25th Sep, 2020 13:00
Fine Netsuke & Sagemono
218
ISHIKAWA RENSAI: A SUPERB STAG ANTLER RYUSA NETSUKE WITH SONGBIRD AND KIKU BLOSSOM
Sold for €4,803
including Buyer's Premium
By Ishikawa Rensai, signed Ren 蓮
Japan, Tokyo, Asakusa, second half of 19th century
The antler masterfully hollowed out and carved in openwork, the surface stippled to simulate rockwork and some of the perforations worked to show clouds. The front is carved in high relief with a chirping songbird, its head turned back and the visible eye inlaid. Next to the bird is an elaborately carved and towering kiku flower (chrysanthemum), both budding and blooming. The reverse shows more of the heavily stippled ground below Chinese bellflowers. Typically large and generously excavated himotoshi on the reverse, one of them oval and the other round. Signed in a raised rectangular reserve in seal form – REN.
It is known that most of Ishikawa Rensai’s output relates to or is heavily influenced by Chinese iconography. As noted by Wolfmar Zacken in the catalog description when this lot was last sold in 1998, the source of inspiration for this particular netsuke may be from the series of prints ‘ten bamboo hall’ or ‘mustard seed garden’, which were the first color-printed books in the world and found great popularity in Japan.
HEIGHT 3.2 cm, LENGTH 3.7 cm
Condition: Excellent condition.
Provenance: Zacke, Netsuke von großen alten Meistern und modernen - Ausstellung 1998 (offered for 140.000 Austrian Schillings), subsequently in a Munich private collection.
Literature comparison:
Compare to a very similar netsuke in Sydney Moss Ltd. (2016) Kokusai The Genius: and Stag-antler Carving in Japan, Part 3, pp. 64-65, no. 366.
By Ishikawa Rensai, signed Ren 蓮
Japan, Tokyo, Asakusa, second half of 19th century
The antler masterfully hollowed out and carved in openwork, the surface stippled to simulate rockwork and some of the perforations worked to show clouds. The front is carved in high relief with a chirping songbird, its head turned back and the visible eye inlaid. Next to the bird is an elaborately carved and towering kiku flower (chrysanthemum), both budding and blooming. The reverse shows more of the heavily stippled ground below Chinese bellflowers. Typically large and generously excavated himotoshi on the reverse, one of them oval and the other round. Signed in a raised rectangular reserve in seal form – REN.
It is known that most of Ishikawa Rensai’s output relates to or is heavily influenced by Chinese iconography. As noted by Wolfmar Zacken in the catalog description when this lot was last sold in 1998, the source of inspiration for this particular netsuke may be from the series of prints ‘ten bamboo hall’ or ‘mustard seed garden’, which were the first color-printed books in the world and found great popularity in Japan.
HEIGHT 3.2 cm, LENGTH 3.7 cm
Condition: Excellent condition.
Provenance: Zacke, Netsuke von großen alten Meistern und modernen - Ausstellung 1998 (offered for 140.000 Austrian Schillings), subsequently in a Munich private collection.
Literature comparison:
Compare to a very similar netsuke in Sydney Moss Ltd. (2016) Kokusai The Genius: and Stag-antler Carving in Japan, Part 3, pp. 64-65, no. 366.
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