TWO JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE OF MONKEYS

TWO JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE OF MONKEYS

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

The first primate clutching a large peach before him, its eyes inlaid with dark beads and the teeth rendered in bone, signed Toyomasa underneath the fruit; the other netsuke carved as an adult and its young, the larger primate gently supporting the head of the other; their eyes inlaid in horn and signed Ikko at the back, 3.5cm and 3.8cm respectively.

Provenance: from the collection of a lady of title, and thence by descent. See Japanese Works of Art, 1st July 2020, for the first part of this private collection of netsuke sold in these rooms.