262 - A RARE GOLD LACQUER WOVEN CANE NETSUKE OF A CLAM SHELL, EX BEHRENS COLLECTION

A RARE GOLD LACQUER WOVEN CANE NETSUKE OF A CLAM SHELL, EX BEHRENS COLLECTION Unsigned Japan, 18 th-19 th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Published: 1. Joly, Henri L. (1912), The W. L. Behrens Collection, Part I, Netsuke, London, 1913, no. 1782 (not illustrated). 2. Douglas J. K. Wright Ltd. (1976) A Netsuke Panorama, no. 209. The clam made of tightly woven cane arranged in a precise herringbone pattern, the warm golden-brown weave enlivened with sprays of sea grasses delicately picked out in gold lacquer. The irregular outline and subtly swelling form convincingly evoke the natural shape of a bivalve shell. The reverse is similarly worked with further gold-lacquered foliage and fitted with a silver loop himotoshi. LENGTH 4.9 cm Provenance: Ex-collection W. L. Behrens (1861-1913), collection no. 1782. The Dorothy Ann Stevens Collection of Fine Netsuke & Inro, formed between the 1940s and 1960s. Purchased from Glendining & Co, London, on 23 October 1954, lot 18. A copy of the corresponding entry in the collector’s register, recording the present lot as no. 128, accompanies the lot. Dorothy Ann Stevens was a collector of Japanese art active during the mid-twentieth century. The wife of the chemist, artist, and collector Henry Potter Stevens (1875–1965), she formed an extensive collection of netsuke, inro, and smoking accessories, with netsuke representing a particular focus of her collecting. Carefully documented and scholarly studied, the collection was maintained independently, with individual inventory numbers assigned to all her acquisitions. Many of these were purchased on the London art market during the 1940s and 1950s and included works with distinguished earlier provenances. Dorothy and Henry maintained closely related but distinct collections and occasionally exchanged objects between them, Henry's interests being particularly associated with inro and hers with netsuke. Preserved within the Stevens family for more than half a century, her collection constitutes a significant and well-documented record of the collecting and study of Japanese miniature arts in the mid-twentieth century. Walter L. Behrens (1861–1913) was a German-born banker and philanthropist who became one of the most prominent European collectors of Japanese art at the turn of the 20th century. Based in London, he assembled a vast and distinguished collection that included lacquer, ceramics, and especially netsuke, which he pursued with scholarly rigor and connoisseurship. His collection was widely admired by contemporaries and frequently consulted by leading scholars of Japanese art. After his death, much of it entered major public institutions, ensuring Behrens’ enduring influence in the field. Condition: Very good condition with minuscule nibbling to the edge and tiny losses to lacquer. Literature comparison: Compare a related woven cane netsuke of a clam illustrated in Bushell, Raymond (1975) Netsuke Familiar & Unfamiliar, p. 151, no. 346. Auction comparison: Compare a related lacquered woven cane netsuke of three mushrooms by Shibata Zeshin, 3.4 cm wide, at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Works of Art, 20 March 2021, New York, lot 2101 (sold for USD 6,000 or approx. EUR 6,600 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).