Project Description

Wood Netsuke of a Rotten Persimmon, by Bazan

Two crickets and an earwig busy eating the flesh of the kaki

Signed. Gifu. Circa 1860

Length: 4.4 cm

Provenance:

B.K. Denton, Yokohama

Rutherston and Bandini, London, 2013

Since in a European collection

Literature:

Bushell, ‘Collectors’ Netsuke’, illustrated p. 109

Lazarnick, ‘Netsuke and Inro Artists …’, illustrated p. 307

I previously wrote that for all his skills of proselytism, Bushell did not know his insects, as he describes these as flies which they are patently not. However, I must now eat humble pie, since the omniscient Clive Hallam points out that these are identifiable by their ovipositors as crickets. Well, I never ….

MR4823 Located in Europe