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[FierceKitty]

We've just put this up to display the netsuke collection, but it could have uses closer to this forum's raison d'etre, as we say in English.

[Heedless Horseman]

Nice!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Wot e says !

[Steve J]

Very nice.

[d_Guy]

Very good looking and an interesting collection. Until now I had know idea there was such a thing as natsuke. Your posts are often informative.

Was it you or Lee that arranged the collection and does the presentation order have significant?

[Ithoriel]

Nice cabinet ... even nicer contents!

[FierceKitty]

I put them up. Thais are sadly slapdash about their home interiors; only after getting together with me did Lee encounter the idea that a home could be arranged to be more than a base of operations.
They aren't in any special order, though the better pieces are arranged to be more visible. Lee's planning to photograph some in close-up for FB posting; I can put up a few here if you're interested and they don't count as warping the purpose of this forum.
Be careful of this bug. The things are addictive, and frighteningly expensive if you go for good pieces.

[d_Guy]

I for one have no problem looking at these in more detail, some are miniatures after all. Are "good pieces" obvious to the casual observer or is arcane knowledge required for that determination? One assumes that there are also "bad pieces" floating about but with hefty price tags?

As to home, I am in the "base of operations" faction with every surface used for storage.

[FierceKitty]

You can pretty easily see that the carving is production line standard on some, or that electric tools have clearly been used; but at times the rating is very subjective. One of mine is by a late 20th-century artist, Kogyoku, who himself used four different signatures depending on how good he thought his own work. There are many forgeries with great names on them, but sometimes so good that they'd fetch a high price anyway. There's also a tradition that a master may sign his own name on the work of an apprentice, which is considered a great compliment ("My God, Michelangelo is willing to be associated with my carving!").
The netsuke world is also divided over how far a piece counts if it was never intended to be worn, or if it was produced with a good understanding of Japanese aesthetics but by a foreigner (there's a superb sculptor working in Spain, for example. Nobody would mistake his carvings for 1840s Japanese - they look quite Art Deco, actually - but any enthusiast would have to grant that they met all the requirements: satisfyingly 3-dimensional, visual and tactile at once, and really beautiful).
In other words, the netsuke business is a minefield for the investor, and even experts can be stumped.

[FierceKitty]

Two low-grade pieces. The fishmonger in Japan is like the traditional milkman in Britain - always ready to comfort a bored or neglected housewife. (click on the picture and it'll turn right side up.)

[FierceKitty]

A better quality modern piece (my own opinion). If you want to pick it up, that's a good sign. Applies to a few Japanese women I've met too.

[Ithoriel]

Given the recent ruling in California are you sure the gentleman in the first picture isn't a beekeeper?

Bees are fish

[FierceKitty]

Daruma, the founder of Zen. He lost his limbs through sitting and meditating too long. A "trade" piece, clearly production-line. You can't see it here, but the himetoshi, the holes for the cord, is on top of the head. A better carver would almost certainly have put them at the back.

[FierceKitty]

Architectural carving; possibly the underwater palace of the Dragon King, and thus protected by the clamshell. A low-grade version of a popular subject; better ones are far more complex and finished. And expensive, alas.

[FierceKitty]

Modern and souvenir-grade, but a well-executed one nonetheless. No doubt in California this counts as an armoured butterfly.