Hideyuki knew something that Gould did not.
MR5408
