λ TWO JAPANESE IVORY NETSUKE

λ TWO JAPANESE IVORY NETSUKE

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

One depicting an ama, the pearl diving girl covering her mouth modestly as a large octopus entangles its tentacles around her body, her hair stained and its eyes inlaid, signed Tomomasa; the other a monkey emerging from a giant persimmon, signed Kogyoku, 4.3cm max. (2)

Provenance: from an English private collection, West Yorkshire, formed in the 1970s and 1980s.