Asian Art II - 18th November 2015
Lot 317
λ TWO JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE MEIJI 1868-1912 The first carved as Saigyo Hoshi sitting with his hat...
Estimate £800 - £1,200 | Hammer £500
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Description
λ TWO JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE
MEIJI 1868-1912
The first carved as Saigyo Hoshi sitting with his hat and staff on the slopes of Mount Fuji, unsigned, the other depicting a blind man holding his hypertrophied scrotum, his lifeless eye and teeth inlaid with ivory, signed Gyokkei in an ivory cartouche to the base, 5.3cm. (2)
Cf. F Meinertzhagen, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Part A, pp.84-85 for a biography of Gyokkei and two other examples of blind masseurs by the same carver.