**SOLD** Stag Antler Netsuke of a Bat, by Sozan

Stag Antler Netsuke of a Bat by Sozan

Both smoothly polished wings extended, one above the body, the other beneath, over a cluster of three reishi fungus.The coat of the body is incised with hairm, and the eye pupils are inlays of brass

Signed in an oval reserve. Circa 1870

Height: 3.7 cm

Provenance:

Deaccessioned from an anonymous US museum in a sale at Christie’s London, 21st February 1966, lot 36, purchased by Sir Richard Hanbury-Tenison KCVO

Since in the same family

Information:

Fuld lists 42 netsuke signed by carvers named Sozan, whom he identifies as 6 discrete individuals, a conclusion always best taken with a pinch of salt. We have previously sold an ivory Kitsune mask from the Peter Müller collection, similar in concept to kitsune masks by Kokusai, and therefore probably by the same hand as the present netsuke.  It of course is most similar to the four unsigned antler netsuke of the same subject attributed to Hoshunsai Masayuki in the Sydney L. Moss Ltd. catalogue, ‘Kokusai the Genius’, vol. III, pp.78-83. We have sold a version signed Masayuki and yet another was in the third Katchen sale at Bonhams London, 6th November 2018, lot 120

MR5040