Project Description
Prunus Wood Sashi-Netsuke of a Bird Headed Dragon
Its beak open as if screeching, the legs on the left swept back, those on the right reaching forward to suggest velocity
Unsigned. Circa 1900
12.8 cm
Iconographically, this seems to relate to a rare sashi netsuke of a dragon with head turned back, signed Gyokutei. Formerly in the collection of Shiro Akai, Bushell illustrates it, without suggesting a date, in Netsuke Familiar and Unfamiliar, fig. 585 and Lazarnick shows it in his Netsuke and Inro Artists, p. 432
MR4100
