80 - MASATSUGU: A FINE OSAKA SCHOOL WOOD NETSUKE OF SHOKI HUNTING AN ONI

MASATSUGU: A FINE OSAKA SCHOOL WOOD NETSUKE OF SHOKI HUNTING AN ONI By Masatsugu, signed Masatsugu 正次 Japan, Osaka, first half of the 19 th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Finely carved as Shoki, the demon queller, advancing stealthily with his body inclined slightly forward, one arm drawn behind his back to grasp his sword, while the other gathers a length of cord, presumably intended to bind the unsuspecting oni he is stalking. His stern face is animated by pale horn-inlaid eyes with dark pupils, lending him a suitably menacing expression. Shoki wears voluminous Chinese robes finely carved with scrolling clouds and brocade designs, the garment falling in deeply cut folds. Large asymmetrical himotoshi to the back and signed MASATSUGU within an oval reserve. Masatsugu was a pupil of Hidemasa. HEIGHT 5.6 cm Provenance: from the collection of Mrs Frederica (Freda) Cook (1856-1925), and thence by descent. Mrs. Frederica Evelyn Stilwell Cook (1856-1925), known as Freda, entered one of Victorian Britain’s foremost collecting dynasties through her marriage in 1887 to Wyndham Francis Cook, younger son of Sir Francis Cook, 1st Baronet and Viscount of Monserrate. Sir Francis assembled one of the great nineteenth-century private collections of Old Master paintings and classical sculpture at Doughty House in Richmond, while his celebrated Portuguese estate at Monserrate included a Japanese garden, reflecting the family’s broad cosmopolitan tastes. Widowed in 1905, Freda inherited a considerable fortune and maintained extensive holdings of jewelry, textiles, and works of art. Her remarkable handwritten will—comprising 95,940 words across 1,066 pages and four volumes—remains recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest will ever recorded and provides rare testimony to the extraordinary scale and diversity of her possessions. Condition: Very good condition with minor expected wear, an old fill to the upper edge of the larger himotoshi. Literature comparison: Compare a related wood netsuke of Shoki by Hidemasa, signed Hide, illustrated in Meinertzhagen, Frederick / Lazarnick, George (1986) MCI, Part A, p. 133.