148 - TOYOMASA: A UNIQUE LACQUERED WOOD NETSUKE OF A GOURD-SHAPED SAKE CUP WITH A SPIDER

TOYOMASA: A UNIQUE LACQUERED WOOD NETSUKE OF A GOURD-SHAPED SAKE CUP WITH A SPIDER By Naito Toyomasa (1773-1856), signed Toyomasa 豊昌 Japan, Sasayama, Tanba province, early-mid 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Published: 1. Davies, Barry (1998) The Robert S. Huthart Collection of Non-Iwami Netsuke, p. 186-187, no. 134. 2. Galerie Gemini & Ichimonji Art (May 2004), p. 34, no. 96. Boldly carved on an unusually large scale as a functional sake cup in the form of a double gourd, the rounded body enveloped by trailing vines and leaves while a large spider spreads its long legs across the lower bulb. The deeply undercut carving is highly sculptural, the stems and curling foliage following the swelling contours of the vessel with striking naturalism. The wood is treated with Toyomasa's characteristic dark staining, while the hollow interior is finished in lacquer with fine gold speckling. Signed in boldly incised, typical characters TOYOMASA. Natural himotoshi. HEIGHT 7.8 cm Provenance: Ex-collection Robert S. Huthart. With Barry Davies Oriental Art, London, 1998. With Galerie Gemini, Munich, 2004. From a noted German private collection, Munich, Germany, acquired from the above. Robert S. Huthart (1928-2023) was a British businessman and an important modern collector of Japanese netsuke. He developed a particular passion for Iwami netsuke and helped foster the modern appreciation of carvers such as Seiyodo Tomiharu and his followers. Portions of his collection are now preserved and published by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Condition: Excellent condition with minor expected wear, including light wear to the lacquered interior. The present carving is exceptional even within Toyomasa's highly inventive oeuvre. It is conceived simultaneously as a netsuke and a functioning sake cup, a rare fusion of sculpture and drinking vessel, and its imposing 7.8 cm height gives the gourd an almost monumental presence in the hand. The combination of dark-stained wood and lacquer appears to be highly unusual for the artist, while the spider crawling across the swelling gourd gives the work the slightly uncanny naturalism found in some of his most memorable insect subjects. No other lacquered, dual-purpose sake-cup netsuke by Toyomasa appears to be recorded in the standard published corpus cited here, making the present example apparently unique within his known oeuvre. Literature comparison: Compare a related wood netsuke of a Wasp and Hive by the same artist, 3.8 cm high, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection, accession number M.87.263.106, for the similarly dark-stained surface and insect integrated into an organic form. Also compare a wood netsuke of a Dragon and Gourd by Toyomasa, 4.4 cm high, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection, accession number M.87.263.107, for the closely related gourd form and deeply hollowed sculptural conception.