λ A JAPANESE WOOD AND IVORY NETSUKE 19TH CENTURY Carved as a blind masseur holding a...

λ A JAPANESE WOOD AND IVORY NETSUKE

19TH CENTURY

Carved as a blind masseur holding a strengthening stone, a tumour on the back of his head, his lifeless eye and teeth inlaid with ivory, signed Gyokkei in an ivory tablet at the base, 3.5cm.

Cf. F Meinertzhagen, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Part A, pp.84-85 for a biography of Gyokkei and two other examples of blind masseurs by the same carver.