λ TWO JAPANESE IVORY NETSUKE MEIJI PERIOD

λ TWO JAPANESE IVORY NETSUKE

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

One depicting Gyoja Busho taming a large lion dog, signed Tomochika underneath; the other four armour-clad samurai scrambling to stand up, signed Masatsugu, 4.2cm and 6.4cm respectively. (2)

Provenance: an English private collection, Westminster.

Cf. F Meinertzhagen, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Part B, p.890, where a similar netsuke of Busho and a shishi by Tomochika is illustrated and discussed, possibly this very piece.