A stag antler manjû in the style of Rensai. Ca. 1850-1880 - image-1
A stag antler manjû in the style of Rensai. Ca. 1850-1880 - image-2
A stag antler manjû in the style of Rensai. Ca. 1850-1880 - image-1A stag antler manjû in the style of Rensai. Ca. 1850-1880 - image-2

Lot 496 Dα

A stag antler manjû in the style of Rensai. Ca. 1850-1880

Auction 1213 - overview Cologne
09.12.2022, 11:00 - Asian Art
Estimate: 2.500 € - 3.000 €
Result: 3.024 € (incl. premium)
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A stag antler manjû in the style of Rensai. Ca. 1850-1880

The round shape with a quatrelobe border, carved to the domed top with a stylised sparrow and bamboo leaves and to the reverse with pine branches, both in openwork. Eye pupils of black horn.
Diameter 4.2 cm

Rensai has carved this subject several times and it seems appropriate to cite Paul Moss's commentary on a very similar piece:
This piece is to me a superb example of an entirely conceptual notion transferred into sculpture, raising netsuke to a status of an art form. Rensai has had the idea of a sparrow (a toy chidori sparrow, of course) flying in clouds among bamboo, and he has given form to this idea by making the bamboo the sparrow's feathers, and the clouds his wings (Paul Moss, Kokusai And His World, Part II, in Netsuke Kenkyukai Study Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1982, p. 8).