A bone group of four skulls. Late 19th century - image-1

Lot 373 Dα

A bone group of four skulls. Late 19th century

Auction 1136 - overview Cologne
07.06.2019, 14:00 - Japanese Art (Armour, Swords, Netsuke, Inro, Sagemono)
Estimate: 900 € - 1.200 €
Result: 5.456 € (incl. premium)
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A bone group of four skulls. Late 19th century

On top of two large skulls and one smaller one sits a fourth skull, all of them realistically rendered with large eye sockets, the jaws with an upper row of teeth and suture lines. Signed Seisai?
Height 2.9 cm; width 4.1 cm

In Japanese art the numeral four respectively the representation of four objects is avoided since the word for "four"(= shi) also means death. In this case the the representation of four skulls is congruent with the meaning of shi.