Japanese & Korean Works of Art - 20th May 2025

Lot 249

A JAPANESE BOXWOOD NETSUKE OF AN OX BY OKATOMO

Estimate £3,000 - £5,000 | Hammer £5292

Inc. Buyers Premium

Description

A JAPANESE BOXWOOD NETSUKE OF AN OX BY OKATOMO
EDO PERIOD (1615-1868), 18TH CENTURY

The large reclining beast with the legs neatly tucked underneath its body, the hair realistically rendered and with a tether attached to its nose; the surfaces stained and the eyes inlaid; signed Okatomo underneath, 6.2cm.

With a copy of a letter from Barry Davies attesting that the netsuke was borrowed for the exhibition ‘Netsuke Classics’, 1990.

Provenance: from the Mark and Elizabeth Harding Collection, South Africa. Previously in the collection of George Weil (b.1938).

Illustrated and discussed in Barry Davies Oriental Art, Netsuke Classics, no.35, 1990. The author remarks: 'As previously mentioned, reclining cows and oxen by Okatomo are quite rare, and those rendered in wood especially so'. Also, see B Hurtig, Masterpieces of Netsuke Art, no.857 p.204 where it is illustrated together with other pieces from the Weil Collection.

Please note the original ivory eyes mentioned in Barry Davies's catalogue have been professionally replaced with swine tooth and dark bovine horn.