λ A JAPANESE WOOD AND IVORY ARTICULATED KOBE TOY MEIJI PERIOD

λ A JAPANESE WOOD AND IVORY ARTICULATED KOBE TOY

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

Carved as a mother carrying her child on her back, their heads and hands movable, the mother's tongue and left eye sticking out and the child's neck extending upwards, 6.8cm.

Provenance: from the collection of Richard Gordon Smith (1858-1918) and thence by descent. Gordon Smith was an English traveller, sportsman and naturalist who lived in Japan at the turn of the century, recording his experience in his "Ill-Spelled Diaries" and transcribing traditional myths which he later published in "Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan" (1908). Entries from his diaries were later published in "Travels in the Land of the Gods: The Japan Diaries of Richard Gordon Smith" (1986).