λ SEVEN JAPANESE IVORY NETSUKE

EDO AND MEIJI PERIOD, 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY

One carved as a woman with her two children on horseback and an attendant to the side, another a boy playing the flute to a large ox lying behind him, both signed Tomochika; a third depicting Chokaro Sennin's horse emerging from his gourd, a movable ring around it; another a horse standing in a tub of water, signed Ranmei; the fifth an ox on a rectangular base; the sixth a boy seated on the back of a small elephant; the last depicting three figures dressed as Westerners, observing a large elephant, the underside carved as a seal; 5.1cm max. (7)

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.891, where a similar netsuke of travellers on horseback by Tomochika is illustrated, possibly this very piece.