A GOOD JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE EDO 1603-1868 Carved as a dragon emerging from a large orange

A GOOD JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE

EDO 1603-1868

Carved as a dragon emerging from a large orange, mikan, the mythological beast with eyes inlaid in light yellow horn, with crisply defined scales and fire wisps to the side, the fruit with a thin stalk from which grow two large leaves, signed underneath Toyomasa for Naito Toyomasa (1773-1856) of the Tamba Province, 4cm.

See M Coullery & M Newstead, The Baur Collection Geneva: Netsuke (Selected Pieces), no. C274 for a comparable dragon emerging from a fruit by Toyomasa. Also, see F Meinertzhagen, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Part B, p.949 for another similar netsuke by Toyomasa.