Beschreibung:

MASANAO OF KYOTO (ACTIVE 18TH CENTURY)A Fine Boxwood Netsuke of a Roosting Chicken with Chicks Edo period (1615-1868), late 18th century The chicken seated cradling an egg between her feet, her head turned to preen the plumage of one chick while another stands on her back and a third chick walks under her tail feathers, the eyes inlaid, signed in an oval reserve Masanao 2in (5.1cm) wideFootnotesProvenance Harriet Szechenyi Collection, sold at Bonhams, London, November 8, 2011, lot 174 Published Bernard Hurtig, "Masanao: The Kyoto Magician," International Netsuke Collectors' Society Journal, vol.11, no.2, fig 31 Sydney L. Moss Ltd., Meetings with Remarkable Netsuke, London, 1996, no.6 Rosemary Bandini, Shishi and Other Netsuke: The Collection of Harriet Szechenyi, London, 1999, p. 98, no.143 International Netsuke Society Journal, vol.31, no.4, p.54 A very similar example is illustrated in Joseph Kurstin and Maria Ortega, Masterworks of Netsuke and Other Japanese Miniature Art from American Collections, Miami, Lowe Art Museum, 1986, no.30; Eskenazi, Japanese Netsuke, Ojime and Lacquer-ware, London, 1985, p.40, no.70; and Joe Earle, Netsuke: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Miniature Sculpture, Boston, MFA Publications, 2001, p.318, no.285. Another example is illustrated in Netsuke: An Exhibition Held by Nihon Netsuke Kenkyukai, Tokyo, 1995, p.51, no.23 and a similar piece in ivory, by Okatomo, is illustrated in Sydney L. Moss Ltd., Zodiac Beasts and Distant Cousins, London, 1973, no.21.