Project Description

Small Ebony Netsuke of a Recumbent Ox by Ittan

In repose with its head raised.  The eyes are double inlays of buffalo horn

Signed: ittan utsusu. Nagoya. Circa 1850

Length: 4.3 cm

Ittan oxen are not as numerous as one might imagine.  Fuld lists six, all of them small, between 4 and 4.4 cm.  The only ebony one he lists was sold by Sotheby’s Honolulu, 16th January 1979, lot 33. It may well be the present netsuke, but at the time of writing I have not been able to consult the catalogue

MR3668