A JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE OF A STREET ENTERTAINER

A JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE OF A STREET ENTERTAINER

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

Standing with his mouth wide open as he sings, beating on two small bells, his loose robes realistically rendered, unsigned, with remnants of a paper collection label to the back and numbered '151' in ink, 7.6cm.

Provenance: formerly in the collection of Harry (Henry) Seymour Trower (1843-1912). Seymour Trower was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Navy League (1897-1909) and collected Japanese art. Part of his collection was sold at Glendining & Co. Ltd., London in 1913. Other examples of lacquerware and netsuke from his collection were bequeathed to the British Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.

Cf. H L Joly, The Catalogue of the H. Seymour Trower Collection of Japanese Art, no.18, where this very piece is illustrated. The author describes it as Aodarakio, the beggar singing foolish songs in the streets.