A boxwood netsuke of a street puppeteer. 19th century - image-1

Lot 312 Dα

A boxwood netsuke of a street puppeteer. 19th century

Auction 1124 - overview Cologne
07.12.2018, 13:00 - Japan II - Armour, Netsuke, Inro, Sagemono incl. The Papp Collection II
Estimate: 500 € - 700 €
Print page
Watchlist

A boxwood netsuke of a street puppeteer. 19th century

Standing with a wooden box hanging from his neck with an outstretched weasel on top, the front of the box painted with patterns in red lacquer, traces of lacquer to his cap.
Height 5.9 cm

Itinerant puppeteers (kairaishi) carried puppets in a box, while at a certain point during their performance a weasel (yamaneko itachi) was set loose to entertain the audience. This rare but known netsuke motif was interpreted on the Papp index card as a seller of a young seal (sic!) as an aphrodisiac. This information came from Ohmura.

Provenance

From Grete Damm, February 1976, who had just acquired it for DM 1300 from the wife of a man who collected rare subjects.
Coll. no. 948 (printed and handwritten)