A JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE OF A RAM

A JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE OF A RAM

EDO PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

Recumbent and with its head slightly turned to the right, its long wavy hair naturalistically rendered, its eyes inlaid in brass and with remnants of red pigments in its mouth, signed Masanori underneath with kao, 4.6cm.

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.

Cf. F Meinertzhagen, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Part A, p.465, where a netsuke of a ram by Masanori is illustrated and discussed, possibly this very piece.