277 - GUY SHAW: OWL

GUY SHAW: OWL By Guy Shaw (1951-2003), signed GS England, c. 1992 Carved from highly polished fossilized Alaskan coral, depicting an owl perched upright upon a wonderfully contorted mass of interwoven mangrove roots. The compact body of the nocturnal bird rises almost column-like from the restless, twisting base, its head held alert and its large eyes inlaid in umimatsu, lending the gaze an intense, watchful expression. Shaw has made particularly effective use of the unusual material, its natural striations, subtle variations in tone, and softly shimmering surface evoking the layered plumage of the bird without extensive surface carving. The intricate rootwork below provides a striking contrast to the restrained, almost monumental treatment of the owl. Himotoshi to the reverse and signed within a raised 18K gold plaque with the artist's initials GS. HEIGHT 6.6 cm Provenance: Galerie Gemini, Munich, 2002. From a noted German private collection, Munich, Germany, acquired from the above. Condition: Excellent condition. Guy Shaw was particularly preoccupied with the movement of the distorted branch upon which the owl sits, deliberately accentuating the contrast between the tangled, animated rootwork and the rigid, upright form of the bird. His choice of material was equally intentional. Writing about the fossilized Alaskan coral, Shaw observed that “the remarkable structure seems to be feathery inside and in certain lights it glows with a pale blue, something known to gemologists as ‘chatoyancy’ (a kind of opalescence) ... All in all a very mysterious material for a very mysterious bird!” Guy Shaw (1951-2003) was one of Britain’s finest netsuke carvers. Shaw attended the Bournemouth College of Art and sometime after graduation was introduced to netsuke via the collection of his landlord, Francis Dinley. Netsuke carving attempts a visual replication of nature, place and time, and it was in this field that Shaw, with his lifelong love of the wild, found his vocation. Auction comparison: Compare a closely related fossilized Alaskan coral netsuke of an owl by the same artist, signed GS, dated 1992, 7.3 cm high, at Zacke, Fine Netsuke & Sagemono, 3 May 2024, Vienna, lot 223 (sold for EUR 5,850 or approx. EUR 6,500 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).