A GOOD JAPANESE IVORY NETSUKE MEIJI 1868-1912 Carved as Shohaku on a large ox

A GOOD JAPANESE IVORY NETSUKE

MEIJI 1868-1912

Carved as Shohaku on a large ox, the scholar with a large straw hat slung over his back, the bovine with an elaborate headdress made of peonies, raised on an oval base with a pattern of keyfret to the side, signed Mitsusada and Anraku, 4cm.

Provenance: An English private collection, Surrey. Purchased from Sotheby's London, The Katchen Collection of Netsuke, 8th November 2005, lot 24.

Cf. The Nihon Netsuke Kenkyukai, Netsuke, n.84 for a similar example by Ohara Mitsuhiro.

The fact that this netsuke bares two signatures and the different staining used for the figure and the animal suggest that this is a collaboration piece between the two Osaka-based artists Ohara Mitsusada and Shukosai Anraku.