SIX JAPANESE WOOD NETSUKE OF MONKEYS

EDO PERIOD AND LATER, 19TH CENTURY

One a small red pottery primate in a giant wood chestnut signed Sa Toyomasa; another a sarumawashi training a monkey on a lead; a third delousing itself, the fourth in lacquer and holding a branch over its back, the leaves opening to reveal the himotoshi, the fifth seated with its leg stretched and the last a group of monkeys in a giant fruit, three the Sanbiki no Saru, two others with signatures for Gyokumin and Masateru, 5cm max. (6)

Provenance: from the collection of a lady of title, and thence by descent.

Cf. F Meinertzhagen, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Part B, p.956, where a similar netsuke of a red monkey in a chestnut is illustrated and discussed, possibly this very piece.